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An Absolute Scandal: A Novel by Penny Vincenzi
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Penny Vincenzi Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2008-06-10 ISBN: 0385519893 Number of pages: 592 Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of An Absolute Scandal: A NovelBook Review: Intrigue, drama, and an infamous insurance scandal Summary: 5 Stars
Bear with me for a moment, for a history refresher course for those who don't remember (or weren't acutely aware of) the scandal that hit famous British insurance agents Lloyd's of London back in the late 1980s. Lloyd's insurance policies (perhaps most famous to Americans for insuring unusual items such as Celine Dion's vocal cords and Tina Turner's legs) are underwritten primarily by a society of individual members (known as "Names"), who pool their sizable investments in the company, ideally to spread the risk and limit individual liability in the case of large claims.
For many, many years, being a Name at Lloyd's was considered akin to a risk-free investment, as members received sizeable annual returns on their considerable investments. In the late 1980s, however, primarily as a result of larger-than-expected claims from American workers stricken with asbestosis, Lloyd's Names were suddenly assessed huge amounts of money, to the extent that thousands of these formerly wealthy individuals declared bankruptcy.
Okay, enough with the history lesson. Fortunately, Penny Vincenzi's latest novel, which is set amidst a circle of Lloyd's Names during this crisis, is remarkably engrossing despite its fairly dry and complicated subject matter. Or, perhaps, not so remarkably, as readers familiar with Vincenzi's previous books have come to expect epic page-turners from this prolific British author. AN ABSOLUTE SCANDAL, likewise, will keep her audience gripped in the lives and loves of this small group of privileged but unfortunate investors.
There are the Beaumonts, Simon and Elizabeth, a well-off family with three children, from all appearances living the ideal British upper-class lifestyle, complete with private schools, a house in the country (complete with pony) and two fabulously successful careers. When Lloyd's starts to demand money, however, this financial pressure reveals some of the other cracks in the Beaumonts' façade, including Simon's infidelity and oldest daughter Annabel's misbehavior (and embarrassing career ambitions).
There are the Cowpers, Lucinda and Nigel, a young, attractive upper-class couple. Nigel is a bit stuffy and boring --- and a Name at Lloyd's. Lucinda is dissatisfied, bored --- and too eager to fall into the arms of a devastatingly handsome, exciting stranger. She longs to leave her husband, but Nigel's (morally and legally suspect) decision to transfer all of his financial holdings to Lucinda in the wake of the Lloyd's scandal threatens to tie Lucinda's hands --- for a while.
And there are the Fieldings, Debbie and Richard. Debbie is a bored housewife, resentful of her husband's wealthy mother, Flora, who has used her returns from Lloyd's to pay the private school tuition of Debbie and Richard's two children. As for Richard, he's a successful headmaster --- but when Flora's checks stop coming, he can't keep the family in the style to which they've become accustomed. Could the Lloyd's scandal be Debbie's chance to reignite her professional and personal ambitions?
The novel's prologue hints at a tragic outcome for one of the key players in this drama. But for the most part, barring the inevitable affairs, rumors, secrets and lies, the action of Vincenzi's latest marches confidently toward a more optimistic future than the one most of these Names envision when Lloyd's starts calling in the chips. Some fans will be surprised by the tighter focus and time frame of this book as opposed to some of her other multi-generational sagas. Vincenzi still has a knack, however, for drawing readers into her characters' personal and professional dramas, and making hours curled up under the duvet (or spread out on the beach blanket) pass by almost effortlessly as they lose themselves in other people's lives.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Summary of An Absolute Scandal: A NovelPenny Vincenzi, master of the contemporary blockbuster, returns with a moving, engaging portrait of people coping with a notorious financial disaster and its unpredictable emotional repercussions.
Set during the boom-and-bust years of the 1980s, An Absolute Scandal follows the lives of a group of people drawn together by their mutual monetary woes when the great financial institution Lloyd's undergoes a devastating downturn. For Nigel Cowper, this means the destruction of his family business; his wife, Lucinda, is willing to do everything she can to help him?except give up her irresistible lover. The powerful, charismatic banker Simon Beaumont and his wife, a highly successful advertising executive, lose everything they worked so hard to acquire; but the ultimate tragedy is something that neither one could have anticipated. The well-to-do are not the only ones suffering: a self-sufficient widow is suddenly deep in debt; a single mother struggles to maintain a comfortable home for her children; and a schoolmaster and his frustrated wife find that financial problems deepen the cracks in their troubled marriage.
As their lives begin a downward spiral, these characters intersect in ways they never saw coming. Written in what has become her signature style of both wit and candor, Penny Vincenzi draws back the curtain and offers an inside view of the greed and social power plays that occur behind the closed doors of upper-crust society . . . where money isn?t everything. Sometimes, it?s the only thing.
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