Love and Money [Paperback]

Michael M. Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 16, 2009

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a provocative, sizzling novel--a story of money, power, betrayal, and love

Bestselling author Michael M. Thomas turns his gimlet eye--not to mention his gift for wicked plot twists--to the bizarre world of today's pop-culture, celebrity economy in his latest, Love and Money.

It's a world that turns on "Stars"--here, a Martha Stewart-like television star who is the keystone of a multi-million dollar television empire, who also promotes a wide range of products, that in turn props up a huge manufacturing industry and a world-wide chain of Wal-Mart stores.

So what would happen if she had one little fling--one wild but solitary sexual adventure--that, if known about, would destroy her wholesome image, not to mention put a lot of people out of work? And what if the person who found out about it was her husband, whose disastrous last film seems to have left him diminished in her eyes? And what if he happens to know the world's best divorce attorney?

The result is a riveting ride through the stuff of our culture-branding and celebrity, fast money and quick burn-outs--and a thoroughly modern take on the eternal battle between morality and expediency. In the deft hands of Michael Thomas, it's a smart, accurate page-turner about the way of the world and how big money really works.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Nobody does the high-tech financial thriller better than Thomas."-Publisher's Weekly

"Deliciously entertaining-a stupendous performance."-Washington Post Book World

"Savage, pungent, wity...Not since Sinclair Lewis has an American novelist been able to fill in the variegated background of his characters."-Louis Auchincloss, New York Review of Books

About the Author

Michael M. Thomas is the bestselling author of eight novels, including The Ropespinner Conspiracy, Hard Money, Hanover Place, and Baker's Dozen. Before becoming a full-time writer, Thomas enjoyed successful careers as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as a partner at the Wall Street firm, Lehman Brothers. His journalism has appeared widely, including the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and a column for the New York Observer. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: Melville House; 1 edition (June 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933633727
• ISBN-13: 978-1933633725
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,557,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After a career as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a partner at Lehman Brothers and an independent financial consultant and investor, I sat down in 1978 to write my first novel. The book, Green Monday, published in 1980, was a success, and I became a full-time writer. Since then I have published seven other novels, written innumerable articles and reviews, and beginning in 1987, a weekly column for The New York Observer. I also contribute occasional commentary to Forbes.com.
I like to write novels that I would enjoy reading - for I was a voracious reader long before I took up the typewriter and then the computer keyboard.To me, reading enjoyment derives from both the intelligence and the heart. I've often said I read nonfiction for information, but novels for truth, by which I mean insight and understanding. Plots must make narrative sense; the reader must say to himself or herself from the first page, "Yes, this could happen!" And, indeed, much of what I've set down in my novels has in fact subsequently come to pass.My characters take a view of life, which they both shape and are shaped by. They have opinions, and sometimes what they have to say has such a ring of authenticity that readers can get upset. Still, the criticism I am most proud of appeared just last Suday, July 19, in The New York Post, in a review of my latest novel, Love & Money (Melville House), by Kyle Smith, who opened his review with the statement, "Smart people need beach reads too." There's my ideal reader: who wants both enlightenment and entertainment in the same package, and is scared of neither.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars New York Story August 11, 2009

By J. M. Didier

Format:Paperback

In Love & Money Michael Thomas seems to emerge from a soulscape somewhere in between Harold Robbins and Dominick Dunne. Or is it Antony Trollope and James Grant (of his beloved `Interest Rate Observer')? In profiles appearing in New York Magazine, the New York Observer, and other mostly local press, a portrait emerges of a Michael Thomas born in New York City to a life of opportunity and privilege who made the most of it...a thoroughbred with no tolerance for the come-latelys who defiled his great city with their money-grubbing opportunism in the latter part of the last century. Over the years he has spoken out on behaviors that many found distasteful, but were hesitant to decry; in Love & Money, he echoes some favorite themes: Of what value is a `social life' if you have to pay for it? Is the pursuit of money what society has become? Whither love and family? Michael Thomas followed the comings and goings of the `haves' of New York incisively and viciously through the eighties and nineties in his Midas Watch column in the now [seriously]-defunct New York Observer. Who could forget his "Four Horsemen of the Hamptons Apocalypse" (if I recall correctly, Ron Perelman, Martha Stewart, Peggy Siegal, and that bullet-headed restaurateur)? He managed to capture the essence of the era, and that is why his column was followed so voraciously by so many. Another writer emerged from the Observer a superstar, but look what she has wrought? Michael Thomas, a cherished treasure to long-time readers, has outdone himself with his latest New York story, a book that will please long-time and new readers alike.

The protagonist of Love & Money, Clifford Grange, might be Michael Thomas' alter-ego, the creator of a grand, artistic film derided as racist by critics...echoes of Mr. Thomas' experience with his mega-novel, Hanover Place? But then, keep reading and it appears as though Grange, aged in his early fifties in the early-2000s, is rather an idealized version of Mr. Thomas (or maybe one of his children?)...someone who espouses many of the same views about class, money, marriage, fidelity, and somehow manages to remain faithful to them against all temptation. Mr. Thomas also takes on the delicate topic of fault versus no-fault divorce and describes the nuances masterfully. His portrait of the Supreme Court is prescient given the recent appointment of Sotomayor, and his profile of a bull-dog divorce lawyer with a hidden intellectual side is brilliant. He is surprisingly easy on another main character, Belle Villers, the female scion of a Southern grocery conglomerate; could he have based her on the Wal-Mart heiress who snatched Asher Durand's 'Kindred Spirits' out from under New Yorkers' noses to Mr. Thomas' vocal and undending dismay? Well, there is an implication of murder, so he's not that easy on her. There is a rich climactic scene in the U.S. Supreme Court with cameo appearances by some of media's leading lights, after which the reader will savor a surprise ending. So buy this book now, and then demand that Mr. Thomas write a memoir, and that a compendium of his Observer columns be published immediately!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A rich stew of A-list characters tangle with each other July 29, 2009

By Eve Pell

Format:Paperback

Intriguing, behind-the-scenes account of movers and shakers in high places, warts and all, as they maneuver for profit and power: This rattling-good story brings the reader into a high-stakes situation where the rich and famous game one another with moves and counter-moves--and kept me turning pages as the plot unfolded in surprising twists and odd turns. Michael M. Thomas, a smart cookie who knows the worlds of high finance, art and divorce law, tells an entertaining, fast-moving tale of sex, scandal and suspense with wit, a few morality lessons and sharp comments along the way.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love & Money is Smart & Fun June 20, 2009

By Book Babe

Format:Paperback

From the hot beginning (whew!) all the way to the Supreme Court, this book was a helluva ride -- really entertaining but brainy in a way that stuck with me. I gave it to my husband -- something for us to talk about!!!!