The Up and Comer

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic book!
Review: This book is terrific. It is well-written and fast moving. Roughan somehow manages to make the reader empathize with a main character whose conduct cannot be excused. The book starts with a nice pace and continues to pick up right through the wholly unexpected ending. Great stuff. I hope there's a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling first fiction -- best read of the summer
Review: This is, simply put, the best debut fiction I've read since Scott Smith's "A Simple Plan" Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" and Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights Big City." The pages fly as Roughan creates a pitch-perfect rendition of the self-absorbed tragically-hip, irony-spewing, super-successful upwardly mobile of New York City. The first page of the novel is one of the best hooks I've ever read, with a magnificent punchline that basically sets the tone for a book you can't turn away from. The narrator is a guy whose guts you want to hate, but you find too much about yourself in him to do so. And that's the essence of Roughan's spectacular success. His lead character pulls you into his misdeeds, and he makes the reader complicit in the action. Brilliant debut.

Rating:
Summary: Blackmail Options and Why Manhole Covers are Round
Review: When you are having an affair with your wife's best friend who you happen to also be very good friends with the husband as well is never a good idea. If you are going to do it though you have to make sure you do not get caught and Philip Randal a Manhattan lawyer thought he was doing just that until an ex high school associate shows him some photographs. Randal must make the decision of weather to give into the blackmail and face the uncertainty that he will never be sure he has all the evidence or murder the blackmailer. Decisions, decisions. This book is quite enjoyable, to say it is predictable would be a bit of an understatement but even though you know what is going to happen it is still an enjoyable quick light read and you will learn why manhole covers are round, just in case you are ever asked at a job interview.


Rating:
Summary: Grabbed Me on Page 6 and Never Let Go
Review: Yes, on page 6 the protagonist is telling you about his father-in-law's buying them a 3,500 square foot Manhattan penthouse, whereupon he concludes that you shouldn't think he married for money. No, he married for a LOT of money. I laughed out loud and was firmly hooked. That this same novel can tellingly observe between this character and his brother much later that they lost track of seeing and enjoying the little things and it must have been the saddest day of their lives, shows an assured balance that is present throughout the narrative. The story isn't what is so original. It is the way he tells it. I like first person told novels too and that point-of-view is perfect here. In a nutshell, this is the story of married, 30ish, talented and ruthless Manhattan attorney Philip Randall and his adventures leading the fast track upscale life. As a plot driving page turner, the novel is given lots of impetus by his being blackmailed by his former roommate from prep school, Tyler, who has the goods on Philip's extramarital affair and threatens to blowup his marriage by revealing all. This could make a terrific movie if no tampering is done. Remove the edge from this though and all is lost.