All the Beautiful People We Once Knew: A Novel

by Edward Carlson

Overview

For fans of Don DeLillo and Joseph O’Neill, an enthralling debut about the one percent, what they’ll do to stay on top, and the callous gaze they turn on those below them.

Burned-out and alienated, Kilgore associate attorney Stephen Harker spends his work days defending insurance companies against spurious litigation commenced by private soldiers who supported US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Harker’s charismatic, womanizing boss assigns him a case defending insurance behemoth WorldScore against a lawsuit filed by Major Mike "Bud" Thomas, a veteran, former contract soldier, and divorced father seeking compensation for PTSD and injuries suffered in Afghanistan. Just as Harker turns the firm’s full legal power on the wounded, unstable veteran, he commences an unhealthy relationship with his boss’s estranged bohemian wife, setting himself up for a downward existential spiral that almost destroys Harker, until a brutal act of violence presents him with a final shot at redemption.

All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is a riveting insider's indictment of the world of the corporate elite and the savage determination with which they fight to maintain control. In a society where the very institutions that should support our returning veterans instead view them with suspicion, this stunning debut is a grim reflection on the ever-growing rift between the classes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781510716322
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	665 KB

About the Author

Edward Carlson is a New York shipping lawyer by trade. Prior to studying law, he edited gun magazines in San Diego; covered sports, religion, and music for Philadelphia newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer; and served as a liaison between city government agencies and immigrant communities in Philadelphia. He is currently writing his next novel while working full-time for a Norwegian P&I Club in New York. He lives in Jersey City with his son.
Edward Carlson is a New York shipping lawyer by trade. Prior to studying law, he edited gun magazines in San Diego; covered sports, religion and music for Philadelphia newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer; and served as a liaison between city government agencies and immigrant communities in Philadelphia. He is currently writing his next novel while working full-time for a Norwegian P&I Club in New York. He lives in Jersey City with his son.

Editorial Reviews

"All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is surprising and strange; an endlessly inventive story of corporate insurance litigation, class warfare, and drunken love." —Ben Winters, New York Times bestselling author of Underground Airlines

"Part indictment of the world of worker’s compensation litigation, part portrait of a toxic love triangle built on narcissism and dependency, part surrealist rendering of a Manhattan teetering between corporate high-rise glitz and misfit underground counterculture, All the Beautiful People We Once Knew deftly navigates a chasm of privilege and depravity before plummeting to its inevitably tragic conclusion. Carlson clearly knows the world that his novel depicts; he also has some serious writing chops. The result is a story that pulses from beginning to end with a gritty and unsettling realism." —James Charlesworth, author of The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill

"Carlson's controlled authorial voice is further enlivened by clever wordplay and a Delilloan obsession with etymology and news stories. Carlson deftly steers clear of a clichéd good-versus-evil, David-versus-Goliath plot as he provides a nuanced exploration of the questionable motivations of all parties. The result is a more satisfying, Franzenian interplay of politics and class with hints of the stylistic reportage of Tom Wolfe. For fans of the aforementioned authors as well as later Bret Easton Ellis." —Booklist

"[A] unique, funny, and challenging novel about life in Biglaw." —Above the Law

"Kudos to first-time novelist Carlson for taking on a complicated subject that is timely and significant." —Kirkus Reviews

"All the Beautiful People We Once Knew is surprising and strange; an endlessly inventive story of corporate insurance litigation, class warfare, and drunken love." —Ben Winters, New York Times bestselling author of Underground Airlines

"Part indictment of the world of worker’s compensation litigation, part portrait of a toxic love triangle built on narcissism and dependency, part surrealist rendering of a Manhattan teetering between corporate high-rise glitz and misfit underground counterculture, All the Beautiful People We Once Knew deftly navigates a chasm of privilege and depravity before plummeting to its inevitably tragic conclusion. Carlson clearly knows the world that his novel depicts; he also has some serious writing chops. The result is a story that pulses from beginning to end with a gritty and unsettling realism." —James Charlesworth, author of The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill

"Carlson's controlled authorial voice is further enlivened by clever wordplay and a Delilloan obsession with etymology and news stories. Carlson deftly steers clear of a clichéd good-versus-evil, David-versus-Goliath plot as he provides a nuanced exploration of the questionable motivations of all parties. The result is a more satisfying, Franzenian interplay of politics and class with hints of the stylistic reportage of Tom Wolfe. For fans of the aforementioned authors as well as later Bret Easton Ellis." —Booklist

"[A] unique, funny, and challenging novel about life in Biglaw." —Above the Law

"Kudos to first-time novelist Carlson for taking on a complicated subject that is timely and significant." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2017-05-15
Another novel about big, bad corporate America.In this tepid debut, Carlson, a New York shipping lawyer, draws on his insider's experience with corporate law firms to reveal the depths to which they will sometimes sink in order to win. The story is narrated by Stephen Harker, a lawyer at WorldScore, a massive New York City firm whose motto seems to be "let's make as much money as we can, screw the little guys, and laugh while doing it." A lefty among right-wingers, Harker is paid well and gets lots of free booze and food, but now he's "morphing into a new species." So much destruction: "My ability to lawyer had disintegrated into zeros and ones." The little guy here is former Special Forces pilot Maj. Mike "Bud" Thomas, who is seeking workers' compensation for wartime employment in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he worked for FreedomQuest, a private military contractor. His injuries, including psychological ones, are numerous. Harker is told by his boss, Robert Fleeger, the "big kahuna," that the company is counting on him to win this one. Harker's the "tip of the spear here so don't let us down." To win, he will have to "impeach the man's credibility and tarnish his brass." Meanwhile, Harker and Kath O'Shaughnessy, Fleeger's ex-wife, a "Givenchy model in a Penthouse ad," have a thing going on. Will Harker change his stripes and let Thomas win? Or will he toe the line for his greedy employer? The book is written in an excessively conversational, slangy style. Lots of incomplete sentences. Business terms. Legalese. Appropriate swaths of swear words at the right time. The characters are thin and stereotypical and the slight plot loses its way. But kudos to first-time novelist Carlson for taking on a complicated subject that is timely and significant. Overwritten.

Kirkus Reviews