kyonshi reviewed Brewster's Millions by McCutcheon, George Barr
Review of "Brewster's Millions" on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The classic American story of a young man who has to piss away a fortune to gain another one.
It has been made into movies multiple times, the most famous one being, most likely, the 1985 version with Richard Pryor. All the adaptions had the same basic plot, and here would be the original: Monty Brewster is a young man of limited means, working in a New York bank. He's not himself rich, but he has prospects. That is, by chapter 2 of the novel he doesn't have these prospects as his grandfather died and left him 1 Million dollars. The novel is set in 1902, back then that was a whole lot of money.
Not quite clear yet what to do with the money at all he is informed about another death in the family: an uncle he never knew about has died and left him another 7 million, …
The classic American story of a young man who has to piss away a fortune to gain another one.
It has been made into movies multiple times, the most famous one being, most likely, the 1985 version with Richard Pryor. All the adaptions had the same basic plot, and here would be the original: Monty Brewster is a young man of limited means, working in a New York bank. He's not himself rich, but he has prospects. That is, by chapter 2 of the novel he doesn't have these prospects as his grandfather died and left him 1 Million dollars. The novel is set in 1902, back then that was a whole lot of money.
Not quite clear yet what to do with the money at all he is informed about another death in the family: an uncle he never knew about has died and left him another 7 million, under one condition: the uncle hated his grandfather, so he doesn't want his fortune mingled with his own. Brewster can only receive the 7 Million if he squanders the rest. As it turns out it's not easy at all to get rid of a million, especially when friends are trying to help him save money, the stock market just keeps on growing against all odds, and all games in Monte Carlo just like to be won.
It is a novel from 1902, and this is painfully obvious in the parts set in Egypt. Where previously only a few small comments showed the racism of the day, here we all of a sudden get a full blow of it in the face. Considering these events are forgotten about right afterwards one has to wonder why they were in there in the first place.
The book otherwise is delightful. The humour in a situation in which failing to spend money is worse than wasting it still translates to our times. A fun, light read.