The Mark and the Void
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15
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Average rating4
WINNER OF THE EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2016 A comic masterpiece about love, art, greed and the banking crisis, from the author of Skippy Dies What links the Investment Bank of Torabundo, www.myhotswaitress.com (yes, hots with an s, don't ask), an art heist, a novel called For the Love of a Clown, a four-year-old boy named after TV detective Remington Steele, a lonely French banker, a tiny Pacific island, and a pest control business run by an ex-KGB man? You guessed it . . . The Mark and the Void is Paul Murray's madcap new novel of institutional folly, following the success of his wildly original breakout hit, Skippy Dies. While marooned at his banking job in the bewilderingly damp and insular realm known as Ireland, Claude Martingale is approached by a down-on-his-luck author, Paul, looking for his next great subject. Claude finds that his life gets steadily more exciting under Paul's fictionalizing influence; he even falls in love with a beautiful waitress. But Paul's plan is not what it seems-and neither is Claude's employer, the Bank of Torabundo, which inflates through dodgy takeovers and derivatives-trading until-well, you can probably guess how that shakes out. The Mark and the Void is a stirring examination of the deceptions carried out in the names of art, love and commerce - and is also probably the funniest novel ever written about a financial crisis.
Reviews with the most likes.
A little too concerned with itself, perhaps, but funny and intelligent and thought-provoking. Enjoyed it very much.
Cleverly written and funny in places, I thought this book had some important points to make but I got frustrated by the bloated middle part. I think it needed a bit of editing and a little more left to the reader rather than obviously pointed out, but this does have probably one of the densest narrators in modern fiction, it makes you wonder how Claude got his job in the first place, although his friends are hardly any more intelligent or observant. Also, Paul and Igor get a bit annoying, particularly Igor. Otherwise, I enjoyed most of this book.
