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RATING: |
Date of Release: July 2002 |
Publisher: Allen & Unwin |
Review Source: |
There, Finn finds a world he never knew existed. He is enthralled and intrigued by this world, and is eager to be made one of “the tribe.” He discovers many of the things that ordinary teens discover - drugs, sex, drinking, etc., but his assimilation into this clan of strange and terrible people has repercussions far beyond his wildest imaginings.
The characters make this novel a success - Liz, Finn’s social-climbing, junkie mother; Osborne, the mysterious, affable, and terrifying billionaire who takes in Liz and her son; Maya, the rich girl of all of our dreams; and Bryce, the popular, funny golden boy who defends the down-trodden and parties like there’s no tomorrow.
Wittenborn does a masterful job of showing us both what is most seductive and most hateful about these strange, rich New Jerseyians. With Finn, we are both attracted and repelled by their excess and self-absorption. Wittenborn thus implicates the reader in Finn’s central moral dilemma: is money (vast, huge sums of it, that is) ultimately soul-corrupting?
Fierce People is written with a wry, sly, sense of humor that undercuts and deflates the morality espoused by the characters in the novel, even as it sympathises with them.
Devastatingly real and terrifyingly accurate.
