Rumaan Alam’s New Book ‘Entitlement’ Shows the Haunted Trappings of Wealth

The Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott

Bestselling author Rumaan Alam is happy to come out of hiding to promote his new novel Entitlement (September 17). “I spend all of my time here in this room hunched over this very computer, it's nice to have an opportunity to exist outside of that.” After the massive success of his last book, Leave the World Behind, Alam is once again focusing on class, but this time honing in on money. “We valorized the rich in this society, and by the same token, one must logically admit that we disregard the poor.” Entitlement follows Brooke as she navigates the sometimes-disturbing world of the megarich and the concerning impact it can have on regular people (whatever regular means anymore). “You can't help engaging or understanding yourself and your accomplishments in American life via money.” Set in the not-too-distant past, the novel says a lot about where we are now and how we got here. “[Michael] Bloomberg as mayor was a fascinating cultural turn. It was the point at which we accepted if you are rich, maybe you know how to do something better. Which is obviously, on the face of it, ridiculous...the end result of that is Donald Trump. Somebody who is not gifted at anything, but feels like he presents himself like he is by virtue of his wealth.”

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