Entitlement

Pick it up: If you are interetsed in the psychology of wealth and its corrosive allure. If you're in the mood for a complex tale of wealth disparity, race, privilege, and philanthropy.

This is an unsettling novel about the corruptive influence of extreme wealth.

Brooke Orr is a thirty-three year old New Yorker who has, after years of trying to make a teaching job work, moved to the world of philanthropy. She is a junior level program coordinator for the Asher and Carol Jaffee Foundation, an entity set up by ageing billionaire Asher Jaffee, who made his billions in paper and then real estate, and has now decided to give most of it away, to "make the world better". Of course, what makes the world better is something he needs to approve, and therefore despite the small team he has hired to manage his philanthopic activities, they are constantly subject to his whims and caprices.

Brooke, a Black woman with a white adoptive mother (who is none too pleased about her daughter's job which she views as secretarial), is trying to find her feet in the world and she genuinely believes she has the potential to do good in her role, after all, what could be better than giving money away for good causes? As Jaffee's protege, Brooke gradually becomes entrenched in his rarified world, and this proximity to unimaginable wealth begins to transform her desires and perceptions.

The novel explores how money can distort one's sense of reality, blurring the lines between need and want, and raises complex questions about race, privilege, philanthropy, and obsession.