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The Privileges
The Privileges
The Privileges
Audiobook9 hours

The Privileges

Written by Jonathan Dee

Narrated by David Aaron Baker

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3/5

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About this audiobook

Jonathan Dee is the critically acclaimed author of Palladio. With The Privileges, Dee crafts a "suspenseful, melancholy, and acidly funny tale" (Booklist). In it, ambitious couple Adam and Cynthia Morey marry straight out of college and have two children. Then Adam, unfulfilled with his job at a private investment firm, becomes involved in insider trading and gains excessive wealth for his family. But as Adam and Cynthia discover, money can't buy happiness. "Thoughtful and bracingly unpredictable ."-Kirkus Reviews
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 4, 2011
ISBN9781449839895
The Privileges

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Rating: 3.1599999715555556 out of 5 stars
3/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    About this book, Jonathan Dee stated, "I wanted to write a book about a perfect marriage...a marriage so perfect it throws off the couple's perspective on the world outside of it." The novel opens with a long chapter on the wedding of Adam and Cynthia, as their family and friends gather to celebrate. Each succeeding chapter advances their lives a few (or in some cases a lot) of years. For example, in the second chapter Cynthia is a stay-at-home mom with two small children ("she had fallen into the underworld of women with nothing special to do,"), and Adam an up-and-coming analyst at a hedge fund. While their lives are not without problems, they are a "golden" couple, and they become fabulously wealthy, but remain deeply in love and devoted to their family. But as the author notes, they do lack perspective. Adam for example amasses a huge part of his fortune from illegal trading, rationalizing that it hurts no one (this also involves hiding assets overseas). When Cynthia finds out, she's not particularly concerned whether he may get caught; her only question to him was "Were you unfaithful to me?" And over the years we follow their children as well. April becomes a "party girl"/social dilettante, someone her parents frequently have to intervene with to save her from herself. Younger brother Jonas, in contrast, doesn't want anyone to know how wealthy he is, and is a serious art scholar. I enjoyed this "family saga." It was fun to read a well-written novel about how the other half lives. Jonathan Dee is starting to fall into the category "Authors I Follow."First Line: "A wedding! The first of a generation; the bride and groom are just 22, young to be married these days."Last Line: "Let's go out and get new ones. My treat."3 stars
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Privileges by Jonathan DeeI, just this morning, finished The Privileges by Jonathan Dee. This was an ARC/ER book so you do get a review, pitiful though it may be, on this one.My thoughts and comments:This is the story of a wealthy family in which the father works for a very influential brokerage firm and makes very good money. However Adam is not challenged by his work. Everything comes too easy for him. So he finds an associate, (who finds other associates), and begins insider trading and the whole intrigue of it is quite exciting to him.excerpt:Adam: "Devon, (the associate), "you're going in to work today, right?"He fingered his suit. "Some of us have to," he said."Well, when you do, just take a minute and look around you at everyone else in that office, everyone you work for, everyone who works for you. All of them with their fingers crossed, all of them so afraid that if getting some kind of inside information meant never seeing you again they would make that trade in a heartbeat. I think I know what you think of those people. But you are not one of them. You are Superman. You are a fucking gangster. The day we go back to feeling safe from risk is the day you can no longer look at them and say to yourself that there's any difference between them and you. Are you really ready to go back to that? Are you really ready to go back to reading bullshit quarterly reports and trying to use those to figure out how the world works? It's no kind of life, leaving your future in the hands of forces that have nothing to do with you and calling them fate or luck or whatever. And there is only this life, dude. I don't want to get all mystical on you, but this is the only life we get, and either you leave your mark on it or it's like you were never here."His wife, Cynthia is an at-home mom who does volunteer work in her spare time.They have a teen aged son and daughter who are both very smart and well behaved children.Then their world changes. The owner and boss of the firm Adam works for decides he wants to retire and gift the firm to Adam. Adam thinks about this and what it will mean to his life and his "side job" and decides to decline, wanting everything to stay the same.Shockingly the firm owner becomes very angry at Adam for what he sees as treachery and fires him immediately.Now Adam really has to ponder this situation as it changes everything possibly even more than his taking over the firm would have.He decides to stop the insider trading immediately and informs his "associate". There is a little anger and resentment there. He also decides to come clean with his wife, Cynthia, who is immediately concerned about the fact that they have all these millions of dollars in offshore accounts and now Adam has no job and no way of explaining their lifestyle should it become necessary to deal with the S.E.C.A lot of things begin to happen from this point forward with Adam, Cynthia and both of their children. Needless to say things change immensely, but perhaps not how you think they will.I found this book very interesting and somewhat plausible. I did think that the author wrapped it up too quickly. But it was pretty good for a quick and easy read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In Jonathan Dee’s new novel, the characters learn that freedom is not another word for nothing less to lose. It is a symbol of nothing left to gain. Readers have a close-up view of a way they will never be, living in privilege beyond the pale. We are fascinated outsiders who are able to crash the parties, activities, and minds of the possessors of significant wealth. Dee introduces families and friends at the wedding of Adam and Cynthia celebrated in the hinterlands of Pittsburgh. Personality revealing vignettes are presented simultaneously, one character thinking about the no-barriers future while another trades stories of a gilded history with a lifelong friend at a blue collar bar.Although we have observed second hand and with great fascination the privileged class, Dee’s skillful narrative puts readers right in the room with them. We are so close that I was embarrassed by the clothing I was wearing while reading the novel. Like Proust’s description of nobility in The Guermantes Way, we can understand the characters’ motivations, thoughts, and actions but can only imagine the other-worldly dimensions of their consciousness.Even when Dee allows us to live later with Adam and Cynthia and their two children, April and Jonas, we think we know them while having only limited insight into their character. Each of the four family members’ personalities unfold within very wide boundaries compared to the cramped structures of our own lives. The dimensions of the world of significant wealth are so far-flung that the characters try to observe the values of others less fortunate to find some irreducible starting point. Of course, in the novel there is no such absolute zero, no standard to anchor a unifying philosophy. On the other end of the spectrum, there is no class above them. The best the family members can do is rely on solipsism and develop rules of conduct and understanding that are unique to each person but with intersecting areas that keep the family together with a very close bond.The mind views of Adam, Cynthia, April, and Jonas encompass the realm of infinite personal wealth. The assumption of nothing left to gain makes past mistakes, indiscretions, and illegal money building strategies irrelevant to their present noble life. So, the family members keep running (literally for Adam) with the exercise privately timed and juggled to situations leaving readers in the dust. When local and world history change, these privileged characters naturally repurpose information, and moral relativism becomes too restrictive, too passé. The four main characters are forever time-urgent and predictably other-serving rather than self-serving. Adam, for example, has a rather heroic personal code of conduct as strict and meaningful as Hemingway’s Robert Jordon in For Whom the Bell Tolls, but it is determined by the life of the mind rather than the life of action.This is a top notch novel that involves a great story, detailed character development, and a liberating unifying philosophy. We readers can see that we have the privileges in spades, in our own minds. I highly recommend this novel for readers to enjoy and gain an intimate perspective on the contemporary families who are beyond the social register, beyond condescension, like Proust’s Guermantes.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    i read the first part and skimmed the rest. the characters did not interest me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Hmm. Not sure what to think. I liked Jonas. I liked a lot of the writing. The problem is that I found Adam, Cynthia, and April utterly irritating, and although I can read and enjoy books about unlikable characters, it didn't work for me in this book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Why do the "limitless possibilities" offered to the hugely wealthy always end up with the same Rich People's Shopping List of the usual acquisitions: multiple homes, vacations, clothes & jewels, private school, private jet. We've all been hearing about all of this for years. What's new and different? Nice things, but it seems everyone has no imagination and all aspire to the same things. The lives of the real robber barons like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were undoubtedly much more interesting than these fictional characters. Those guys knew how to live large.In any case, possibilities aren't limitless even for the super-rich. You can rent the New York Public Library for one night for your anniversary, but you can't buy the place. You can buy a flat in London, but you can't buy Buckingham Palace. You can't buy immortality. You can't buy health & safety for your kids if they're determined to kill themselves through their own wilfull stupidity. Adam & Cynthia's quest for enough wealth to obtain all they want without limits is bound to fail, unless they curtail their wants to the standard Rich People's Shopping List.This pair are boring through the first three sections in the book, and in the last section, Cynthia becomes not only unbelievable but somewhat creepy. How are we supposed to believe that this woman who walked away from her past & everyone in it on her wedding day is devastated at the impending death of her abandoning father? Is she devastated because he is the only one who ever walked away from her? The scene where she buys off her father's sixty-something girlfriend so she can have him all to herself as he dies gave me the crawls.Glad I only borrowed this one from the library; it wouldn't have been any "privilege" to have spent my own money on it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I never warmed up to these self absorbed characters. I kept expecting some kind of downfall or some growth from their superficial life as they aged but it never happened. I found i never cared what eventually happened to them and was actually hoping to see their fall from grace.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I'll spare you the diatribe about how a certain swear word is replacing the need to use intelligent, colorful, descriptive vocabulary and just say this: if you feel the same way I do about that, skip this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Well written and well plotted--in this sense, a good book. But I found it hard to feel invested in characters as selfish, insular, and unlikeable as these.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked the writing style but found the characters to be nothing special. Though Adam & Cynthia Morey are so profoundly wrapped up in themselves as a couple that it's enough that they think they're the apex & acme of everything. They are correct in a way. They are the apex & acme of their little world & I do mean little. It's a tight bubble they've constructed for themselves that even their children can't breach. It almost made for an interesting character study. Sadly, in the end, I didn't feel that there was all that much to Adam & Cynthia or their children to catapult them into being truly interesting. They simply weren't that deep & since they were content to be that way, I was content not to care much one way or the other.

    I didn't care that general morality didn't come into most things that propelled Adam & Cynthia or that they were deeply interested in the acquisition of wealth. Adam & Cynthia, we're told in the outset, are "brilliant & beautiful" and ready to take the world (or at least Manhattan) by storm. So it's not the most original aspiration but it's at least an aspiration & there's nothing wrong with wanting more. Over time, I believed the "beautiful" in both of them. Adam worked to maintain his & Cynthia coasted on her looks & youth & was content as long as she was the youngest & prettiest in the group. I had a more difficult time buying into their "brilliance". Adam was financially savvy & had a penchant for risk that propelled him & so he made a lot of money. When he was passed over for promotions because he didn't have the requisite degree, he didn't consider that he should get said degree, he felt it was a flaw in the system. He seemed already not to understand why the rule should apply to him. That he turns to illegal means to amass even more wealth was no surprise to me. Adam felt entitled so nothing else mattered. Cynthia was a dilettante who more or less found herself in the role of Mom and became all the things she sneered at before. All without one scintilla of irony or introspection. Adam & Cynthia, don't do introspection or look into the past. They find it a waste of time. They live in the "Today". This is a recurring theme throughout the book. So much underscored by the lack of ties they have to anything or anyone. They don't have friends & don't keep in contact with the families they came from. They don't even vacation in the same place twice until Adam needs to make drops & pickups to the offshore bank in Anguilla. What they are is supremely impressed with themselves & highly self-congratulatory. Since there was no one else around close enough to be supremely impressed with them 24/7 it's just as well that they did that themselves. People were impressed from afar though. Besides, Adam & Cynthia would have been put off by copious accolades from others because of the sheer disdain & disregard they had for the opinions of others.

    I have always enjoyed stories where the characters aren't terribly likable so I didn't need to like any of the Moreys. What I wanted was to get to know them but once it was clear that they didn't do that, I was a bit disappointed. They weren't interested in who they really were so there was no way for me to connect with them more deeply. It's not the worst thing in the world but it did make Adam & Cynthia's turn to caring about the Morey legacy, laughable. I'm positive that they didn't even know what that means. It was a twisted & comedic turn in the last chapter of the book, given everything laid out before. Twenty-two or twenty-four years have elapsed since their wedding in the first chapter & they still don't have any idea of what it means to be a part of a family & can't see the world outside of their couplehood. Adam has amassed wealth. Cynthia participates in & chairs many charities. Neither has fostered in their children what wealth is for anything other than the acquisition of possessions & building a cocoon. Nor have they ever bothered to define what it means to be a Morey, for their children. Everything for Adam & Cynthia begins with Year Zero (their wedding) & that never changes. There is no before. No grandparents. No stories of Adam & Cynthia's childhoods (which were typically middle class, not tragic or deprived). No uncles, cousins or even friends that knew them when. There are no stories. No histories to cotton onto. No sense of continuity. Yet, Adam & Cynthia think they're in the league of legacies. How they, in their brilliance, missed that it's more than just net worth is beyond me. They have two children who have neither drive, determination, purpose or any vision of what they want for their lives or the future. For all the tony schools & best that money can buy, they aren't even shown to have been particularly gifted in any way that propels them into any career path. It's not even mentioned what university, if any, April graduated from. Neither April nor Jonas has a clear idea of what their parents do, from employ to charity, to be invested in anything but calling for the plane or asking for money. Adam & Cynthia never bothered to include their children in anything so it's insane that they'd think either would care about any sort of legacy. The Moreys don't do continuity & sadly, the book ends before Adam or Cynthia realize that their children are exactly who they taught them to be.

    Overall, a decent read. Great for vacation or airport time. Not too long, too deep or moralistic.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm giving this novel three stars because I enjoyed the first half which is about the parents. The second half is about the two spoiled children of these parents. I felt the story fell apart during the second half.The Privileges was on the Top 40 Books of 2010 list. It was listed at Number 18. I had read no reviews and, since I'd had it for a while, I decided to read it so I could check it off the list. On the same list are Room, Freedom, Unbroken, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Mr. Peanut,and so many more books which I considered way better than this one. I'm wondering how it even got on the list!The protagonist's main purpose in life is to make as much money as possible so he can give his family as many possessions as they desire, even if it's done illegally. Otherwise, this guy is so shallow and so is his "perfect" wife. You can only imagine how their children turned out.Mr. Dee has done some excellent writing, but this novel is not his best.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting characters, good story; but the ending is rushed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Shows how a strong couple holds their marriage and family together in the context of extreme wealth. A theme across many characters concerned the risks and potential rewards of living in the moment and not reflecting on the past. For the main protagonists, this perspective is richly rewarded by the financial industry. I think the perspective may also may be a key to the couple's strong marriage in so far as they continually choose one another. However, the perspective doesn't play out as well for their children or other relatives, giving the book a moral message about the thin line between success and tragedy in modern life. The theme is also repeated through a mentally ill artist that acts out impulsively and is obsessively stuck in repetitive art. His art comes from working without any apparent consciousness or ambition, which reinforces his pathetic life and also almost earns him widespread recognition and fame. The novel led me to reflect on family, love, parenthood, ambition, and the fairness of society. Great humane writing throughout.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I also read the Franzen review . By the end of the book I was mystified by Franzen's comment "aren't we supposed to despise these people?" because I most certainly did. The main characters Adam and Cynthia are cold, calculating, dishonest and narcissistic , perhaps even sociopathic. I didn't find their transformation from strivers to philanthropists convincing at all, unless it was just completely about ego and promoting their "brand". Halfway through the book, I actually thought they were going to receive their come-uppance, but no, they just get richer. Actually, maybe that is true in contemporary life as well, an individual "too big to fail" trajectory, but as a reader it isn't very satisfying. Are there people out there who really believe charity is a substitute for fair wages and basic human rights? My children are sons and daughters of a pipefitter. If any of then turned out like these two, I'd cut their throats myself.The writing was beautiful though, and I will definitely read something else by Jonathan Dee in the future. To be fair, I'm just the wrong person for this story.Pat
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Haven't we all dreamed of being wealthy and privileged at some point in our lives? Well, The Privileges is the story of what some people are willing to do to achieve that life of wealth and privilege. The novel follows the Morey family from its beginnings with the marriage of Adam and Cynthia to the beginnings of adulthood for their children, April and Jonas. The story is presented in four snapshots of the Morey family. After the wedding in section one, the other three sections center around different phases of the children's lives including elementary school, high school and college age.I'm not typically a reader of examinations of American families, but this book had enough to keep me engaged. I was struck almost immediately by the author's straightforward, declarative prose. It was this coupled with my desire to know whether Adam's actions would catch up with him and his family that kept me reading. In the end, The Privileges had me wondering, "Was it worth it?" "Did a life of privilege make for a better life?" I made a pretty quick decision and moved on with my life.Bottom line? If you enjoy reading about American families and their inner workings, I think you'll enjoy The Privileges. If not, check to see if any of Dee's other books sound more appealing. His writing style deserves a read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is the second book profiling a marriage from start to finish that I've read in the past year. The first book was Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel. I don't know if my subconscious is pulling me towards these books because I'm getting married next year or what. In The Privileges, I kept waiting for them to fall out of love. Watching TV shows and movies, I'm become jaded in expecting marriages to fall apart. In a way it was hard to believe that two people so well off wouldn't be cheating on each other. I'm glad that Jonathan Dee provided a positive example of a wealthy couple still loving each other after a decade of marriage even if it's a fictional couple.Most of the story is told from the parents' view point, but there are some sections of the book from the kids' point of view as well. We learn a lot about Cynthia's family but not much about Adam's. They are only mentioned in the opening wedding scene and Conrad's visit in NYC later on. In a way I felt the book was a little slated towards Cynthia and her problems.I thought an interesting characteristic of Cynthia was her gut reaction to fix any problem was her checkbook. And when she found a situation that couldn't be fixed by her checkbook she was lost. Again, I'm curious if this characteristic is found in many wealthy housewives or it was just exaggerated for the plot of this book.I also found it interesting that Cynthia and Adam moved from apartment to apartment within the city and finally to a house on Long Island. In a way, Dee pointed out that wealthy folks don't end up in the big mansions right away. They move around "upgrading" each time they buy. I did appreciate in the last third of the book that Adam and Cynthia focused on giving away their money to others to help "make a difference." They reminded me of the work that Bill and Melinda Gates are doing through their foundation. This book was a great surprise and was a quick read. I would recommend it to readers who are fans of the TV show Gossip Girl or the book Nanny Diaries.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this book because it was recommended by Jonathan Franzen to the New Yorker book club. It is another modern family show story, with a major focus on the children after they grow into adulthood (just barely). The couple in this story is very wealthy, as a result of the husband's talent for predicting the success or failure of companies and then making the correct investments in them. And, also as a result of his willingness to bend some of the rules regarding the use of insider information.I missed the husband's perspective in the final section of the book, where the author focusses mostly on the children. We see him full on only a couple of times. The book is successful to an extent, but I believe that it does not come to any sort of resolution to the arc that it took for the children. I could not really tell where they are headed at the end of the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It begins with a wedding! It is a perfect start to this beautiful couple’s privileged life and this well-written narrative follows Cynthia and Adam Morey as they move to NYC, raise two gorgeous children and begin an impressive upward climb. Adam becomes a major player on Wall Street, while Cynthia becomes an ideal mother and wife. Adam is a restless, highly ambitious young man and soon finds himself dealing in the dangerous world of insider trading ,which places this highly privileged existence on a precipitous edge. Dee has crafted a good story here. His prose is sharp and crisp. It still seemed to fall short in a few places but there is still much to recommend it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A well-written, sharply observed novel chronicling the ascent of Adam and Cynthia Morey, a pair of go-getters who ride the financial boom of the late nineties to social prominence and fabulous wealth. What makes this novel remarkable is the restraint that Jonathan Dee shows in telling their story. The Moreys, who are self-centered and not particularly given to self-reflection, are unlikely protagonists, but Dee refrains from judging them. Resisting the urge to score points with cheap irony or sarcasm, he describes their inner lives and motivations using clean, linear prose that betrays neither disapproval nor sympathy. The Moreys aren't Patrick Bateman-style psychopaths, or even particularly tragic figures. They're pragmatic and unimaginative to a fault, people who's taken the virtues of hard work and self-interest to their logical extremes. In Dee's narrative, their egocentricity and ethical lapses are made to seem less like personality flaws than the natural products of their particularly American, particularly modern worldviews. Adam might be guilty of insider trading, but he doesn't characterize himself as a criminal or a deviant. He and his wife are simply consummate operators who are willing to maximize every advantage life offers them. Readers seeking a Great Recession-era update to Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned" or Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities" are guaranteed to be disappointed by "The Privileges." Also notable is Dee's treatment of Jonas, the Morey's son, who endeavors to distance himself from his family's fortune in an effort to formulate a system of values unique to himself. He ends up, as many youths in his position do, becoming obsessed with popular music, and then drifts in to the world of outsider art. As a former upper-middle class record nerd, I found Jonas's yearning for "authenticity" particularly resonant, even though the author seems to conclude that everything, even authenticity, is molded by money's pervasive influence.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The beginning started slow, almost to the point that I put it down, but instead I started to care a little. The middle was great - interesting, fast paced, but by part 4 I was totally unimpressed. Once the kids were older, it just didn't grab me, I wasn't invested in them as adults, and found all the characters to have lost any dimension. The end left me more baffled than satisfied.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    One would expect there to be a development of a sort of moral compass, it's what the reader waits for in the protagonist and his family. So bizarre that it never happens, he and his wife decide they are group zero to be uber-rich and so cut ties with their heritage. Like earlier reviews have said, the author chooses to just let it happen with interesting effect.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An interesting read. Adam and Cynthia get married in the first section of the book. Just out of college, they are the first of their group of friends to marry. They quickly have two children, April and Jonas, and life is good. Adam is extremely successful financially - he works in hedge funds. His success is mostly achieved legally. Cynthia stays at home with the children and it all progresses. The author drops in on the family in about 5-7 year periods. The reader sees the changes in the family although Adam and Cynthia never stray - they are too in love to do so. Eventually we follow the children's lives as much as the parents. April is hanging out with a wild group of kids who aimlessly do drugs and abuse alcohol because they can. She has a serious scare and her parents ship her off to China on a trip with her dad. Meanwhile, Jonas, studying at U. of Chicago, gets himself in trouble when he seeks out an obscure artist in Wisconsin. Some of this is a bit bizarre as a part of the book as a whole. All in all, interesting, linear, well-written, and ultimately satisfying.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Life is good, very, very, good for Adam and Cynthia Morey. The Moneys, oops I mean Moreys, have lots of money thanks to Adam’s hedge fund trading, both legitimate and illegitimate. They are self made multimillionaires who live in the gilded ward of Manhattan’s Upper Eastside with a little place in the “country” as in the Hamptons. The Moreys also have two children, April and Jonas, who are raised to believe that every wish is entitled to fulfillment. As Cynthia angrily declares, “what was supposed to be the point of denying them anything?” In fact, Cynthia delights in the then seven year old, April’s, designer wants (she knows to ask for Tory Burch shoes!).To say that the Privileges is a character driven novel does not mean that the novel lacks a plotline, rather the story takes a back seat to the characters’ development. Every five years or so, the novel peeks in on the Moreys. And although time marches on, the characters follow largely predictable paths. The Moreys rarely take the time to reflect upon their actions. Nor are they particularly endearing. For instance, while the reader is repeatedly told of Adam and Cynthia’s great love, one never gains any insight into the relationship itself. That is, what drew them together and what sustains their love other than a mutual desire for money obtained through any means? In addition, while Cynthia and Adam have largely divorced their parents from their lives the reader not given a reason for this extreme behavior other than a few throw away references to growing up in modest circumstances and, in one case, a parent’s ill temper. In short, the characters’ inner lives remain shrouded in mystery.The Privileges, by Jonathan Dee, is a beautifully written novel about unlikeable characters living unexamined lives.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The most telling quote of this book for me was early on in the story. Cynthia, a young bride on her wedding day, is thinking back to the planning for the event. The groom, Adam, had been in favor of something simpler, “But the truth was that that wouldn't have seemed unusual enough to Cynthia, too little distinct from a typical Saturday night out drinking and dancing with their friends, just with fancier clothes and a worse band. She wasn't completely sure why the idea should appeal to her at all – the big schmaltzy wedding, the sort of wedding for which everyone would have to make travel plans – but she didn't make a habit of questioning her wants.”Not questioning one's wants is what this book is about. It is about people who feel so entitled that their very wanting something justifies getting it, and the means necessary to do so. This proves true throughout Adam and Cynthia's life together. Though they do seem to love and be faithful to one another – their main commonality seems not to be desire for each other, but desire for things, for status, for power, for the bigger and better and faster and newer.This kind of thinking also shapes their parenting skills. When reflecting on her children, Cynthia thinks, “What was supposed to be the point of denying them anything? Who decided that not having things that your parents hadn't had either was character building somehow?” “And what was the point of getting hung up on how much things cost?”I must have read that sentence about not denying your children anything at least three times. Though I know that sentiment is out there, even in parents that can't afford to live by that way of reasoning, the thought makes me almost ill. The children that result from the absence of the word “no” in their lives are not ones that will neither live happy nor productive lives, nor be people I hope to encounter very often.April, Adam and Cynthia's daughter, certainly proves this to be true. “If, in a given activity, there was a next step to be taken – a taller cliff to dive from, purer drugs to try, something bigger and more difficult to steal – someone, at some point, was going to take that step, it was like a law of nature, and so let the record reflect that that someone was her.”This thought is a mirror of one her father has - “That was it: everything was open to them. What was life's object if not that? Adam knew on some level that he had to get as much money out of those Anguillian accounts as possible and shut them down, but more than that he wanted to just spend it all on the three of them, as orgiastically, challenge his family to come up with desires they hadn't even thought of yet and then make those desires real.”This is a book about people I don't understand and don't admire in the least. That is not to say it's a bad book, it's a story well and probably accurately told about people who have egos and desires even bigger than their grotesquely large bank accounts.(On a side note? There was one laugh out loud moment when the Hamptons are referred to as “a game preserve for rich people”.)“The Privileges” is a book about the ultra rich...and the children of the ultra rich. It's about a world that few of us understand and even fewer will ever experience. It's about a mindset that doesn't see any ramifications from one's actions, as long as those actions benefit oneself. It's a story that seems lurking behind the eyes of more and more people on the news these days...those people who are finally realizing that their privileges can't always save them from themselves.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I never would have believed I would feel sympathetic toward the filthy rich--much more fun to watch their downfall with glee--especially when much of their money was made illegally. But Adam and Cynthia are really not BAD people, just bored, impatient and looking for purpose. The novel begins at their wedding. Adam is the charming golden boy whom everybody loves, Cynthia a bit more cynical and critical. The novel follows their marriage through 2 children and 25 years--more of a study of their characters and their sustained love than a plot-driven narrative. Their isolation and estrangement from their families becomes strikingly apparent when Cynthia meets her father's girlfriend at his deathbed. Their two children suffer the consequences of their privileged upbringing; I loved their son Jonas, whose search for autheniticity almost costs him his life.This is an early readers review--the novel goes on sale in January 2010. I will definitely recommend it to my library to purchase.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In his new novel Jonathan Dee introduces us to a young, beautiful couple, Cynthia and Adam Morey, who are quickly moving up in society and into the world of the newly wealthy and ultimately the very wealthy. The story begins with their traditional big wedding; soon after they have two children, April and Jonas. Most of the story takes place in New York where Adam begins his career in the financial world and goes on to span several decades of their life.While I found these characters interesting and at times compelling, it was difficult to like them or care about them. Adam seemed obsessed with making more and more money. This drove him to make some shady financial dealings which could cost him everything. At what point does one have enough money? Why take these kind of risks? The children took their wealth for granted and didn't seem to have much concept of where the money came from or what things cost. They were interesting in the same way a train wreck draws curiosity. In spite of all their wealth and privilege they are very naive and find themselves in dangerous situations.The book is written four sections with each one jumping forward five to tens years. At times it became a little difficult to follow because the jumps in time required some reorientation and left it to the reader to fill in what happened during those skipped over years. I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. I found myself wanting more, wanting to know what happens next. But we are left to assume.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I found "The Privileges" a novel without much of a story. I'm sad to say that when I got to the end I said to myself, "So what?". And that apathy makes it really hard for me to write a meaningful review for this book.I found the characters of each of the four family members interesting. Perhaps that's what made the story seem watered down and incomplete. I could've read an entire novel that elucidated on each of their stories; but splitting the story between them made the whole seem fragmented and incomplete. I wanted more!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In Jonathan Dee’s new novel, the characters learn that freedom is not another word for nothing less to lose. It is a symbol of nothing left to gain. Readers have a close-up view of a way they will never be, living in privilege beyond the pale. We are fascinated outsiders who are able to crash the parties, activities, and minds of the possessors of significant wealth. Dee introduces families and friends at the wedding of Adam and Cynthia celebrated in the hinterlands of Pittsburgh. Personality revealing vignettes are presented simultaneously, one character thinking about the no-barriers future while another trades stories of a gilded history with a lifelong friend at a blue collar bar.Although we have observed second hand and with great fascination the privileged class, Dee’s skillful narrative puts readers right in the room with them. We are so close that I was embarrassed by the clothing I was wearing while reading the novel. Like Proust’s description of nobility in The Guermantes Way, we can understand the characters’ motivations, thoughts, and actions but can only imagine the other-worldly dimensions of their consciousness.Even when Dee allows us to live later with Adam and Cynthia and their two children, April and Jonas, we think we know them while having only limited insight into their character. Each of the four family members’ personalities unfold within very wide boundaries compared to the cramped structures of our own lives. The dimensions of the world of significant wealth are so far-flung that the characters try to observe the values of others less fortunate to find some irreducible starting point. Of course, in the novel there is no such absolute zero, no standard to anchor a unifying philosophy. On the other end of the spectrum, there is no class above them. The best the family members can do is rely on solipsism and develop rules of conduct and understanding that are unique to each person but with intersecting areas that keep the family together with a very close bond.The mind views of Adam, Cynthia, April, and Jonas encompass the realm of infinite personal wealth. The assumption of nothing left to gain makes past mistakes, indiscretions, and illegal money building strategies irrelevant to their present noble life. So, the family members keep running (literally for Adam) with the exercise privately timed and juggled to situations leaving readers in the dust. When local and world history change, these privileged characters naturally repurpose information, and moral relativism becomes too restrictive, too passé. The four main characters are forever time-urgent and predictably other-serving rather than self-serving. Adam, for example, has a rather heroic personal code of conduct as strict and meaningful as Hemingway’s Robert Jordon in For Whom the Bell Tolls, but it is determined by the life of the mind rather than the life of action.This is a top notch novel that involves a great story, detailed character development, and a liberating unifying philosophy. We readers can see that we have the privileges in spades, in our own minds. I highly recommend this novel for readers to enjoy and gain an intimate perspective on the contemporary families who are beyond the social register, beyond condescension, like Proust’s Guermantes.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The complete disconnect from the couples family after getting married was intriguing. I did like the thought of Adam and Cynthia only having themselves to rely upon. I thought their relationship was real and honest and enjoyed reading their conversations the most. But mostly, I felt frustration with the book. The entire book felt rushed. I felt like I was reading a sequel and that I should have known the characters already and their family issues. I needed more explanations and background information to really enjoy this book. I usually read a book from start to finish in one sitting because I have a hard time putting a good book down. I had no trouble putting this down. It took me a few weeks to get through this. I had to push myself and count down the pages to help motivate myself. I will say that I liked the author's descriptions and style of writing just fine. I eased effortlessly into conversations and enjoyed the choice of vocabulary. I enjoyed his writing style, but not the story line. I'm hoping Jonathan Dee will get inspired to write a novel that he's truly passionate about because I think I would adore it! Overall, I'd say Jonathan Dee is a good writer, but not a good story teller.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Priviledges: I have to admit I was fascinated with the story in this book, but expected it to end totally different. Here is a couple with every "priviledge" tons of money who live a very self absorbed life. Adam earns boatloads of money, much of it in questionable investment schemes. Cynthia lives a protected life feeling overwhelmed and bored with raising her two children, who are also offered every advantage. The characters are completelly one-sided and not very likable, even when they turn to charitable giving and foundations in their later years. I expected some resolution from them as to just how "priviledged" they were and some thought as to how they lived their whole lives unto themselves. Neither had much to do with their extended families who had their flaws but didn't deserve the neglect and contempt of their children who basically ignored them once they were established with the rich and powerful. They faced no real challenges, never went broke - I guess it was a story of our narcissistic times. I finished it, but wondered all along, just what was the point. I guess it was just a story of the "privileges'. Sad commentary on contemporary life.