A review by annie_explores
Capital by John Lanchester

3.0

This is an interesting book to read during a government shutdown, recalling the time just before the global economic situation—not to mention everything we thought we knew about politics—collapsed. Certain themes, such as the Younts' over-the-top expenditures and Zbigniew's secret stock portfolio, really make you want to yell into the pages, Stop! You fools! The naïveté of these times is sometimes hard to read about, but also impossible not to read about.

That said, I was disappointed by the somewhat trite storylines and the characters, which seemed undeveloped. There were so many characters, and ultimately not much to know about each one. I expected the book to be a kind of soul searching of the collective psyche in the months before the stock market crash, but instead found myself very entertained by the book while not thinking very hard about the serious issues it touched on but stopped short of giving a thoughtful consideration of.