Meltdown

by Ben Elton, Random House, 384 pages, $38.99.

The global recession was always going to be grist to Ben Elton's mill. The man has pretty much made a career out of satirising greed, sloth and excess in their many guises.

This story follows the lives of a group of university friends as they find unimaginable wealth in the surreal world of high finance and commodity trading and various satellite careers. As the story opens, the magic carpet has been pulled and the wealth has instead become crippling debt, and no income.

The friends deal with this in various ways, with a number of minor epiphanies, squabbles, scandals and extreme schemes.

While I did find this to be a page-turner, I am starting to struggle with Elton. His comedy has become dry to the point of aridity, but his drama is still a little twee to carry the story on its own.

Probably the main issue was that poking fun at woebegone financial cowboys is a bit too easy. Sitting ducks, really. Comedy gets an edge when it shows something in a new light; this book just puts a spotlight on the hypocrisies and arrogances that we are already aware of.

• Matt Bowler is a freelance reviewer from Nelson.

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