The Desire Card | By Lee Matthew Goldberg

The Desire Card | By Lee Matthew Goldberg

The Desire Card
Publisher:
Published: 21st February 2019
(Courtesy : Goodreads)    Any wish fulfilled for the right price. That's the promise the organization behind The Desire Card gives to its elite clients - but sometimes the price may be more menacing than anyone could ever imagine. Harrison Stockton has lived an adult life of privilege and excess: a high-powered job on Wall Street fuels his fondness for alcohol and pills at the expense of a family he has no time for. Quite suddenly all of this comes crashing to a halt when he loses his job and at the same time discovers he almost certainly has only months left to live. Desperate, and with seemingly nowhere else left to turn, Harrison activates his Desire Card. What follows is a gritty and gripping quest that takes him from New York City to the slums of Mumbai and forces him to take chances, and make decisions, he never thought he'd ever have to face. When his moral descent threatens his wife and children, Harrison must decide whether to save himself at any cost, or do what's right and break his bargain with the mysterious group behind The Desire Card. The Desire Card is a taut fast-paced thriller, from internationally acclaimed author Lee Matthew Goldberg, that explores what a man will do to survive when money isn't always enough to get everything he desires.

Thank You Blackthorn Book Tours for providing me with an e-copy of The Desire Card 

My thoughts

 

Narrative and Plot

 

The entire book is told from Harrision’s perspective. He is our protagonist. The consequences of The Desire Card, we find out already is not good. Even so, the journey is still intriguing and twisted.

The plot was pretty straightforward. But it did bring in some surprise towards the end. The book focuses on terminal illness, disease and poverty. It surely does not make any attempt to gloss it over. The Desire Card is the ultimate hero’s journey. Harrison is ripped apart from the very beginning. One after the other, his perilous journey keeps is on our edge.

 

Characters and Conflict

 

Harrison is a royally flawed protagonist. He is a person with questionable morals. He yearns for redemption but at times it looks like he is too forgone. Just when we think that he may give up now, Harrison bounces back.  He is a resilient and stubborn man who knows how to survive. Helene, his wife, is another remarkable character. Even though her role is not that significant,you can see the layers in her personality which makes her a real person.

The conflict in the story is most prominently human greed and the extend of it. At least, that is what it appears to be on the surface. In a world full of temptations, you can either be a prey or a predator. That is what this whole rat race is all about. It touches on a lot of current world issues.

Being an Indian, I can’t help but think that west always zooms in on the not so glossy parts of India. But the desire card, did mention the great class divide which is particularly evident in a city like Mumbai – the city of dreams. It does portray the poorer side of Mumbai, but the story definitely sees the other glossy version which we want the world to see in general as well. The pretty picture. But one should be able to accept the ugliness too.

 

Conclusion

 

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It brings a lot on the table. You can have hours of discussion over the topics touched by this book. The most explored topic being the Desire of human minds. If you’re not grossed out by the detailed depiction of suffering and illness, then this book definitely is a good pick.

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