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For fans of Don DeLillo and Joseph O'Neill, an enthralling debut about the one percent, what they'll do to stay on top, and the callous gaze they turn on those below them.
Burned-out and alienated, Kilgore associate attorney Stephen Harker spends his workdays defending insurance companies against spurious litigation commenced by private soldiers who supported US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Harker's charismatic, womanizing boss assigns him a case defending insurance behemoth World. Score against a lawsuit filed by Major Mike "Bud" Thomas, a veteran, former contract soldier, and divorced father-seeking compensation for PTSD and injuries suffered in Afghanistan. Just as Harker turns the firm's full legal power on the wounded, unstable veteran, he commences an unhealthy relationship with his boss's estranged bohemian wife, setting himself up for a downward existential spiral that almost destroys Harker, until a brutal act of violence presents him with a final shot at redemption.
All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is a riveting insider's indictment of the world of the corporate elite and the savage determination with which they fight to maintain control. In a society where the very institutions that should support our returning veterans instead view them with suspicion, this stunning debut is a grim reflection on the ever-growing rift between the classes.
Burned-out and alienated, Kilgore associate attorney Stephen Harker spends his workdays defending insurance companies against spurious litigation commenced by private soldiers who supported US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Harker's charismatic, womanizing boss assigns him a case defending insurance behemoth World. Score against a lawsuit filed by Major Mike "Bud" Thomas, a veteran, former contract soldier, and divorced father-seeking compensation for PTSD and injuries suffered in Afghanistan. Just as Harker turns the firm's full legal power on the wounded, unstable veteran, he commences an unhealthy relationship with his boss's estranged bohemian wife, setting himself up for a downward existential spiral that almost destroys Harker, until a brutal act of violence presents him with a final shot at redemption.
All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is a riveting insider's indictment of the world of the corporate elite and the savage determination with which they fight to maintain control. In a society where the very institutions that should support our returning veterans instead view them with suspicion, this stunning debut is a grim reflection on the ever-growing rift between the classes.
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Reviews
"Carlson's controlled authorial voice is further enlivened by clever wordplay and a Delilloan obsession with etymology and news stories. Carlson deftly steers clear of a clichéd good-versus-evil, David-versus-Goliath plot as he provides a nuanced exploration of the questionable motivations of all parties. The result is a more satisfying, Franzenian interplay of politics and class with hints of the
Booklist
"All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is surprising and strange; an endlessly inventive story of corporate insurance litigation, class warfare, and drunken love."
Ben Winters, New York Times bestselling author of Underground Airlines
"Part indictment of the world of worker's compensation litigation, part portrait of a toxic love triangle built on narcissism and dependency, part surrealist rendering of a Manhattan teetering between corporate high-rise glitz and misfit underground counterculture, All the Beautiful People We Once Knew deftly navigates a chasm of privilege and depravity before plummeting to its inevitably tragic c
James Charlesworth, author of The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill