J R - William Gaddis

William Gaddis

Category: Novel

Narrator: Nick Sullivan

Tags: Novel, Contemporary, Literature

A National Book Award-winning satire about the unchecked power of American capitalism, written more than three decades before the 2008 financial crisis., At the center of J R is J R Vansant, a very average sixth grader from Long Island with torn sneakers, a runny nose, and a juvenile fascination with junk-mail get-rich-quick offers. Responding to one, he sees a small return; soon, he is running a paper empire out of a phone booth in the school hallway. Everyone from the school staff to the municipal government to the squabbling heirs of a player-piano company to the titans of Wall Street and the politicians in Washington will be caught up in the endlessly ballooning bubble of the J R Family of Companies., First published in 1975 and winner of the National Book Award in 1976, J R is an appallingly funny and all-too-prophetic depiction of Americas romance with finance. It is also a book about suburban development and urban decay, divorce proceedings and disputed wills, the crumbling faca