January 9, 2012: “Expectations”
by John Lanchester
This appears to be an excerpt from Lanchester’s forthcoming
novel called Capital, which the excerpt is all about. It’s an amusing read
because the main characters are comically obnoxious, but that’s about all it
has going for it.
Roger is an investment banker in London, and he’s
anticipating a year-end bonus of a million pounds. Maybe more! After all, the
department he manages, foreign exchange, made a bundle for the bank during the
year. And although other parts of the bank didn’t do so well, Roger has earned
his bonus! And he needs that bonus, too, because he and his wife are a bit over
extended on the posh house that they did an extensive remodel on and the
country place (and the cars and servants, etc., etc.). And then there’s the
wife, who, despite the cars and the servants, thinks Roger doesn’t understand
how hard she works to raise their boys (there are nannies), and so she plots to
send him a very strong message.
John is surprised by his bonus, but not terribly surprised
by the message his wife sends . . .
It’s pretty hard to care about these people in the context of this excerpt, but maybe they’d be more likeable in the novel.
[Edited to add: When I wrote the above, the Q&A with John Lanchester had not yet appeared on the magazine's website. Among other things, the author confirms that the "story" is excerpted from the forthcoming novel.]
