cover image The Leading Indicators

The Leading Indicators

Gregg Easterbrook. St. Martin’s/Dunne, $24.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-250-01173-2

The allegorical fall of a typical American family offers fodder for a philosophical examination of national values in this compelling but flat novel from Easterbrook (Here and Now) that kicks things off with a bang, literally, as a UPS truck and a FedEx truck crash in Margo Helot’s driveway delivering goods that “sustain [her] high-end lifestyle.” Soon, her husband Tom’s business partner bankrupts their company, rendering Tom’s numerous shares worthless. Margo assumes that their daughters’ lessons (tutors, fencing, soccer, basketball) and treats will continue on pace, while Tom takes short-term work as economic collapse looms. But their dwindling cash reserves force them to sell their home and bring them to question their material lifestyle until Tom becomes a delivery man, using the long, dull hours in the truck to develop new ideas about the state of the nation: “Suppose the minimum annual income were $100,000”; “What seemed to the political and media elite like a 2008 financial freeze that caused rising unemployment was actually two unrelated events.” The polemical moments add intelligent context, but distance readers from Margo and Tom’s emotional struggles by reducing their troubles to textbook examples of American excess. Still, the Helots’ desperate straits will resonate considering the current recession. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management. (Nov.)