The Deal of a Lifetime

The Deal of a Lifetime: A Novella by Fredrik Backman      Audiobook:  47 minutes     Hardback Book:  96 pages                     

I really liked this story.   A little Ebeneezer Scrooge from a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a little “Cat’s In the Cradle.” By Harry Chapin mix them together and you have a father who bailed on his wife and newborn son because he doesn’t want to be around anything getting more attention than he is.   The guy is a total narcissist putting his fame and business success ahead of his family.    His ego doesn’t leave any room for the little people even his wife and son in his life.    He is living the life he wants without a thought to the woman he said he loved and the child they made together.   His self-importance supersedes everything that is not him.   He thinks about only his own desires for more in life until he ends up in a car crash.    This woman he has seen throughout his life with a note pad is always jotting information down on the pad and entering rooms that she never seems to leave and whose other occupant does not emerge from again either, at least not alive.    There is a very well written peculiar relationship that is explained between them.   There is a mystery of someone the man alludes to that he has killed.    There is a dear little 5 year girl who has cancer that is so wise behind her years.   She knows without knowing and does her best to make the adults around her feel better as though she believes the fantasies of her getting better that they keep telling her.   There are so many aspects of this novella that are so charming you will be glad you read it as it is a wonderful story even given the sorrows involved.     The man visits his grown son,  and this story will give you a new twist on Scrooge’s spectres as they turn up in new allegorical ways.    Very good story.    Do read it if you get the chance.