The Millionaires
A brilliant novel of new money and old manners, crossing The Great Gatsby with the spirit of Tom Wolfe.
Meet the Cole brothers, charismatic country boys with more money than God―half moonshine and half martini. Roland, the younger, is running for governor of Tennessee, while J.T. maneuvers to bring a full-fledged world’s fair to the small city of Glennville. To the dismay of the old guard, the fair succeeds, making the Coles among the most important men in the state. All that stands between them and grander ambitions is an investigation into how their bank made all that money so damn fast.
Life in the fast lane has taken its toll on the Coles’ families; their wives and mistresses are among the sharpest, sassiest creations of recent fiction. The quiet center of the story is Mike Teague, the Coles’ advisor, who knows one of those women too well―and also where all the bodies are buried. Here is a portrait, raucous yet nuanced, of what the south has been, and what it will become.
Praise
“A stirring story. …The Millionaires reads like today’s headlines, complete with a dynamic back story.”
“The Millionaires (is) a sprawling, smart, fast-moving insider novel by author, Inman Majors, who knows his way around politics, Tennessee Style.”
“Entertaining and thought-provoking... It’s literature, and serious readers will want to tackle it.”
“Inman Majors has wandered into a wild territory previously wholly owned by Robert Penn Warren and established squatters’ rights.”
AUTHOR OF MONEYBALL AND LIAR’S POKER
“(An) insider’s view into big time finance and politics…Majors deserves ample applause for his storytelling and character-drawing skills”
“Majors’s depiction of a Tennessee evening is reminiscent of James Agee’s hypnotic ‘Knoxville: Summer of 1915,’ best known as the prologue to ‘A Death in the Family.’”
“It has been 62 years since ‘All the King’s Men,’ Robert Penn Warren’s brilliant novel about Southern politics, appeared on the scene…Inman Majors …takes up the challenge in this wonderful new book”
“Remarkable and very timely...the story of two small-town brothers who rise to dangerous big-city heights is as big and ambitious as the physical book itself.”
“The Millionaires…is the best, most fully accomplished new novel I have read in perhaps three years.... (It) is in fact a kind of Southern ‘Great Gatsby.”