Algonquin Publicity presents
The Fortunate Ones
by Ed Tarkington
ABOUT THE BOOK
When Charlie Boykin was young, he’d thought his life with his single mother was really just fine. But when his mother’s connections get Charlie into boarding school and give them access to the upper echelons of Nashville society, Charlie falls under the spell of all that a life among the wealthy can mean. Increasingly attached to another boy, Arch Creigh, Charlie learns how morality has little to do with life in Belle Meade. On into college and after, Charlie aids Arch in his pursuit of a Senate seat, only to be pulled into a growing web of deceit. The novel examines the questions: Why do the poor love the rich? Why do we envy and worship a class of people that so often exhibits the worst excesses and the lowest morals?
For fans of Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth and Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here, The Fortunate Ones is an engrossing story of class, love, and loyalty.
MY REVIEW
I’d like to thank Algonquin Books for including me in their Blog Tour for the impressive new release by Ed Tarkington, The Fortunate Ones.
This is in part a coming-of-age story, but more importantly it’s a look behind the curtain of the lives of wealthy families, conservative southern values, corruption and the ease with which you can leave your family and morals behind when you receive a golden ticket to this elite, opulent world. Under it all is the theme of love. The love of family, partners, friends. What you will do for it and because of it.
Growing up the only child of a single-working mother much like Charlie, I wonder if my decisions would have paralleled his, abandoning my life without a look back, or if I would have said no to the easy life. I do know that I was captivated by this story as soon as I began reading and could not put it down.
I’ve truly always loved reading about the lives of the wealthy. The kids that grow up going to private schools. I’ve known real-life Arch’s, Jamie’s and Vanessa’s and I love taking a peek in to what life must be like when you come from money.
“We were perched on the precipice of manhood, drunk on our own importance, our futures promising, the present full of opportunity for seemingly endless firsts and lasts – first drink, first kiss, first love, first lay; last dance, last test, last performance, last season, last game.”
The characters are so real, the writing is smart and spot-on and there is just so much truth in this story.
“I closed my eyes and remembered the farm in April and the endless green meadow in the cool, misty damp of early morning. I thought of my mother there, the way she had looked to me, in love, but also afraid. And I wondered, as she must have then, and perhaps for many years after, why I had found it so hard just to be happy for her.”
There are no good or bad characters, just characters that have both good and bad in them – as in real life.
“It seems these days more and more that people assume that because a man is wealthy, he should be trusted to lead, or to govern,” he said. “They overlook the fact that wealth is often acquired without discipline or principle. Plato believed that wisdom led to virtue. But one needn’t be wise to become wealthy. One certainly needn’t be virtuous. Of course, all men are flawed, aren’t they, Charlie?”
This is a great story and these characters will stay with me for a long while.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ed Tarkington’s debut novel Only Love Can Break Your Heart was an ABA Indies Introduce selection, an Indie Next pick, a Book of the Month Club Main Selection, and a Southern Independent Booksellers Association bestseller. A regular contributor to Chapter16.org, his articles, essays, and stories have appeared in a variety of publications including the Nashville Scene, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Knoxville News-Sentinel, and Lit Hub. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
ENTER THE GIVEAWAY
We are so excited to have a brand new ARC of The Fortunate Ones enter below contest ends January 15 2021.
Hannah Mason
This book looks and sounds really good! Definitely adding it to my TBR! 🤩
Colleen C
The quotations you mentioned in your review definitely make me interested to read the book. It sounds like it depicts a world I am not personally familiar with.