Title: Modern Slavery and the Gods of Consumption
Author: Ofer Even
Genre: Literary Fiction, Urban
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Meet Michael Marks, the man who wants to buy everything
Michael Marks is a successful advertising agent, obsessed with consumerism and climbing the corporate ladder. He takes more pleasure in buying a new car than in his wife’s third pregnancy. In fact, he even appraises his children in terms of profit and loss! Then a series of experiences and disillusionments begin to turn his life upside down…
A roller-coaster of events shakes Michael to the core
When Michael’s client is jailed for embezzlement, Michael learns that the American prison system is a business for profit with the highest ratio of inmates in the world, 1:100! His company advertises meat without FDA approval, leading to a crisis that forces Michael to fire thousands of workers. Then in an argument with his impoverished housekeeper, Jonathan, Michael is unnerved when accused of being an unwitting prisoner in a gilded cage who worships the “God of Consumption”.
The complete transformation of Michael Marks
Michael comes around to Jonathan’s way of thinking and together they write a manual advocating the overthrow of the corporate “sole” and its grip on society. Can Michael free himself and his family of “modern slavery?” Can he change the world without losing all that is dear to him?
In Modern Slavery and the Gods of Consumption, Michael Marks is a successful advertising agent obssessed with consumerism. He takes more pleasure in buying a car than in his wife being pregnant with their third child. He’s so obsessed with money and spending it, he barely has time to appraise his kids or his spouse. And then, a rollercoaster of events happens that open Michael’s eyes to what he truly is: a slave of the consumption society, a slave of money and buying pretty things.
The writing was quite compelling and the subject matter was definitely intriguing. Too often, we’re driven by the need to consume, by capitalism at its worst, and we are truly slaves to the Gods of Consumption, as the title so eloquently states. Michael is an engaging character, especially as he begins to unravel the truth about himself and the world we live in. At first, he comes across as shallow but as he transforms, the reader discovers hidden depths to him.
It’s a moving, thought-provoking title with a clear message that can hopefully serve as an eye-opener to the way consumerism rules our world.
[…] Modern Slavery and the Gods of Consumption by Ofer Even […]