BelEdit Book Reviews
My favourite novels are English 19th century novels. The best of them set the bar for the novel form. From the start, Drayton and Mackenzie feels like a 19th century novel, at times reminiscent of Anthony Trollope, in some ways more William Makepeace Thackeray, and with a touch of Benjamin Disraeli. This is high praise indeed, from me!
“If you’re turned off by all the hype about ‘bromance’ and startups, don’t be. There’s a lot more depth to Drayton and Mackenzie than it’s been given credit for.”
Drayton and Mackenzie is a story of two men who first meet as undergraduates at Oxford circa 2004, who reconnect as McKinsey consultants and who then found a greentech startup to generate tidal energy.
Like those aforementioned great classic novelists, Starritt navigates aspects of finance, class, ambition, business and male friendship in this novel. It captures entrepreneurial hustle and changing friendship dynamics under the stress of socioeconomic crises.
James (Drayton) and Roland (Mackenzie) are very different characters who form an unlikely, lifelong friendship. James has an all-consuming passion to build something great, to be one of those people who strive tirelessly with the goal to go down in history as the creator of something unique that changes the world. Roland is feckless but great with people. He gets sucked into James’ orbit and despite several attempts, fails to pull himself out again. They challenge and complement each other; together they are formidable.
Classic, subtle social satire
Starritt’s writing style is the formal British literary style of the classics, updated to contemporary content, tone and language. It’s easy and compelling. I got thoroughly sucked in, enjoying the detailed but accessible chapters on the financial crisis of — damn, has it really been almost two decades? We get ringside seats to private meetings discussing Bear Stearns, the Lehman Brothers, Mario Draghi’s saving of the Euro…. It’s fascinating stuff. Could it have been edited to make this novel sharper? Possibly, but it was one of the sections I liked best!
Later, there are scenes with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, illustrating the tech startup dynamics and culture. I could have done without these cameos… mainly because I hate those two so much and their awfulness is muted here.
But they do shed light on our main story. Notably, as a stark reminder that although James and Roland found a company building marine turbines to harvest the green energy of ocean tides, neither of them gives a shit about the climate or the environment. It’s all 100 percent about the ambition to be first to market with something that will bring them fame and fortune. Preferably a very, very large fortune. Moreover, they really don’t care about who they step on on the way to achieving their ambitions. This is not, very much not, a novel about greentech or about any worthy ambitions to save our planet and our future.
This brings me back to Drayton and Mackenzie’s similarities to 19th century novels. It can be read at a superficial level — I can see all those Musk fans and Financial Times readers getting a vicarious buzz from the scenes with the purple Lamborghini, business class flights and free-flowing champagne. But it can also be read as social critique. Are we really supposed only to admire this ‘beautiful bromance’ (there is soooooo much about that in the reviews I’ve seen) and their hardwon success after years of ambitious striving?
Empty people
For myself, all I could see was the hollowness at the core of it all. James is driven by ambition, but it’s an empty, soulless ambition. Really nothing more than ‘I want to create something great to prove how intelligent I am’, not ‘I want to use my intelligence to make the world a better place’. He is a sad, hollow individual that can’t really connect with anyone. Even his ‘lifelong’, driving ambition proves empty, again and again, as he continually shifts the goalposts when he gets bored as soon as he achieves a milestone.
Roland is more connected with people, and doesn’t share James’ vision, but he’s also hollow. He follows in James’ footsteps because James pulls him in his wake and he has nothing strongly pulling him anywhere else. He helps James navigate the ‘people’ side of the business, because Roland is good with people, but he’s good at being charming and convincing: he doesn’t really give a shit about any of them either. He spends his life picking up after James. The (admittedly deeply moving — I cried) scene towards the end can be read as evidence of the profound friendship and love between the two. Or is it about how Roland is nothing, literally nothing, he has no substance, without James? The ending of the novel suggests the latter interpretation.
And this brings me back to Trollope and Thackeray. Drayton and Mackenzie reminded me of Trollope’s Palliser novels, which focus on ‘big’ political and financial themes, in its broad portrayal of socioeconomic structures and drivers in the first two decades of the 21st century. It reminded me of Thackeray in it’s affectionate but biting portrayal of individuals, highlighting the hypocrisy and emptiness behind their superficial splendour.
So yes, a lot to contend with here. I was tempted to pull it down to 4 stars instead of 5, but I think that would be punishing it unduly. Yes, it’s long and yes, there are things that I might have preferred to be edited out. But ultimately, I think this is indeed a ‘big’ novel that is important and weighty. And I think many reviewers have not done it justice.
(For example, it is SO much better than that piece of boring, pretentious crap that was unjustifiably lauded as being a great work of literature. I’m talking, of course about The Goldfinch.)
Drayton and Mackenzie might not be for everyone, but it’s a fine work of contemporary literature that is worthy of a place on a shelf with some classic English novels. Certainly, if you’re turned off by all the hype about ‘bromance’ and startups, don’t be. There’s a lot more depth to this novel than it’s been given credit for.
My thanks to the publisher, author and Netgalley for giving me an ARC. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.
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