The Booksmith and the San Francisco Writers Grotto Present
Writing About the
News…While It’s Still Being Made
MARTHA McPHEE
Dear Money
In this Pygmalion tale of a novelist turned bond trader,
National Book Award Finalist Martha McPhee brings to life the greed and riotous
wealth of
A few years ago, when a legendary bond trader claimed he
could transform her into a booming Wall Street success, McPhee toyed with the
notion. She considered the money, the tangible success -- but declined the
offer and wrote Dear Money instead,
using fiction to explore what might have been. This ambitious novel
encapsulates a moment in
Dear Money is a deadly serious, yet deftly witty book in the great American tradition of Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Theodore Dreiser. McPhee adroitly tackles the age-old issues of wealth, ambition and social status with aplomb. With a light-handed irony that is by turns as measured as Claire Messud and as biting as Tom Wolfe, Martha McPhee tells the classic American story of people reinventing themselves, unaware of the price they must pay for their transformation.
Martha McPhee is the author of the novels Bright Angel
Time, Gorgeous Lies, and L'America. Her work has been honored
with fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and The John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2002 she was nominated for a National Book
Award. Her novels have been Best Books of The Year on New York Times, Washington
Post, and Chicago Tribune lists. Her essays and reviews have
appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers including New York Times, The
Chicago Tribune, Newark Star Ledger, Vogue, More, Harper's
Bazaar, Self, Traveler, Travel & Leisure, among
many others. She lives in
This evening, she’ll be talking about the writing process, writing about money, its challenges, and its pleasures. Writers, would-be writers, and simply readers are all welcome to join this discussion!
Check out Martha's new piece for Business Week about her Wall Street research for Dear Money.