Customer Reviews

Six Figures

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Six Figures is an interesting and enjoyable read, quick, but with substance. It is the story of Warner and Megan a not so happily married couple, living on the fringes of Charlotte NC's successes with their two young children. The stresses on their marriage ring true and any married person with young kids will recognize them. The daily grind of diapers, preschool, the depressingness of seeing others so much more successful, driving new Volvos when your Honda is falling apart. Leebron doesn't dwell on any of this envy, this unhappy marriage-ness for too long, he delves in and out of his characters heads so the reader gets a flavor of their misery without without making the reader miserable. Megan is then brutally attacked and near death. Warner is the only suspect. Leebron then explores what happens to the marriage, and the family after it is torn apart by the attack.

We never really, truly know if Warner did it or not, but that's OK. It's not necessary because this novel is not a mystery-thriller, it is a story of marriage and of family. What makes this book so enjoyable is the total believability of all of Leebron's characters and their relationships. We have met people like them and have felt like them many times. Warner is not exactly a likeable guy, but he's not awful either, probably because the envy he feels is something we have all felt at one time or another.

Six Figures is a satisfying read. I am surprised at, and have to disagree with, the negative reviews at this website. Give this book a read, I don't think you will regret it.

This is an especially well-done examination of the nature of families in a time of crisis. The "six figures" of the title, despite the artwork on the cover, are not the members of the extended family (since there are nine of them, even ten, if you count the brother). More likely the six figures are the dream of yearly income that signifies success in our society.

The central character is Warner Lutz, a thirty-something yuppie who manages a fund-raising non-profit organization (at about $30,000 a year) in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is married to Megan, who tends a shop that sells art objects. They have two children, Sophia, who is four, and Daniel, who is perhaps two. At the crisis they are joined by Megan's mother, Nan, a high-powered business woman who does indeed command over six figures a year, Warner's mother, Ruth, a workaholic who doesn't entirely believe or trust her son, and her husband, Alan, who is fat and seventy and sleeps a lot. There is also Nan's estranged husband and his wife (who really play no part in the story).

The central event of the novel occurs about halfway through. It comes as a surprise, and therefore shouldn't be revealed here, and I won't. I will say that Warner is accused and most everyone, including the police, believe he is guilty. Leebron's narrative deliberately does not allow us to know. Leebron wants to examine the event and its aftermath and how it effects the family regardless of whether Warner is guilty or not; indeed it is important that the truth not be known. It appears that no one else could have done it, but it that proof? Leebron hints at why Warner might have done it, but Warner says he is innocent. He is not believed. His life falls apart.

There is a long preparation for this central event in which the circumstances of the Lutz's are slowly revealed. We experience the frustration of their careers, the demands of being working parents, the alienation that comes with being northerners in a southern town. He is from Pennsylvania, nominally Jewish. Megan is a New Yorker. Some events of the past are recalled and how they effect their lives at present and perhaps foreshadow events to come. He comes under pressure because of a financial impropriety not of his doing. Sophia has trouble at pre-school. They don't feel they are making enough money. And then the central event comes crashing down on them, perhaps putting their lives into perspective.

Leebron's style is a laudable attempt at a kind of realistic objectivity, an attitude toward his characters that is understanding, even forgiving, but without sentimentality. His prose is for the most part without flourish, without mannerism, the "invisible" style of the writer who does not want to detract from his story. The characterizations are vivid and, after a slow start, a fine tension is achieved that carries us to the conclusion. This is an excellent work, marred slightly by an incidental quality as though a short story were being stretched into a novel.

I picked up this book before bedtime, expecting to read a chapter or two and followed the luckless Lutz family all the way to the final page. Leebron's swift moving and understated style leaves you with an uneasy uncertainty right up to the end. Could Warner have attacked his wife? Did she betray him earlier with a family friend? Will they find a true new beginning in a new place or will their doubts follow them north? Do Megan and Warner stay together out of loyalty or inertia? And, to echo the mother-in-law does anyone really know anyone? An intense and unnerving book - just don't give it to anyone for a wedding gift. Six Figures really makes you think twice about this "Till death do we part" thing.

Warner Lutz may be the unhappiest person on the planet, (or at least in the Carolinas), although he seems to have it all. He makes more than an adequate living working for a nonprofit organization, has a nice wife and two children. However, he suffers from a mid-life crisis, taking his acrimonious frustrations out on his wife Megan.

Warner soon learns how fabulous is life was when an assailant attacks Megan near the art gallery where she works. Megan remains in a coma in a hospital as everyone who knows Warner is convinced he assaulted his spouse. His mother-in-law, his own parents, and even his children believe Warner attacked Megan. As bad as his relatives mistrust his pleas of innocence, the police strongly feel he is the prime suspect. All Warner can do is pray Megan awakens from her comatose state to affirm his innocence even as he wonders why everyone he knows think he is capable of such a vicious attack.

SIX FIGURES is an interesting drama that centers on the relationships of several people interacting with one person (Warner). The story line works because of everyone's deep conviction that Warner could do the dastardly deed although at first glimpse the protagonist does not appear capable of performing the vicious act. Anyone who relishes a well-written disturbing character study of the pressure to succeed in middle class America will want to read Fred G. Leebron's terrific tale.

Harriet Klausner

A terrific read - ferociously gripping and almost painfully moving - but the best thing about this book is its acute dissection of class.

I read this book in one sitting (okay, two--I took a break to watch The Sopranos). Anyway, SIX FIGURES is a wonderful, fast read. Leebron's prose is sharp and his story is compelling. Warner Lutz (the main character) is an Everyman caught in the trap of career and marriage; he wants both--maybe. When his wife is the victim of violent crime, everybody--and even Warner himself--wonders if he was capable of the crime. And was he? Ah, for that you have to read the book.

I definitely wasn't as awestruck as so many seem to be of Leebron's marital tale, but I will admit that there are so many rings to truth within these pages. Leebron exposes the innermost feelings of regret and rage that accompany many in their lives, the regret of rushing into relationships, binding relationships that can rob us of that pivotal `me' time we all wish we had more of. So in that regard, sad to say, I could relate very well to Warner.

The story revolves around a young couple, Warner and Megan, who seem to be almost disconnected and solely together for their two children. When Megan is brutally attacked and hospitalized Warner is shocked to find out the he is the prime suspect, not only by the police but by his mother-in-law and even his own parents. I really felt bad for the guy, and here's where I started to get irritated with the novel. Warner handles this a little too well for my taste. He never sticks up for himself until the very end, and because he's been so docile the entire time his fierce reaction felt forced. Plus, you are supposed to believe that this man is such a hard, mean person that everyone could picture him trying to kill his wife, but to me he came off as a typical man, stressed, depressed and misunderstood. If he had yelled at a few more people or broken a few things then I could have seen their viewpoint.

The story was far from bad, and it raised a few good concerns and questions everyone in a serious relationship should ask themselves, but to me the characters seemed to be a walking contradiction and I found it a bit hard to think what I was apparently supposed to think about the people in question. It's worth the read, but if the characters displayed more realistic emotions and appeared more than one note I would be more apt to praise this novel in its entirety. Leebron is no doubt a great writer; he just needs to work on his character development a little more.

Leebron's story of an average white-collar worker disenchanted with his pursuit of climbing the "corporate ladder" and "keeping up with the Joneses" misses the mark of being a first rate suspense-thriller. There is fast-paced excitement, but the story doesn't add up, no motive is ever revealed and too many loose ends.

The most amazing thing about this book is that it accomplishes what I thought was impossible in this age of arrested adolescence in American male writers--it carefully and perfectly describes the inner life of a modern family man as his not-so-carefully constructed life begins to unravel. As devastating a portrait of an American experience as you'll find since Yates or even Howells.

A psychologically insightful novel about the limits to which we can ever know the truth about others--even our own families and lovers. Also a wonderful commentary on the lure of materialism and its effect on human relationships. A really great little book. The only problems I had with the book were when the narrative point of view shifted (for brief passages) to that of the 5-year-old daughter, Sophia. The language used to describe her ideas and observations was too adult-like, and not at all believeable.