Brewster’s Millions by George Barr McCutcheon - Eight out of 10

 Brewster’s Millions by George Barr McCutcheon

Eight out of 10

Worried about financial or medical Armageddon, one might be tempted to forget about Doomsday with a comedy where the protagonist, Montgomery Brewster, has the opposite concern, how to spend one million dollars – which could well be about the real fortune of Donald Trump, in the currency of the present, estimated at a few hundred million before this crisis, and not exceeding a few billions, as the pathological liar claims – in one year, so that he could gain much more, the equivalent of more than a billion in the present currency, by abiding to the stipulations in the second inheritance he might get…

This amusing book has been included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list – in the comedy section - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction - and you can listen to it for free (published in 1903, the copyright has long expired and the content is in the public domain, hence wonderful volunteers – perhaps you wish to join them – have read the texts of Magnum opera and others can enjoy the works now ) at https://librivox.org/ - where you have two versions of the same novel, one with a rather outré intonation…

When you look for Brewster’s Millions, google suggests the film adaptation first and then other entries, such as the full cast, and if this would be a spectacular chef d’oeuvre, this would be quite annoying, to see it so much sank into oblivion, but the fact is that it does not seem so glorious, though there are some entertaining scenes and as we read about people bored to death at home, chasing dogs through the house, dressing as clowns (or just appearing like what they are, buffoons, as in the case of the orange president and the members of his sect of brutes and pithecanthropus), maybe reading about Brewster is not such a bad idea…better than watching an Absolute Lunatic recommend yesterday shots of UV, after he peddled that anti malaria medicine which was not just useless, but dangerous when applied to this new virus…

When reading about the plight of the hero of this comedy, this reader thought about the story of the Dalai Lama, who has entered a hypermarket somewhere – sure, before this pandemic would have emptied many shelves – and looked with serene surprise at the abundance of material goods and said with detachment…’wow, so many things I do not need!’ – this is what Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and other divine stoics have recommended – indeed, even if rich and the former an emperor, absolute ruler of the known world, they also applied these precepts – and recent research in positive psychology demonstrates that the Hedonic Adaptation phenomenon is a real thing…we adapt to material possessions, cars, houses, clothes and everything else, and if we get the Brewster or other millions, they are much better spent on ‘experiences’, charity, travel…

Winners of the lottery have been studied, those with gains over one million dollars, ad it was discovered that after some months of an increase in wellbeing and life satisfaction, they return to a base happiness level, in spite of the accumulated wealth that makes so many of us say…if we could only gain that ticket, have a million or in the case of emerging economies, perhaps they say if we could only get a thousand dollars…the upshot of all this Hedonic Treadmill effect is that we also adapt to negative events and for instance those who suffer a debilitating, crippling accident tend to return to their wellbeing levels after some months pass…unemployment and the loss of someone close are much more difficult to cope with and this is what happens in the world now, and it will be a bigger challenge to cope with this trauma.

Montgomery Brewster is the grandson of a rich a man, but he opts to work for a small salary, at the bank of this relative, before he becomes the sole inheritor of about a million dollars, and then requests for charity and offers to give him the benefit of various inventions and business opportunities rain of him, but he appears more concerned with helping a good friend,  Margaret aka Peggy, and her mother, without insulting their pride, since they cannot accept his money just like that and as he is worried with the use of this new wealth, another event happens.

An uncle dies and he is richer than grandfather Brewster, with who this newly deceased relative had been in a grave conflict, for the grandfather considered that his son made a mistake when he married in a lesser family and the uncle has some very peculiar, restrictive conditions attached to the execution of his will, which has Monty receive many millions (seven plus) and property, mines and bonds, but only if he will have had no penny from the enemy in one year’s time, and he will have acted with discipline and discretion.

Therefore, this is a situation which could be construed as so amusing – perhaps most readers will take that view – but also quite annoying, maybe even making many fume at the idea that ‘some have all the luck or why is that bastard caught between two huge fortunes and we look at this lockdown, the Apocalypse with no money and other waves of the Corona virus’

There is caveat there, for ‘poor Brewster’ stands to lose both inheritances, as he tries to spend the first million with wisdom, by abiding to the rules imposed, which also proclaim no excesses, he cannot just sign a check and give it all on the last day, and all the while he is bound by the rule of silence, hence the apparent extravagance in spending makes many think he is a stupid fool, squandering with expedience the fortune accumulated by the dead grandfather in record time…the amusing episodes do not overall make this just as memorable as Lucky Jim say http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/lucky-jim-by-kingsley-amis.html - Ending Up http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/ending-up-by-kingsley-amis.html or Girl, 20 http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/girl-20-by-astounding-kingsley-amis.html  all by the genius Kingsley Amis and all three a much better choice (1,000 times better) than this Adventure of the Spent Millions…

Granted, there is also some adventure, when in order to spend this wealth, so that he can get a much bigger pile, Brewster takes a party of friends to Europe, on a rented yacht and tries to spend his way out of the million, by renting villas, chateaux, buying cars, participating at two special performances at the La Scala in Milan, where for 20,000, they open the closed season for him – in Italy, gold will get you anything they say in the book – then he has to fight with the men sent by a crazy sheik, infatuated with Peggy and determined to get her against her will, and he manages to kidnap her, but as to the final outcome, let us keep the silence…