The Financial Lives of the Poets

By: Jess Walter

Narrated by: Jess Walter

Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet Matt Prior. He's about to lose his job, his wife, his house, maybe his mind. Unless...

In the winning and utterly original novels Citizen Vince and The Zero, Jess Walter ("a ridiculously talented writer" - New York Times) painted an America all his own: a land of real, flawed, and deeply human characters coping with the anxieties of their times. Now, in his warmest, funniest, and best novel yet, Walter offers a story as real as our own lives: a tale of overstretched accounts, misbegotten schemes, and domestic dreams deferred.

A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion: a Web site devoted to financial journalism in the form of blank verse. When his big idea - and his wife's eBay resale business - ends with a whimper (and a garage full of unwanted figurines), they borrow and borrow, whistling past the graveyard of their uncertain dreams. One morning Matt wakes up to find himself jobless, hobbled with debt, spying on his wife's online flirtation, and six days away from losing his home. Is this really how things were supposed to end up for me, he wonders: staying up all night worried, driving to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night to get milk for his boys, and falling in with two local degenerates after they offer him a hit of high-grade marijuana? Or, he thinks, could this be the solution to all my problems? Following Matt in his weeklong quest to save his marriage, his sanity, and his dreams, The Financial Lives of the Poets is a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach the edge of ruin - and how we can begin to make our way back.

©2009 Jess Walter (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

A great read

The funniest and most sharply written book I've "read" in a while. Very enjoyable and enlightening, even.
Great stuff!

The Best I Have Listened to Maybe-Ever

What made the experience of listening to The Financial Lives of the Poets the most enjoyable?

Wow, loved this book, with a great reading by the author. I didn't want it to be over. One of those books that is so magically captivating in audio format.

One of his best

I loved beautiful ruins but this was better. Serious & comic; this is a masterpiece of writing. The reader is fine as well.

I Want What They're Having.

The more I read and follow other people's reviews, the more I realize a funny thing; people can have almost exactly the same taste in books you do, but have a completely difference response to them. That's what makes life interesting - in fact, that's what makes reading reviews interesting.

Several people I follow have read and reviewed this book now, and they have commented on how funny it was. There absolutely was a lot of humor in the book, and it did make me chuckle on a regular basis; but to me, this book was a really depressing story with funny parts - not a funny story with depressing parts. That ends up being a significant difference.

Jess Walter is an extremely talented writer, and also did a fantastic job on his own narration. This fact however only exacerbated for me how incredibly effective he was in making me deeply depressed.

As the book summary explains, the main character in this novel has lost his job, is in the process of loosing his wife and his house, and is trying to reverse everything that is going so wrong in his life. Most of the characters he meets along the way are also deeply unhappy, and because the writing is so effective, and the general situation he's in (laid off, under water on his mortgage, strains on the marriage) is so familiar in the real world right now, it was a really bleak picture.

The final third of the book gets more and more depressing, until the author abandons his attempt at levity, and just hunkers down to bring us to a sober conclusion. The storytelling was so good during this third that I kept feeling like more heavy bricks were being placed on my shoulders, to the point where I was dying to get to the end because I couldn't take much more.

I would have loved to read the book that some of the other reviewers did; the book that was just funny. That being said, it's very possible that YOU will read the book they read - so take this review with a grain of salt. That's the beauty of all these reviews; seeing how we all experience each story differently.

Not quite as good as Beautiful Ruins

I loved Beautiful Ruis, so perhaps the stars I gave this one suffered by comparison. In reality, I found the novel both funny and tragic. The author's wit often had me laughing out loud -- like, really out loud...to the point that I am sure other drivers might have considered the woman in the car a tad suspect. The story is about a man who loses everything -- in a quite believable manner. He is in shock and, at the same time, simply accepting that this catastrophe is his fate. You are there for the ride.

I guess my problem was that the story, as a whole, was ultimately unsatisfying. Not heart-wrenching in the way of Beautiful Ruins. The story. Just. Ends. Perhaps it's more realistic than attempting to give it another spin, but, what can I say, it left me wanting.

I do recommend it. And, perhaps, if I had not read Beautiful Ruins first, I would have given this four stars overall. I certainly want to read more from Jess Walter.

I actually thought the author did a great job reading his own work. No, he was not the Amazing Narrator from Beautiful Ruins, but I do like hearing authors read.

A Gripping parable for our time

What made the experience of listening to The Financial Lives of the Poets the most enjoyable?

This story was so gripping and so relevant for our times that I actually found myself LOOKING for chores to do so I could listen to more (and that is saying something because I HATE housework)! I really cared about the characters, and their choices were unpredictable but believable.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

In theory, yes, but I would never listen to any audiobook in one sitting (whoever has that sort of uninterrupted time?!)

This is a fantastic listening experience.

I love hearing the energy that Jess Walters brings to his own story. The story itself takes many unexpected twists and does a great job weaving together multiple complex storylines. I’ve listened several times and enjoy each opportunity to hear Mr, Walters read his story!

Our Economy is In Trouble and How to Win? Not!

This book is fun and funny. And underneath the humor is a story of one family's struggle to hold on. Dad feels like it's on him to make sure his family can stay in their home and continue to live the good old American Dream. During a trip to the store for "milk" Dad meets new "friends" and all unfolds from there. This book is cute and hip and engaging and a bit sad and dear. I loved it!!!!!

Brilliant

This is a really funny, enjoyable journey. Walter's writing and reading is excellent. Occasionally a little slow, but overall a very compact, tight story. Highly recommended.

Sensational

Housing again. Well, housing and life. Hard on the heels of Beautiful Ruins, a Walter that blew me away, I listened to this one. Very different. It’s told in the first person and the language is much more poetic. Gritty, gnarly, modern, hard. Time is post-financial meltdown.

The protag., Matthew, is a financial reporter who has lost his job. The family sunk their little all into a business venture: a website presenting financial news in verse! They’re about to lose their house and Matthew may well lose his wife to her high school beau. Facing hard times, the couple contemplates the ultimate comedown: sending the kids to public school! Unable to sleep, Matthew goes in the middle of the night to the 7-11 for milk for his kids’ breakfast. There he hooks up with a couple of homeboys who ask him for a lift to a party, get him high, and.... Added to this mix is Matt’s dad who lives with his family and suffers from Alzheimer’s.

The plotting is fine, characters sharp and language brilliant. Walter does Homeboy better than the homeboys. There are some actual poems, usually rhyming, but better are the descriptions of people, places and situations and his gift for symbol. A micro situation is a metaphor for a macro, perhaps universal, one. At times it’s a torrent of words, each hitting its mark. One of my favorite riffs is a description of Matthew's father’s arid, ruined property which alternates with the (arid, ruined) man himself until it’s hard to tell which is which. There’s another on the decline of newspapers, wherein the first dad who stopped reading the paper on the toilet is likened to first fish that walked on land.

Unllike some authors who should be prohibited by law from reading their own work aloud, Walter performs his own stuff pitch-perfectly.

I don't think he has written that many so far but I look forward to enjoying them all.