Fairly written, reminded me too much o “Bad Education” on HBO and the documentary “All the Queens Horses” both which were produced first ( )

I picked this up on a recommendation, not something I'd typically pick up. This is an interesting character study, but it is so difficult to get along with because Miss Farwell is someone you think maybe you should root for at the start? but then she is so clearly a villain by the end. I was under the impression when I started reading that she was trying to turn a profit for her small town through a secret art scheme, but she was bleeding the town dry and giving back little bits of pocket change here and there to make herself feel better. The schools needed textbooks, the pool was dry for years, the playgrounds were broken, did she really not care at all about the people she lived near and worked with? An unlikeable character study on someone who isn't clearly the bad guy from the start just didn't quite work, but it was still an entertaining story based on a real life scam of the same flavor. ( )

The talented Miss Becky, Farwell, that is. Ambitious, with a natural penchant for numbers and calculations, blindsided by a hopeless obsession for high art. Small town girl with such cerebral tastes. It almost doesn’t seem fair. But the Talented Miss Farwell is a classic example of how our obsessions choose us, not the other way around. Once in an obsession’s grip, “just one more” is never enough, whether one knows it or not. And that is typically one’s undoing.
I knew within 2 pages this would be a great book with a well-drawn character I liked. Becky is a smart and serious kid, just her and her dad against the world, doing whatever it takes to save the farm and the equipment store in 1980s Midwest. Anyone who’s lived through the 80s remembers the recession, the end of America’s supremacy in the automobile industry, and the start of so many jobs being sent south of the border and overseas. Things were indeed grim. Becky’s mom died of breast cancer when Becky was 6, and Becky knew her dad was in decline; she took on the responsibility of handling the books and making equipment sales with dad’s permission. The girl was a natural with numbers and he knew it. She had a hustle doing math homework for 4 girl students. But between hard times and family loyalty, there was no way Becky was going to college, even if she did have a strong mentor in her corner, a math teacher who knew Becky was special and saw some of her own self in the girl. Becky could go to college later, she told herself. Her dad and the farm needed her now. So Pierson was where she stayed. Soon enough, Becky was working for the small rural town in finance. This is where the trouble started.
It takes a special kind of person to lead a double life and Becky led her seamlessly, working as Pierson’s youngest ever comptroller during the week and jetting off to Chicago and New York over the weekend to be a part of the high-end art scene. A complete novice, Becky didn’t know anything about art beyond an innate sense of what a good art piece was. She put herself in art spaces and learned how to buy and sell, smart, ambitious, and disinterested in the games art people play, she remained focused on the art and didn’t get sucked into the usual distractions: vicious gossip, sex, drugs.
The years went by and Becky (Reba to her art world associates) got quite good at what she called her Activity: falsifying invoices and using the money to purchase art and pay for her expensive other lifestyle. Poor Becky. She loved Pierson, her hometown. She always managed to find the extra funds the town needed to provide a good lifestyle and infrastructure. Until she doesn’t. Until she gets ahead of herself, and things spiral out of manageability.
To me, once I got halfway into this novel, the hook was how long she could keep it going and whether/how it would end. It was exciting and dreadful. I delayed finishing the book for several days because I didn’t want to look! Crazy, I know. I was pulling for Becky. I wanted her to succeed, not because I have anything against the art scene (I don’t) but because she really did care about her town and her family. If she’d been born into a different class, she could’ve been a legitimate high-end art dealer. But just as we can’t choose our obsessions, we can’t choose what class we’re born into. I pulled for the “hometown girl makes good” even though I knew she was doing wrong. Because if she could just get that one last print to complete the series, she could make back all the money it would take to return Pierson to solvency. Just one more… ( )

I can think of two reasons someone would want to write this book, which is based on a real person and real events.

1. The author is interested in exploring how someone could choose to perpetrate a years-long embezzlement scheme against a municipality while watching the town deteriorate and its citizens do without. Certainly a lot could be made of this by a talented author with a true interest in the question.

2. The author is anxious to capitalize on a recently revealed scandal before any other books, fiction or non-fiction, were published about it.

Unfortunately I think the latter is the case. Tedrowe's writing is pedestrian, the characters are not well developed, and at times it read more like a screenplay than a book. (See #2 above.)

Regardless of all that, I did enjoy the discussion in the group read for the book. I just can't give it much of a recommendation. ( )

★★★★★
Talk about living a double life. On one hand, Becky Farwell is a small town comptroller. She was pretty young when she started handling the financial responsibilities and management of her father’s small agricultural implements business, but she has always had a strong sense for numbers (though not the means to nurture that skill) and she’s kept her and her father afloat longer than expected. Now she’s worked her way up from mere bookkeeping in town hall to handling the entire town’s finances. It was all too easy. Fudge some receipts and invoices. Open accounts that no one bothered to verify the validity of. Take responsibility for projects others were all too willing to not tackle themselves, and there it was for her to take advantage. One small discrepancy started it all.. one double payment everyone overlooked gave her a few hundred dollars to finance a new addiction that eventually ballooned out of control.

On the other hand, she is Reba Farwell, extravagant art collector who seems to have limitless funds to participate in the unpredictable business of buying and selling art. She has a whirlwind lifestyle as Reba, and it isn’t easy or inexpensive to maintain her facade. Traveling often, wearing designer clothing, doing just about whatever it takes to get a foot in and getting hold of all (a collection must be complete, and it’s the ultimate thrill to track down and finally amass them all) the pieces she’s after.

Becky dreamt of something grander than what her small town has to offer, and she finds that as Reba in the fascinating world of art, not just the pieces and the mediums but also the value of art. It’s something she has to keep almost completely separate from her “real” life. Not even her closest friend has any idea of what she’s involved with. Becky had ambition that superseded what she knew and what was within her reach in her small town. She discovered an extravagance of such grand scale that was, until her newfound, illegitimate source of income, completely out of her reach. Unfortunately, she was never satisfied despite how much she acquired. Becky wound up depriving her town to satisfy her own selfish desires. She justified her actions and absolved herself of responsibility by re-paying when she could and still granting her city some festivities (if not keeping more important promises to certain departments and making all the necessary repairs). She was truly enthralled with the art, spending hours visiting, studying, researching.. she learned this world with even greater intensity than she might have any other that truly captivated her, in every detail and aspect.

You gotta love those small town checks and balances, huh? It seems completely incomprehensible nowadays with so many people needed to get anything done, especially in government, that one person would be able to manipulate a system so extensively. Maybe it was the small town trust. Maybe it was the complexity of the accounts.. Becky got away with something and it eventually got out of hand. A few hundred dollars turned into millions, and a seemingly innocent (though totally illegible) “borrowing” changed the art world. Becky was smart, though, with at least one contingency plan in place when her machinations were found out. It’s just amazing how far some people will go to protect themselves and how morals are suspended sometimes.

Told in sequence of Becky’s life from when she was a teenager to when she is caught for her mis-deeds, this was a quick read that shows how easily one can get caught up in something completely wrong even without any solid reason or resources to pursue such an extravagant venture. I know this story had the requisite “this is a work of fiction” disclaimer, but I still found myself wondering is this based on a true story? To me, I don’t know if it would have been worth it. I don’t know if there’s anything I’m so passionate about to risk as much as Becky did. Also, I was hoping for more drama with Becky flipping pieces for huge returns. I was hoping she’d be able to do more to re-pay her town (maybe that would have made her actions more palatable. Though embezzlement is always wrong, maybe if she had been able to return more than she borrowed..) rather than just deprive her town. Still though, this woman’s personality is fascinating. Her aptitude for math endeared her to me (because before calculus I thought I was good at math too. Ha!), and despite her recklessness and unethical behavior, I can see how she became enthralled with this new lifestyle and world.

Please note: I received an ARC of this book for free as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Thank you to and everyone who made that possible.

expected publication September 2020 / Custom House / 352 pages ( )