Amidon, Stephen. Human Capital. New York: FSG, 2004.

I love novels!

I love novels in the way they stand in opposition to romances—that is, I love long narratives that take place in present-day times and tell stories about middle-class people living their lives of human drama. This is, like, a classic novel, telling the story of two families living in Connecticut, both of them having some trouble, financially. As you can tell from the title, money runs through this entire book. The Hagels used to be doing okay, but are now in some serious financial shit. The Mannings have always been swimming in pools and pools of money (they live in a gated estate, the paterfamilias manages a hedge fund, etc.), but are on the brink of losing it all. Boo hoo, right? We all have money problems, but what's great about this book is how Amidon allows us such close access to his characters that their boring old money woes become riveting fiction.

And then there's this whole car accident that happens while people are drinking, which turns a very compelling novel into a boring old crime drama. It's like a Law & Order episode. If there's anything I can never get on the side of it's the achieving of human drama through law-breaking. Cops make for boring characters, I think. The threat of jail time serves as a tedious way to heighten tension.