Having read (more accurately, loved and devoured) Leave The World Behind, I was really looking forward to this book. While it wasn’t what I expected, it was an extremely well written and thought provoking read about our society and the effects of money, and proximity to money.

Despite opening with the threat of the “New York subway pricker,” the book focuses on Brooke Orr. Brooke, a 33 year old, middle class, black woman, has recently left teaching and is newly employed, working for Asher Jaffee, an octogenarian billionare, to actualize his pledge of donating his fortunes.

Brooke quickly becomes his protege and finds herself tantalized by the idea money. As her relationship to her job changes, so do the relationships with her family and friends, especially as Brooke’s reckless decision making starts to spiral.

I loved the way information is slowly and intentionally doled out throughout the plot. The characters are all well-developed and I closed the book with so much to think over. Thanks so much to Netgalley for the chance to read and review this AR.

This book was not great. The sentences were so short. I thought I would love it. I did not, and I don’t quite know why. (If you’ve already read this book you’ll see what I did there.)

Brooke Orr is a thirtysomething, living in New York, and searching for what will make her life fulfilling. She thinks she finds it when she takes a job with Asher Jaffe, an aging billionaire intent on giving away his fortune. As she gets to know Asher better and begins working closely with him as his protege, the line between philanthropy and personal interest grows blurry.

I had extremely high hopes going into this book. Leave the World Behind was one of my favorite books of 2020; Rumaan Alam was masterful at taking a group of people in an eerie situation and leaving the reader on the edge of the seat as the plot progressed (but not all the way to a definitive conclusion). We didn’t know too much about the characters’ pasts but that didn’t matter, in fact it may have even made the book more interesting. He does something similar in Entitlement, but unfortunately here I really needed to understand the characters better in order to care about the plot. Brooke was so affectless that it was extremely hard to engage with the book. She reminded me of Emira in Such a Fun Age (another book that I didn’t care for quite as much as I expected).

This novel does discuss interesting and timely topics, including what as humans we are all entitled to, what it means to live a fulfilling life, and how money affects a person’s mental and physical well-being. I have seen a number of glowing reviews (including a starred review at Kirkus) so while I did not love it, I would still recommend it to fans of Kiley Reid or Raven Leilani.

This was another unique read from Rumaan Alam. If you don't like unlikable characters you won't like this one. Brooke is a hot mess and makes some really poor choices. She is struggling with her place in the world and issues of class and race. I really felt for her most of the time. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to be next to all that money but with no access. But the times I did not feel for her is how mean she was to her family and friends. Entitlement is the perfect name for this book!

Entitlement by Rumaan Alam is a powerful book. It is designed to make you feel uncomfortable, and indeed I did. The main character is definitely not "likeable" and she argues strongly for what she deserves. As a reader, there is the tendency to both try to appreciate her point of view and to slap her. I have not read Alam's most recent book, but I have read "That Kind of Mother" and this one has the same slant=eye view of contemporary life that is extremely revealing. It brings to mind "Colored Television" by Danzy Senna (just published) and Emma Cline's "The Guest" in its deep dive into characters who make great sense from their own POV but don't fit with other aspects of their worlds. Notably, this is also one of those books in which the title summarizes the theme perfectly.

The writing in this book is so beautiful, I wanted to reside in every sentence. The emotionality and the scene setting is really rich, and the characters seemed to walk off the page. The book also addresses many timely themes.

Brooke, a Black woman in her early 30s, has left her job teaching in a charter school in the Bronx to work for an old white billionaire who is trying to give his money away. I was enjoying the book throughout the first half but after the character development had taken place, I didn't like Brooke. This is probably intentional, which makes this a hard book to rate because I kind of loved it but also hated it. Extremely discussion-worthy!

Brooke, an average woman in intelligence and work ethic, but with possession of beauty, lands a job at the foundation of multi-billionaire and octogenarian, Asher Jaffee, who desires to give away his billions before he dies. Asher takes an instant liking to Brooke, doting on her and imparting his philosophies. Because of this and her proximity to his wealth, we start to see Brooke transform into mercenary delusion, feeling she’s ’entitled’ to these finer things in life; she even descends into criminality to get them. Some would say this transformation happened to quickly, but I disagree. The author gave us small indications of her feeling of entitlement and true character from the beginning. His use of dynamic POVs and stream of consciousness enveloped me in the story, creating compelling insight. She kind of epitomizes a sect of the younger generation who are still supported or subsidized by their parents and want to make the world better, but have no means or practical thought, or philanthropic volition on how to do it, however they do possess the unblemished capacity to complain and target. I don’t know if that was the author’s intent, but that was one of my takeaways. His illusions to racism were all the more poignant and powerful because of their subtlety throughout the story. Excellent read, I love a rant book occasionally. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Publishing for sharing this book with me.

One of the social problems we often see are people’s sense of entitlement and the repercussions it can cause. Alan hits this topic on the head when he writes about Brooke in his aptly named book “Entitlement”. In it Brooke finds herself a protege of billionaire Arthur Jaffee. Her best friend Kim has a father who has left her an inheritance. Surrounded by excesses she is drawn to power and money.
In the beginning of the book Brooke yearns for the praise and recognition of her family. As it progresses she recognizes that this material desire is more important than family or friends. “I can’t stop myself from wanting things, it is a fundamental part of being alive”. She feels she is deserving so it must be true. She has Jaffee’s ear so she is entitled to choose who else benefits from his largesse. Brooke decides she has a need and he has a solution.
The most interesting part of the story I found was Jaffee himself. A billionaire who is at the end of his life and is realizing that you can’t take it with you. He is trying to disengage from his wealth and get his individuality and humanity back. He understands the lonely truth that he can never be seen as standing on his own merit anymore.
4.0

As her story unfolds in Entitlement I was alternately puzzled, disarmed, appalled, charmed, worried, angered, and finally astonished by Brooke’s behavior towards her family, her friends, her colleagues, her clients, strangers, and the billionaire who makes her his protégé and confessor. By the end of the book, though, I realized that Brooke Orr deserved my admiration and that I wanted everyone to know about her.

I wish we all had an opportunity to treat and speak to a billionaire the way Brooke Orr does in this book: as an equal, unawed, unafraid to say exactly what is on her mind.

Brooke’s story also provides a window into what is on Alam’s mind: wealth inequality, implicit racism, family relationships, commitment to ideals, the failures of public education, the absurdity of the art market, the insane cost of real estate in New York City, the emotional and practical costs of unrealistic expectations—especially in modern Manhattan—and what is the right thing an individual can do to bring about a future to which all of us are entitled.

A wonderful protagonist in a readable book that—almost furtively—leads us to ask ourselves the hardest question of all: what should I do with my life?

Entitlement follows the meandering path (rather than propulsive trajectory) of Brooke Orr, a 30-something African-American woman, trying to find her life’s purpose in New York City. Her journey is contrasted with those of her Vassar College friends Kim and Matthew. Kim inherits a large sum of money from her deceased father and dabbles in low-paying somewhat glamorous pursuits. Matthew works as a drone at an advertising agency. In the novel, Brooke has quit her first job as a teacher at a charter school where she felt undervalued and has just started working at the Asher and Carol Jaffee Foundation. Asher Jaffee, an octogenarian billionaire, has minions to help him give away a significant portion of his fortune to worthy causes. As he grandiosely describes it, the fundamental mission of the foundation is to change the world.

Asher feels an affinity for Brooke and takes her on as his protégé. As such he exposes her to privledges and experiences that – while commonplace for persons of great wealth – she was unaware of and unaccustomed to. In turn, she chooses to show him (and convince him to fund) Throop Community School, an African dance and drumming organization, run by a charismatic woman named Ghalyela Jefferson. Ultimately, and perhaps inevitably, both paths have unintended bad consequences. Brooke becomes grasping and avaricious (yes, entitled) while Asher’s philanthropic impulses turn out to be, not so much a selfless quest to do good but rather a means to garner a Presidential Medal of Freedom. These outcomes become apparent in a final confrontation at the end of the book that leaves the fates of the characters up in the air.

Alam does a good job describing New York City life and Asher’s lifestyle and proclivities. He brings up many topical issues – without being preachy – about race, class, age and the uses and misuses of philanthropy. Readers looking for relatable or even likeable characters will be disappointed, as will those hoping for resolution of the many side plots along with the main story line.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Riverhead Books for the ARC in exchange for this review.

**Spoiler alert**. I feel like I just watched a train wreck. How did a young woman, not that young, raised by a solid, grounded mother with a conventional brother lose all sense of propriety and values simply by being exposed to extreme wealth? Is this even possible? She had no roots. She turns into her own version of Robin Hood except her giving to the poor is to herself. She shows no remorse or even shame. I'm completely befuddled by the character. Having said all that, this book has left an impact on me. it reminds me of a popular book from last summer The Guest.

I enjoyed this book more than this author's previous work, Leave the World Behind, however... Here the main character changes careers from a teacher to working at a private foundation, becoming a protege of the donor. In the process of learning about the charitable world, she rapidly changes from a black woman seemingly uninterested or affected by her race, to someone conscious of it as well as her newfound power in the land of money. I found the speedy transition just not believable and bothersome. Her inability to take the time to truly learn the ropes and use her new position for good led to disaster.

Entitlement by Rumaan Alam is a slow-paced character study set in the world of 2010s New York at a billionaire’s charitable foundation. We follow Brooke, a 33 year old woman, trying to figure out her place in the world and how access to the world of wealth changes her in complex ways. Entitlement is a book to pick up if you enjoy books, books that explore themes of wealth and class and privilege.⁣ Like Alam’s other works, this a character driven story, with even minor characters feeling fully realized. The sense of dread and tension builds throughout and while it didn’t quite all come together in the end for me. I enjoyed the journey.

Brooke Orr is a 30-something, Vassar educated, adopted Black woman living in Manhattan and struggling to discover who she is. Newly hired at a billionaire’s charitable foundation, she becomes his protégé which awakens her ambition and compulsive desire for the things money can buy and which erodes her relationships with family and friends. Addressing issues of race, gender, economic inequality and capitalism, the novel examines the roots of Brooke’s increasingly poor decision making and how money, or lack thereof, can impact identity and purpose. This is an important book but I found the shifting voices and the speed of Brooke’s transformation to be a distraction.

I wasn’t as engrossed in this book as I was with Leave the World Behind, but this is a very different type of story. I started out thinking one way about the protagonist, and then my opinion slowly shifted as she did one cringey thing after another. I’m not sure I could say that I enjoyed this book, but it was definitely interesting. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you’re a fan of character-driven stories, social satires, books that explore themes of wealth and class and privilege, well…you’re going to love ENTITLEMENT, the latest from Rumaan Alam, the author of 2020’s LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND.⁣
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Set in the world of philanthropic organizations, #Entitlement is about Brooke -a young woman looking to make her mark on the world- who takes a job at a billionaire’s charitable organization, helping to identify non-profits to invest in. When the billionaire takes Brooke under his wing and begins mentoring her as his protege, Brooke’s ideas of wealth and privilege and identity and “what she is owed”, ideas that have been simmering just under the surface, come out in some unexpected and complex ways.⁣
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Similar to other books from Alam, this is a slow-burn character drama, full of nuanced and complicated ideas, morally grey characters, and a thruline feeling of tension and unease. The book poses some really interesting questions to readers, and I have a feeling book clubs are going to have a lot of fun with this one when it officially publishes on SEPTEMBER 17th, 2024.

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Random House Publishing for an early copy of Entitlement by Rumaan Alam

Wealth appears to be the driving force that has main characters Brooke Orr and Asher Jaffe spinning their wheels---Brooke wanting to acquire it and Asher wanting to dispose of it. Both are lost in a world where money and everything it can buy prevents both of them from enjoying life.

Brooke has been hired by Asher's charitable foundation to give away billions of dollars which Asher has acquired through successful businesses. His motivation is not altruistic; rather, he desires to be a savior to all and has his eye on a Presidential Medal. One may question whether he recognizes poverty and need in his own backyard.

While seeking out possible recipients of the foundation's charity, Brooke herself is caught up in the desire to acquire more than she can afford and considers that the foundation could be of benefit in obtaining better living arrangements.

The old saying "money can't buy happiness" seems particularly appropriate in Entitlement as one questions the humanity and genuineness of these characters.

Entitlement by Rumaan Alam is a book about ambition, inequities, and the finding of self. It unflinchingly takes on issues of race, class, and gender while always staying true to the characters and the world of the story. The characters are well drawn and believable. Even the lesser characters have real lives and stories that motivate their actions. The themes of the novel thread through, supported by tangible details, and the perceptions of multiple and varied points of view. Entitlement is a brave and powerful novel – a work of art that will cause readers to pause and think. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to preread and review this book.

I enjoyed Rumaan Alan’s previous book Leave the World Behind and was excited to get started on Entitlement.
Unfortunately I only made it half way through and realised it was not for me, I found the characters unappealing from Brooke all the way to Ghalyela.
We will of course have a copy at the library and I am sure many people will enjoy reading it.

This was smart and cringe-y in a can't-look-away kind of way and delightfully unhinged. I can't wait to discuss it in book club!