Book Review - Entitlement
Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement follows the story of Brooke Orr, a woman working for a billionaire who wants to give away his fortune. This literary fiction novel is told in loosely alternating points of view, granting the reader insight into the differences between a young Black woman trying to make it in New York and an ageing business mogul crafting his legacy.
The setup of this novel felt perfect, layered with dichotomous tension and contrast. The appeal of spending someone else’s money is universal, but Entitlement failed to capitalize on the intrigue of its premise. Brooke lacked curiosity for the world she was written into. The 2016 Obama-era Bushwick setting was described with meticulous detail, but lacked the necessary emotionality to engage a wider audience. If a novel’s setting only holds value for readers in one American city, how far does the author think this novel will reach? Entitlement pitches a story into an oversaturated market of droll, sardonic literary fiction, missing the mark and losing sight of its plot in a thicket of postmodern sarcasm.
The writing of this novel feels polished on the surface; individual lines are quotable, but staccato and disjointed scenes alienate the reader from the loose storyline. Brooke’s passivity in her own story is frustrating. Her desires are paramount in the text, yet seemingly never come to fruition, which functions effectively as a metaphor but loses momentum in the context of a novel. Storylines appear to trail off into nothing in favor of dry, lifeless dialogue.
Entitlement was crowded with personalities and interesting language choices, but remained stagnant in its narrative progression. Brooke’s ambitions were unfulfilled, the billionaire’s money stayed unspent, and the side characters retained their insipid natures. Rumaan Alam’s other work is critically acclaimed, and much of the writing in Entitlement is skilled, but there is a suspicious lack of interest in the fabric of this novel. Disinterest seemed to permeate its makeup. The novel felt like a pastiche of intellectualism, encouraging the reader to pat themselves on the back for their understanding of themes and motifs. Unfortunately, Entitlement reminds audiences that no amount of social commentary, witticisms, or poignant themes can account for a total lack of story.
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