Ways and Means, Daniel Lefferts
Ways and Means, Daniel Lefferts
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Ways and Means

Author: Daniel Lefferts

Narrator: John Skelley

Unabridged: 16 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 02/27/2024


Synopsis

“Deadly serious in ambition, wildly entertaining in execution, Ways and Means is a remarkably accomplished debut.”—Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Presents and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

“A work of enormous wit, humor, and passion that captures life in turbo capitalist America with compassion and grace.”—Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of Our Country Friends and Super Sad True Love Story

A searing debut novel about a striving finance student, the line between ambition and greed, and the disordered politics of our era

Alistair McCabe comes to New York with a plan. Young, handsome, intelligent, and gay, he hopes to escape his Rust Belt poverty and give his mother a better life by pursuing a career in high finance. But by the spring of 2016, Alistair’s plan has come undone: His fantasy banking job has eluded him, he’s mired in student debt, and in his desperation he’s gone to work for an enigmatic billionaire whose ambitions turn out to be far darker than Alistair could have imagined. By the time Alistair uncovers his employer’s secret, his life is in danger and he’s forced to go on the run.

Meanwhile, Alistair’s paramours, an older couple named Mark and Elijah, must face their own moral and financial dilemmas. Mark, nearing the end of his trust fund, takes a job with his father’s mobilehome empire that forces him to confront the unsavory foundations of his family’s wealth, while Elijah, a failed painter, throws in his lot with an artist-provocateur whose latest project transforms the country’s political chaos into a thing of alluring, amoral beauty. As the nation hurtles toward a breaking point, Alistair, Mark, and Elijah must band together to save one another and themselves.

Propulsive, exuberant, and profoundly observed, Ways and Means is an indelible, clear-eyed investigation of class and ambition, sex and art, and politics and power in twenty-first century America.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Thomas

What a messy, entertaining, yet sometimes quite deep book! I liked this novel about three white gay men more than I thought I would. Ways and Means follows Allistair McCabe, a young, conventionally attractive gay college student who’s goal is to get a lot of money. But when his ambitious plans for a......more

Goodreads review by Jillian

With its cast of morally grey but profoundly likeable characters, this book skewers the worlds of finance and high-profile contemporary art while addressing themes of generational trauma and redemption. Full review on BookBrowse: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Derek

This writer definitely has talent; his characters were interesting and the story had a unique arc and themes. He definitely leans into exposition and a lot of explaining who feels what way and why. His dialogue felt contrived in many places. Also, this is an example of drowning in a wealth of adject......more

Goodreads review by Ed

Thanks very much to NetGalley for the advance copy of this novel. I wanted to like it. I wanted to like it a lot. I loved the idea of the LGBTQIA representation in this novel, but in a way that wasn't simply a "gay" novel. Love that it is literary fiction with LGBTQIA characters and themes, but mean......more