But while Roland and James each navigated his little course, on the other side of the Atlantic a storm was picking up. It began in dozens of unremarkable places at once. Rather than moving through water and air, its element was money.
James and Roland briefly met at Oxford when James took up rowing, a diversion from his studies which didn’t last long. Driven and intensely competitive even with himself, James is the affable, indolent Roland’s antithesis. When they bump into each other in a pub, Roland tells James about his two years teaching in India sparking an idea that will lead to a project involving them both. James is a rising star with McKinsey, eyes set on becoming their youngest partner; Roland joins him, getting in by the skin of his teeth. When the 2008 crash hits, they’re sent off to Aberdeen to prepare employees for a swathe of redundancies in the hard-hit oil and gas industry, becoming so good at it they’re sent to one company after another. As a breather from their relentless delivery of bad news, James suggests a weekend mountaineering which becomes more about drinking than climbing beginning a friendship that will underpin the rest of their lives, and a business partnership in which one will complement the other.
After that weekend, they were like two gears adjusted to the right alignment. Their spinning sets of metal teeth, instead of grating, clicked over and over, running in elaborate quickstep with each other.
Starritt’s novel is unusual for its setting in the business world which might sound dull but I found this story of ambition, determination and invention quite riveting. It reminded me of State of Happiness, a Norwegian TV series which told the story of the rise of the oil business and through it, modern Norway. Starritt does something similar through James and Roland whose pursuit of the development of renewable energy charts the first two decades of the twenty-first century. His characters are well drawn – James’s obsessive, self-destructive drive tempered by Roland’s empathy, much needed when it comes to inspiring their team. Their friendship is not an easy one, and may seem unlikely, but its entirely believable, growing deeper with adversity. Spanning two decades, the novel ends with an epilogue, twenty years later, which brings it to a neat conclusion It’s a tribute to Starritt’s storytelling skills and characterisation that he’s succeeded in making a story of business and entrepreneurship both gripping and enjoyable.
Swift Press: London 9781800755260 400 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)
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I do like a good read with well-drawn characters, whatever the story, so I’m very tempted.
The friendship theme is very heartening. Just upping the possibility of temptation…
PS. My library service doesn’t have this Starritt, but it does have another, We Germans, which sounds just as intriguing. I’ve reserved it. Have you read it, or should I report back?
I haven’t. Please do report back.
The premise of this reminds me of the George Clooney film, Up in the Air, where he is the company deliverer of bad news, and lives in planes and airport hotels going from site to site. The book sounds rather good.
I’d forgotten all about that film! I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. Highly recommended.
So given that I also enjoy workplace narratives generally, as you do, is it safe to say this would hold a similar appeal, or is it slightly different?
I think it would, and it has a friendship theme which works much better than in Among Friends.
A lot of this wouldn’t really appeal, but I do like a well-drawn friendship and your enthusiasm has convinced me! I’ll explore Swift Press further too.
I found this much more enjoyable than I’d expected partly thanks to the unlikely friendship theme which is handled well. Swift’s list is well worth a look. I hope you find something you like.
It does sound interesting, and both work and male friendship are rather neglected as themes, I think.
It was those themes that attracted me to it. Starritt handles them both very well.