A little hard to see what all the fuss is about. HOW TO SELL is droll and reasonably emblematic of our times, but hardly the dazzling tour de force and fictional indictment of contemporary consumerism that some folks are claiming it for. A while back Martin had a (presumably nonfiction) piece in the LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS that was a good deal more harrowing and vivid than anything in this book. ( )

Reviews were everywhere, but this book was weird! Well written in a spare, elegant manner, it left me wanting to take a shower. People you never want to meet! Will be afraid to buy jewelery again, and will now never buy a Rolex (LOL)! ( )

An oddly engaging story. ( )

"Requiem for a Dream" in the jewelry business. It provided some interesting reflections on how people sell...well, everything (jewelry, self-esteem, sex, love, ideas, drugs, emotion, connection, identity). Not a great novel, but a good one with little gems (sic) popping up occasionally, like: "He had lied to me thousands of times. He lied to me almost as much as he lied to his customers...And if you told him he lied he would deny it with a sincere heart. He was extraordinarily healthy. Psychologically, I mean." ( )

Told from the first person perspective of Bobby Clark, this novel focuses on the relationship of Bobby and his brother, Jim. Bobby was an unabashed theft although he was never particularly good at it. When he was expelled from his high school for stealing a case of class rings, he moved to Dallas to live with his brother who worked as a salesman for a jewelry store. Bobby began working at the store, first as a janitor and later as a delivery man.

It becomes clear quite quickly that this store is not on the up-and-up. They sell fakes as the real thing, they manipulate customers, and they do a lot of drugs. When the store owner, Mr. Popper, finally gets caught and the store closes, Bobby and Jim decide to open their own store. The brothers struggle with making ends meet by shifting funds from one place to another and making shifty deals. Their personal lives are also in shambles as their marriages fall apart. When Lisa, a friend from the old jewelry store returns to Bobby’s life, he dives further into a downward spiral.

There is not much of a story in this novel. Most of the focus is on the inner workings of Bobby’s mind and the technicalities of selling, particularly selling bunk merchandise. It was fast-paced and kept me interested even with a lack of a coherent beginning, middle, or ending. Martin has an interesting way of writing that is partly stream of consciousness, partly clipping dialogue.