The Index Of Self-Destructive Acts, by Christopher R. Beha

The Index of Self-Destructive Acts by Christopher R. Beha
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's quite the index. But since this is a star-rating system, let's index a few of those.

The book: I'll give it four stars. Had it been published a year earlier, I might have given it five. Complex characters, exercising individual quirks in a plotline that must correspond reciprocally. Well done!

The reader: one star: "****ing COVID, know what I'm sayin'?"

The reader's response: two stars: it requires some effort to dredge up sympathy for a (formerly) wealthy professional blowhard from the Manhattan three-martini-lunch set, even if he once had some insights into The Beautiful Game ... nevermind his doyenne investor wife ... or his Iraq veteran son or ...

... actually, my greatest reservations as a reader were in regard to the daughter -- something of a cipher, when it comes to her (autistic?) libidinal motivations.

In any case, had this been published just as '08 collapsed and prior to a global pandemic overseen by a gameshow host I might have given this book its proper due. It's the circumstances, dear reader -- occupational hazard, even for the most courageous and clear-sighted of novelists.

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