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Title: False Economies
Author: Gordon Haber
Narrator: Maxwell Caulfield
Format: Unabridged
Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-08-13
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
London, 1990: Thatcher is on her way out, but Thatcherism is in full swing. Meanwhile David Bergmann, a young American working in a West End bar, is having a quarter-life crisis. He loves London, but hes broke, he cant get a girlfriend, and his flatmate is kicking him out.
Then he meets Sofia. On paper its a bad match - shes a little older and a lot more sophisticated. But Bergmann is convinced that this fantastic woman can give him the purpose he lacks. All he needs to do is find the cash for a (hopefully) life-changing weekend with her in Paris. Thus Bergmann takes a radical step for a nice Jewish boy and moves into a squat. Hell quickly learn that in Thatcherite England, free rent comes at a price.
"False Economies" is a funny and moving story about young love in London and the mistakes we make while trying to grow up.
Editorial Reviews:
There's humor to be found in Thatcherism, as wry social critic Gordon Haber reveals in his funny novella False Economies. Performed by renowned English film, stage, and television star Maxwell Caulfield, False Economies is told from the perspective of David Bergmann, a young American in London, living out his quarter-life crisis while working at a West End bar. Caulfield's rich, nuanced voice lends Bergmann a wry pathos as he discovers his ticket to adulthood: the pursuit of a sophisticated, somewhat older woman, Sofia. But of course, Bergmann needs some cash to capture the elegant Sofia, and what he does to get it introduces him to a new economic reality.
Members Reviews:
An attempt at comedy that falls flat
I suppose it is one of those ironies that I bought False Economies at a discount price. A false economy indeed - because I disliked every minute of it.
Haber's protagonist, David Bergmann, is a stereotypical New York Jew who finds himself, at the age of 24, stuck in London. He is estranged from his family, low on money, working a dead-end job as a bartender, and in lust with an older woman whose has a child. The story follows Bergmann's downward spiral as he deals with a series of loser friends who lead him, with utter predictability, into utter degradation.
Haber tries to make all this funny, but it's not. Instead, it's dreary and boring and predictable. The characters are unlikable and lack any sort of complexity, and Bergmann himself seems to realize this when he contemplates the fact that he is an "unserious" person toward the end of the story. The story even ends on a anticlimactic note, as if Haber had no idea what he wanted to do with the story once Bergmann hit rock bottom.
Haber's writing is not bad, but his characters and story are really poor in this instance. What is most disappointing, however, is the feeling that an opportunity was missed. A satire about false economies in Thatcher's London? That was what hooked me in the first place - and yet Haber makes almost nothing of this golden opportunity, choosing instead to focus on the tedious lusts of his boring, unserious protagonist.
Humor and Heartache from Gordon Haber
Readers of Gordon Haber's commentary on politics and the arts already know what many more need to find out, that he is one of our most under-appreciated humorists and social critics. His fiction shares with his essays the same wit, curiosity, and knack for brainy satire.
