The Mark and the Void
A Novel
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3.8 • 8 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
What links the Investment Bank of Torabundo, www.myhotswaitress.com (yes, with an s, don't ask), an art heist, a novel called For the Love of a Clown, a six-year-old boy with the unfortunate name of Remington Steele, a lonely French banker, a tiny Pacific island, and a pest control business run by an ex-KGB agent?
The Mark and the Void is Paul Murray's madcap new novel of institutional folly, following the success of his wildly original breakout hit, Skippy Dies. While marooned at his banking job in the bewilderingly damp and insular realm known as Ireland, Claude Martingale is approached by a down-on-his-luck author, Paul, looking for his next great subject. Claude finds that his life gets steadily more exciting under Paul's fictionalizing influence; he even falls in love with a beautiful waitress. But Paul's plan is not what it seems—and neither is Claude's employer, the Investment Bank of Torabundo, which swells through dodgy takeovers and derivatives trading until—well, you can probably guess how that shakes out.
The Mark and the Void is the funniest novel ever written about the recent financial crisis, and a stirring examination of the deceptions carried out in the names of art and commerce.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Can a book that deals heavily with the ongoing financial strife of the past decade be funny? The answer is yes, thanks to the cartwheeling imagination of Irish novelist Paul Murray (Skippy Dies). In The Mark and the Void, French banker Claude—who works in the Dublin office of the Bank of Torabundo—is approached by a shady writer named Paul, who wants to write a book about a finance industry Everyman. Murray clearly has strong opinions about multinational banks’ calamitous impact on his hometown, but he channels them into a twisty, madcap story that’s chock full of colorful characters, philosophical wit, and touching human drama.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Murray's follow-up to Skippy Dies is a protracted jab at the world of banking, a charming send-up of the financial crisis that is hilariously absent of hope. Claude Martingale is a French migr living in Dublin and working for the Investment Bank of Torabundo. His life is not entertaining. So why does Paul, a novelist (who happens to share the actual author's first name), want to make Claude the everyman protagonist of his next novel? With the approval of bank management, Paul begins to shadow Claude through his typical office work days. But it quickly becomes clear there's more to Paul's interest than he's saying. Add to this intrigue the potential collapse of Ireland's economy, tent cities inhabited by protestors dressed as zombies, and a mad Russian mathematician around whose equations BOT may be structuring its new Structured Products Department, and Murray's latest quickly takes off. Here, again, the author displays much of the quick wit of his popular previous novel, but this effort also boasts a more modernist slant, with ever-blurring lines between art imitating life and life imitating art for the characters. The result is another page-turner with smarts, an absurdist riff on our economic follies, one that leaves the impression that it's all not so far-fetched, after all.
Customer Reviews
WtItty, astute, engaging, truly original book
I loved this book and have recommended it to many friends. Murray is a brilliant writer, with a plot of Monty Python zaniness, yet the ability to conjure a deep and real sympathy for its characters. The book is set in Ireland just before the 2008 financial collapse, both the reprehensible brokerage houses and banks that caused it and the fallout was for the rest of us. Thoroughly engaging.