Entitlement: A Novel by Rumaan Alam Published by Riverhead Books on September 17, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Family Life
Pages: 288
Narrator: Nicole Lewis
Length: 8 hours and 49 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
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A novel of money and morality from the New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind
Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
Taut, unsettling, and alive to the seductive distortions of money, Entitlement is a riveting tale for our new gilded age, a story that confidently considers questions about need and worth, race and privilege, philanthropy and generosity, passion and obsession. It is a provocative, propulsive novel about the American imagination.
Story Locale: New York City
Review
Money changes everything — and nobody knows this better than Rumaan Alam. His novel Entitlement drops us into a bizarre dance between Brooke, a directionless 33-year-old Black woman in New York, and Asher Jaffee, an ancient billionaire who’s supposedly trying to empty his bank account for the greater good. Spoiler alert: things get messy.
If you loved Alam’s Leave the World Behind, you’ll find the same razor-sharp observations here, minus the end-of-the-world vibes. Instead, he’s serving up something equally unsettling: a deep dive into what happens when good intentions collide with ego, race, and ridiculous amounts of money.
The real magic is in how Alam refuses to give us heroes or villains. Brooke isn’t some noble soul caught in a rich man’s game — she’s complicated, sometimes selfish, often sharp-edged. And Asher? Let’s just say his philanthropy might not be as pure as he’d like everyone to believe.
Sure, the story takes its sweet time in places. But like a slow-cooked meal, the payoff is worth it. Alam meticulously unpacks how wealth warps everything it touches, especially human connections. By the time you hit the finale, which involves what might be the most awkward case of mistaken identity in recent literature, you’ll never look at charitable giving the same way.
Entitlement isn’t the thrill ride that Leave the World Behind was, but it’s not trying to be. Instead, it’s a smart, sometimes uncomfortable look at whether true generosity can exist in a world where even kindness comes with strings attached.
★★★★☆ (4/5 stars) – A sharp, sophisticated take on wealth, race, and the messy business of doing good.
