Customer Reviews

Acceptable Losses

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303 pages that lead nowhere. The first 270 pages are not only written with some excellence, they lead the reader to be concerned about the story. The last 30 pages or so are little more than unintelligent garbage, hardly attached to the story at all. WORSE, the book ends with no conclusion leaving the reader, at least this one, angry enough to want to be the person who threatened the main character, except I want the author to suffer as he made me suffer writing a book without an ending. A novel is no place for a shaggy dog story.

The book consists entirely of character development; the characters don't
actually DO anything. For example, 80% of chapter six is an extended
flashback that occurs while the main character is having a drink. If the
blurb about the mysterious death threat in the night leads you to expect
suspense, intrigue, mysteries, etc., you will be sorely disappointed. Read
"Rich Man Poor Man" by the same author instead.

My husband and I were recently having a conversation and one of us used the term "acceptable loss" which inspired a discussion about this book. He read it years ago and still had it and could still find it. He remembered liking it so I decided to read it as well.

The main character, Roger Damon, is a fairly successful literary agent living in New York in the late 70's or early '80's. One night, he gets a nebulous threatening phone call telling him he has been a bad boy and he will have to pay. The first three-fourths of the book is about Damon examining his life and people that might consider him an enemy. I couldn't put it down. The last part of the book seemed implausible compared to the first, almost like he couldn't find an appropriate ending. I felt a little unsatisfied with the ending but it didn't ruin the book for me. I felt Shaw really developed the characters, they didn't seem hollow at all. I think I want to read Rich Man Poor Man next.