Review by aacodreanu -- Cooperative Lives
1 posts
[Following is a volunteer review of "Cooperative Lives" by Patrick Finegan.]
[rbc=4]id375327-125[/rbc]
Shakespeare's “Appearances are deceiving" can summarize the novel in a sentence. The plot involves people in a cooperative residence, in a posh zone in New York, especially two families who are on friendly terms because of their daughters' friendship. The financial crisis at the beginning of the 2000s has shattered the jobs and careers of the protagonists. Personal dramas add to the misfortune and then there is a climax when the men come in the public attention as terrorists, spies, and frauds who steal from senior citizens.
Feds lure Wally (George Wallace) to accept the position of Chief Technology Officer in a large hospital network, NYL Health Systems, with the face intention to make trustees happy. The board does not suspect his real capabilities or moral integrity so there is a crisis when he discovers huge data transfers from servers, all while his daughter is being treated of lymphoblastic leukemia in the same hospital and dies. The culprits manage to blame him, so he is arrested, interrogated as a suspect threating the national security. Jack (John Roberts) is accused of having embezzled one million dollars from a dear 80-year-old lady.
Finegan covers important developments at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century: economic crises, healthcare malfunction, unprofessionalism in national security services (both FBI and CIA), and the devastating effects of a less than objective press. Bad management of the environment as a source of massive leukemia deaths in Turkey is also mentioned.
It is a writer's prerogative to play with coincidences, and also to have good and bad characters. They are all very credible, the good having flaws, themselves. I liked the fact that flaws were presented first, as well as what damage they caused in the eyes of the others. The positive features just trickled throughout the 469 pages of the book. Thus, by the end, the readers see and love the characters for what they are.
I particularly appreciated the way the author presented the issue of race: no clue is given in the beginning that one of the characters is African American; his initial misfortunes might have happened to people of any race. Also, we only find about the other two's African American or mixed origins at the end of the book. What better way to hint at the equality of races than let the non-African-American reader put themselves in the shoes of the heroes, only to discover in the end that they cannot – or that, perhaps, they can, as equal in the face of evil or good.
At a certain moment, everything points to a gloomy fate for the good, confirming the saying: "No good deed remains unpunished", a little too discouraging to my liking. Also, I was somewhat lost when the financial and legal details of the frauds committed exceeded my current knowledge in the field. However, the thread of the story led to a strong end, with surprises down to the very last pages.
The novel framework reminds me of Arthur Hailey and his successful novels about groups of people: Airport, Hotel, and Wheels.
Educated American readers will be, I believe, the most appreciative of the book, or they will understand it best, as they can relate more to the events described: financial, political, or about devious use of Internet communication, but anybody familiar enough with the respective fields and interested in the period will enjoy it.
The proofreading is professional, as I only found two errors in the text, and profanity is at the lowest. Sex is not brought to the front, being present either as used to release tension or as an illustration of depravity and generated by blackmail.
Given the above, I cannot but award the book four out of four stars and promise prospective readers that they will not regret the adventure of reading it.
******
Cooperative Lives
View: on Bookshelves |
Shakespeare's “Appearances are deceiving" can summarize the novel in a sentence. The plot involves people in a cooperative residence, in a posh zone in New York, especially two families who are on friendly terms because of their daughters' friendship. The financial crisis at the beginning of the 2000s has shattered the jobs and careers of the protagonists. Personal dramas add to the misfortune and then there is a climax when the men come in the public attention as terrorists, spies, and frauds who steal from senior citizens.
Feds lure Wally (George Wallace) to accept the position of Chief Technology Officer in a large hospital network, NYL Health Systems, with the face intention to make trustees happy. The board does not suspect his real capabilities or moral integrity so there is a crisis when he discovers huge data transfers from servers, all while his daughter is being treated of lymphoblastic leukemia in the same hospital and dies. The culprits manage to blame him, so he is arrested, interrogated as a suspect threating the national security. Jack (John Roberts) is accused of having embezzled one million dollars from a dear 80-year-old lady.
Finegan covers important developments at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century: economic crises, healthcare malfunction, unprofessionalism in national security services (both FBI and CIA), and the devastating effects of a less than objective press. Bad management of the environment as a source of massive leukemia deaths in Turkey is also mentioned.
It is a writer's prerogative to play with coincidences, and also to have good and bad characters. They are all very credible, the good having flaws, themselves. I liked the fact that flaws were presented first, as well as what damage they caused in the eyes of the others. The positive features just trickled throughout the 469 pages of the book. Thus, by the end, the readers see and love the characters for what they are.
I particularly appreciated the way the author presented the issue of race: no clue is given in the beginning that one of the characters is African American; his initial misfortunes might have happened to people of any race. Also, we only find about the other two's African American or mixed origins at the end of the book. What better way to hint at the equality of races than let the non-African-American reader put themselves in the shoes of the heroes, only to discover in the end that they cannot – or that, perhaps, they can, as equal in the face of evil or good.
At a certain moment, everything points to a gloomy fate for the good, confirming the saying: "No good deed remains unpunished", a little too discouraging to my liking. Also, I was somewhat lost when the financial and legal details of the frauds committed exceeded my current knowledge in the field. However, the thread of the story led to a strong end, with surprises down to the very last pages.
The novel framework reminds me of Arthur Hailey and his successful novels about groups of people: Airport, Hotel, and Wheels.
Educated American readers will be, I believe, the most appreciative of the book, or they will understand it best, as they can relate more to the events described: financial, political, or about devious use of Internet communication, but anybody familiar enough with the respective fields and interested in the period will enjoy it.
The proofreading is professional, as I only found two errors in the text, and profanity is at the lowest. Sex is not brought to the front, being present either as used to release tension or as an illustration of depravity and generated by blackmail.
Given the above, I cannot but award the book four out of four stars and promise prospective readers that they will not regret the adventure of reading it.
******
Cooperative Lives
View: on Bookshelves |
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