I couldn't put this book down.
And the problem is...if I tell you anything about the plot, it will ruin it.
First and foremost it's an easy read. Not "simple," but "contemporary." No airs. Rufi Thorpe does have an MFA, but from Virginia, she's not a product of the Iowa Workshop, which Hannah in "Girls" attended and left because of its pretension, because it adheres to a formula, because everything is overthought and overworked.
That is not Margo, Who ultimately says:
"When you're going to do something stupidly brave, it helps to have less time to think about it."
This is where the college educated lose out to the adventurous. Sometimes you can be so busy analyzing pitfalls that you don't even start. Sometimes you need to just dive in. Step into the darkness and you have no idea what will happen, positive or negative.
And Margo certainly does a number of things stupidly brave.
She lives in Fullerton and goes to junior college. The product of a single mother. She's going nowhere fast. And then...
She derails herself. But finds a way forward anyway.
And if that's not obtuse enough for you...
As for encouraging you to read "Margo's Got Money Troubles," let me quote the opening paragraph:
"You are about to begin reading a new book, and to be honest, you're a little tense. The beginning of a novel is like a first date. You hope that from the first lines an urgent magic will take hold, and you will sink into the story like a hot bath, giving yourself over entirely. But this hope is tempered by the expectation that, in reality, you are about to have to learn a bunch of people's names and follow along politely like you are attending the baby shower of a woman you hardly know. And that's fine, goodness knows you've fallen in love with books that didn't grab you in the first paragraph. But that doesn't stop you from wishing they would, from wishing they would come right up to you in the dark of your mind and kiss you on the throat."
Getting over the hump. Reading enough of a book to get into it, to be hooked. Sometimes it's too heavy a lift.
But "Margo" begins with this knowledge of the reader, it's both present and irreverent, a sensibility too often lacking in today's vaunted fiction. Too much literary fiction is just too damn hard to read, and so much stuff is just lowbrow, romance, mystery, genre.
Not that "Margo" is highbrow. And it seems to me that Rufi Thorpe may have written it for commercial success, something absent from her career to this point.
I absolutely loved Thorpe's previous book, "The Knockout Queen." I detailed my devotion here: rb.gy/wjofxk But "The Knockout Queen" stalled in the marketplace. It wasn't completely ignored, it got 637 reviews on Amazon, with four stars, but readers and reviewers still preferred her debut, "The Girls From Corona Del Mar."
This happens all the time. I read Roxana Robinson's "Leaving," released this year, loved it and researched and it turned out everybody kept pointing me to her 2008 work, "Cost," which I then read. I recommend BOTH! The latter...deals with issues of family and addiction yet is contemporary and real. If you're a Boomer or Gen-X'er you will relate to so much, when you think it's going to be predictable, it is not.
But "Cost" is heavier than "Margo." You do have to get over that reading hump before you're hooked.
You do not have to read much of Margo to be hooked. I was hooked by the first paragraph. And it was rolling along, and then there was a turn, so wild, but so right that even though it was one in the morning I wanted to wake up my girlfriend to tell her about it.
Too often literary writers are detached from modern society. Don't you know, the smartphone is the devil? And you can't even participate in the social media you denigrate?
NOT MARGO!
The book is set in the now. Without pandering. I guarantee you'll read it and not catch some of the references, some of the slang. But this is what people in this demo, late teenagers, early twentysomethings, employ.
Margo is living in the now. And that's such a thrill.
Then again, so many readers of fiction do so because they want to avoid the now. However, the most talked about book of the last couple of years is "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow," at least in my circles. Whenever I bring it up, people's faces light up, you can see it in their eyes, they devoured it, it touched them, they're thrilled you're on the same page.
I'd like to say "Margo's Got Money Troubles" is as good as "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow," but it is not. Which has me wondering how successful it will be. Reviews have been very positive. But sometimes when you're pandering, you're rejected. Like Katy Perry.
Not that Thorpe is exactly pandering. But reading the book I think she consciously wanted to write something that connected with the public.
But that does not detract from the reading experience.
And I was surprised by the wisdom, evidenced in literary fiction but absent so much of the trash people read.
"'Beauty is like free money,' Shyanne used to say as she did Margo's face."
Bullseye. Which too many want to deny. And the truth is beauty comes with a cost, not that anybody wants to believe it. But the doors it opens, the freebies it rains down...they're real, it's a distinct advantage.
"Like how comedians have to bomb. If you don't learn how to bomb, then the audience has you on such a tight leash, you're stuck saying only the things you think they'll like."
They should post this on every studio wall. Record label execs should be beaten over the head with this. You don't want to be constricted by your audience. Which doesn't really know what it wants anyway. They want you to be just like you were, but then you are and they criticize or ignore you. Furthermore, failure today counts a lot less than it did in the pre-internet era. It's rolled over by the endless flow of creative lava that pours on to Spotify, on to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, the whole web, each and every day.
"But Margo knew the world was perfectly willing to punish you no matter what you had done."
Everything does not happen for a reason. That's a myth people tell themselves so they can soldier on. Bad things do happen to good people. You can do the right thing and get a bad outcome. The lesson is to learn this and metabolize this and soldier on. Life is unfair. Period. But that doesn't mean you should stop living, stop risking.
And here's the apotheosis, what you have to know about every creator, including me!
"...and we would scream to the crow, 'Look at me! Look at the beautiful insane things I can do with my body! Look at me! Love me!'
Because that's all art is in the end.
One person trying to get another person they have never met to fall in love with them."
And it's so hard. It's one thing for your family to dig what you've done, but someone you've never met, have no contact with? That's the challenge.
And the funny thing is when you achieve this, it still doesn't make your life whole. It feels good for a while, like winning a trophy, or an award, and then you're right back to where you were. Kinda like with beauty. You think it will solve all your problems, but it won't.
And I still haven't told you what "Margo's Got Money Troubles" is about.
Yes, Margo has money troubles. But why? And how does she deal with this?
That's the essence of this book.
If you love historical fiction, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like dense writing, wherein you have to pick apart each sentence, oftentimes with a dictionary in hand, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like a whodunit, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like science fiction, fantasy, "Margo" is not for you.
It's kind of like Hollywood, it's easier to repeat the formula. To create something brand new is seen as too risky.
Not that "Margo" plays with the form. It's a regular book, but the adventure, the choices, the outcomes, are so wild and unpredictable, yet wholly real, that you're thrilled as you go on the ride.
If you're a member of the self-satisfied elite, you might not be able to handle "Margo." Because, once again, instead of being set in the Ivory Tower, it all takes place in Orange County, a flat, overpopulated wasteland full of strip malls and boredom.
Will a guy love "Margo"?
The funny thing is guys have been affected by so much of what is in this book, but they may not like seeing things from a woman's perspective.
You'll laugh, you probably won't cry, but you'll learn about life in these United States today.
I'm smiling as I write this. Some of you are absolutely going to adore "Margo's Got Money Troubles," not that I can tell you exactly who that is, all I can tell you is I LOVED IT!
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