Entitlement

Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement is a beguiling exploration of privilege, societal expectations and personal responsibility. The novel delves into the lives of its characters with a keen eye for the intricacies of social dynamics, capturing the tension between self-perception and societal judgment.

Brooke Orr is a disillusioned Black woman who is burnt out after years of teaching at a charter school. She takes a job as a program coordinator at a charitable foundation run by a Warren Buffett-like billionaire, Asher Jaffee. She is quickly drawn into a world of immense wealth and privilege. Asher is also impressed by her and decides on a mentoring role for himself. Brooke’s white mother and aunts, who are usually omnipresent in her life, are soon sidelined as Brooke begins accompanying Asher to constant prestigious social events.

Brooke starts to make ethical and moral decisions in response to all the unfathomable wealth she is both exposed to and in charge of bestowing. She becomes obsessed with buying her first apartment and the idea of a sanctuary overrides almost all other principles. She impulse-shops expensive shoes and upgrades her corporate workwear so that she no longer resembles the school teacher she was. After all, with the billions that she is in such close proximity to, isn’t she entitled to her share?

A far more sly and subtle book than novels such as Martin Amis’s brilliant satire, Money, Entitlement asks the question, if money is freedom, what does it mean for the majority, who don’t have any?