The Hazards of Good Fortune

July 16, 2018
Set in New York City in 2012, Greenland’s latest novel (after I Regret Everything) is grim satire and tragic social commentary on prejudice, corruption, greed, and social and economic privilege. Jay Gladstone is a rich, Jewish New York City real estate tycoon who owns an NBA basketball team and arrogantly thinks he is the most benevolent, inclusive white man ever. Then he catches his trophy wife, Nicole, and his basketball team’s aging star player, Dag Maxwell, in bed. Jay runs over Dag with his car, critically injuring the star. The ambitious and self-serving district attorney, Christine Lupo, uses charges against Jay for political gain; in another of her cases (which she determines won’t really help her career), she drops murder charges against a cop who killed a black man. The cop goes free and gets a job with the DA, and Jay is charged with a hate crime. As he gets ready to be tried, the fallout from the incident stokes a firestorm of anti-Semitism, racist hate, media hype, and agitator-fueled public outrage. Though the novel is too long and there is too much going on, Greenland is an excellent storyteller and makes his tale of selfish opportunists memorable and provocative.

Starred review from July 1, 2018
A gimlet-eyed writer observes the life of a New York property baron as it unravels amid personal, business, and legal woes.Greenland (I Regret Everything: A Love Story, 2015, etc.) is a screenwriter and playwright whose fifth novel recalls Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities--except the rich guy is an implausibly good person. Jay Gladstone inherited and expanded a New York real estate empire that has allowed him, by the year 2012, to own five homes and a professional basketball team, practice philanthropy, and bask in a well-buffed public persona. His biggest flaw is pride that slides toward myopic self-righteousness and can render him dangerously uncool on hot-button issues. Life is generally good, though--and then it isn't. His star ballplayer doesn't like his proposed new contract. Jay's second wife wants a baby, which goes against the prenup. Jay's college-age daughter from marriage No. 1 is sleeping with a black female classmate, who disrupts the family Seder with a pointed comment on black slaves vs. the Jews' biblical slavery. Jay's cousin and partner in the family firm is embezzling. But Jay is coping well until he drives his car into the aforementioned ballplayer after catching him in bed with Mrs. Gladstone No. 2. The scene is recorded on her smartphone and soon goes public, along with Jay's statement: "Why does everyone in this family need to have sex with black people?" Racism has been a simmering theme in the book since a white cop shot a black man early on, through the Seder, and in the college students' debate on racial politics as they prepare a play on the kidnapping of Patty Hearst. Now racism hangs heavy on Jay and his legal predicament, which dovetails with the political ambitions of a district attorney who needs a showcase trial with a racial component to appeal to various slices of the electorate. Greenland takes a Dickensian delight in letting the plot sprawl with parallels, digressions, false leads, and twists. The ultimate twist may be the ending, which puts Jay's possible absolution in the unlikeliest quarter.An entertaining tale rich in schadenfreude as bad things happen to a hapless billionaire.

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