Reviewed by Rod McLary
F Scott Fitzgerald – in his 1924 short story The Rich Boy – wrote ‘Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me’. Robert Lukins’ new book is essentially about one very rich family – the Gulch family – and they are one very different family.
To begin this review with a F Scott Fitzgerald quote is very appropriate as the patriarch of the family Fax Gulch repeats to himself at a moment of despair the famous quote from The Great Gatsby – ‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past’ drawing our attention to how so often the past will intrude on the present – with devastating impact.
Somebody Down There Likes Me is a highly engrossing psychological drama played out in Belle Haven, Connecticut, a gated enclave of the ultra-rich, where the Gulch family prepare to confront their financial and social ruin.
The family comprises Honey – the matriarch and financial brains of the family, Fax – her drug-addled husband, and their adult children Lincoln and Kick. Each in their own peculiar way prepares for the disaster lying in wait ahead. Through chapters narrated by each character in turn, we learn of their individual narratives and the nature of their relationships with each other. Informed of an imminent raid by the FBI by one of the agents – well and truly in Honey’s pocket – Honey and Fax summon the children to tell them of their imminent financial and social collapse.
The author explores the world of the ultra-rich and how different they are from the rest of us. How anything can be obtained immediately if there is enough money to pay for it: whether it is shutting down a criminal investigation into the death of a young woman; or how, by making a simple phone call, someone who is becoming a nuisance can ‘disappear’ without trace; or how the hapless FBI agent can be persuaded to betray his employer for cash in exchange for inside information. It is indeed a world where morals and ethics are simply words with no intrinsic value.
Yet somehow the reader can feel a soupçon of sympathy for the characters in spite of their immorality – and this is due to the skill of the author in his creating his four protagonists. There is Fax befuddled by drugs but clinging to his books and music as his influence drains away, Lincoln who acknowledges that he is corrupt but is desperate for his father’s approval, and Kick who has retreated into the mid-west to distance herself emotionally and geographically from her corrupt family. Honey – perhaps less deserving of our sympathy – who is bravely fighting in her corner to the last moment.
Robert Lukins has crafted with acerbic wit a brilliant novel – a psychological expose of a corrupt family – and has given the reader an insight into the lives of the ultra-rich. Drawing on his own experience of meeting a billionaire and hearing his stories of growing up in an enclave not dissimilar from the fictitious Belle Haven, the author has woven those stories into this engrossing and thoroughly entertaining novel.
Robert Lukins’ debut novel was The Everlasting Sunday which was nominated for several major literary awards including the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and the Voss Literary Prize. His second novel Loveland was shortlisted for the Readings Prize.
The author is indeed one of the emerging fine writers in Australia. Well recommended.
Somebody Down There Likes Me
[2025]
by Robert Lukins
Allen and Unwin
ISBN 978 176147 127 8
$32.99; 321pp