The Index of Self-Destructive Acts
- ISBN-10
- 1947793926
- ISBN-13
- 9781947793927
- Category
- Fiction
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-05-05
- Publisher
- Tin House Books
- Author
- Christopher Beha
Description
“A significant novel, beautifully crafted and deeply felt. Beha creates a high bonfire of our era's vanities. . . .This is a novel to savor.”- Colum McCann Through baseball, finance, media, and religion, Beha traces the passing of the torch from the old establishment to the new meritocracy, exploring how each generation’s failure helped land us where we are today. What makes a life, Sam Waxworth sometimes wondered—self or circumstance? On the day Sam Waxworth arrives in New York to write for the Interviewer, a street-corner preacher declares that the world is coming to an end. A data journalist and recent media celebrity—he correctly forecast every outcome of the 2008 election—Sam knows a few things about predicting the future. But when projection meets reality, life gets complicated. His first assignment for the Interviewer is a profile of disgraced political columnist Frank Doyle, known to Sam for the sentimental works of baseball lore that first sparked his love of the game. When Sam meets Frank at Citi Field for the Mets’ home opener, he finds himself unexpectedly ushered into Doyle’s crumbling family empire. Kit, the matriarch, lost her investment bank to the financial crisis; Eddie, their son, hasn’t been the same since his second combat tour in Iraq; Eddie’s best friend from childhood, the fantastically successful hedge funder Justin Price, is starting to see cracks in his spotless public image. And then there’s Frank’s daughter, Margo, with whom Sam becomes involved—just as his wife, Lucy, arrives from Wisconsin. While their lives seem inextricable, none of them know how close they are to losing everything, including each other. Sweeping in scope yet meticulous in its construction, The Index of Self-Destructive Acts is a remarkable family portrait and a masterful evocation of New York City and its institutions. Over the course of a single baseball season, Christopher Beha traces the passing of the torch from the old establishment to the new meritocracy, exploring how each generation’s failure helped land us where we are today. Whether or not the world is ending, Beha’s characters are all headed to apocalypses of their own making.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Letting Go of Self-Destructive Behaviors: A Workbook of Hope and Healing
By Lisa FerentzThis workbook can be used in conjunction with Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Trauma Survivors, 2nd ed, also by Lisa Ferentz, to allow therapists and their clients to approach the behaviors from the same strengths-based perspective.
-
Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Trauma Survivors: A Clinician’s Guide
By Lisa FerentzThe book also explores a cycle of behavior that clinicians can personalize and use as a template for treatment.
-
Pretend We Are Lovely: A Novel
By Noley Reid... Are you fucking kidding me, Tate? If there's something else you need or want to do, just say so. Is that it?” I ... time. And she does. “Mom?” Now she can suck.
-
The Economics of Self-Destructive Choices
By Shinsuke IkedaBased on recent advances in economics, especially those in behavioral economics, this book elucidates theoretically and empirically the mechanism of time-inconsistent decision making that leads to various forms of self-destructive behavior.
-
As Earth Without Water
By Katy CarlWhen Dylan Fielding, celebrated contemporary visual artist, becomes Br. Thomas Augustine, novice at Our Lady of the Pines monastery, he finds delight not only in the shock his choice causes everyone around him but--to his own surprise--in ...
-
The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers
By Adam LankfordAdam Lankford looks at the motivation of suicide bombers and other rampage killers.
-
Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior
By Mark Goulston, Philip GoldbergPractical, proven self help steps show how to transform 40 common self-defeating behaviors, including procrastination, envy, obsession, anger, self-pity, compulsion, neediness, guilt, rebellion, inaction, and more.
-
Self-Defeating Behaviors: Free Yourself from the Habits, Compulsions, Feelings, and Attitudes That Hold You Back
By Milton R. CudneyA guide to freeing ourselves from the inappropriate and crippling behaviors that sabotage our success.
-
Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge
By Richard Ovenden239–44 Poole, Reginald Lane, A Lecture on the History of the University Archives (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912) Posner, Ernst, 'The Effect of Changes in Sovereignty on Archives', American Archivist, 5 (1942), pp.
-
Stray: A Memoir
By Stephanie DanlerStray is a moving, sometimes devastating, brilliantly written and ultimately inspiring exploration of the landscapes of damage and survival.