Publisher's Synopsis
Chris Grey is aptly named. The best laid plans of a mouse like man have never gone awry - in fact the business plan he conceived with Pete, his college friend, has gone very well indeed and he's built up a modestly successful, if unambitious, business. Along the way he's accumulated all the trappings of the middle class definition of respectability: a loving family, nice car, nice home - in short a nice life.;But there's got to be something more than this 'niceness', this straight and narrow path with its well-tended borders and grey predictability. What that might be, he hasn't a clue - until he employs a rogue male from the wrong side of the tracks and is slowly led off the rails. Seduced by Gary's wisecracking, lawlessly amoral worldview, Chris timidly tests the strength of respectability's reins and tries the patience of his narrow-minded wife. The vicarious violence, lowlife pubs, endless booze and flirtation with criminality capture his imagination and soon he's entrapped by Gary's rapacious sidekicks into a life of petty crime where everything's for sale, including trust, friendship and love.;Chris has shifted down a class, only to find he's out of his league, both terrified and exhilarated by the notion of living on the edge. He thinks he's winning his freedom - but he's losing his wife, family and home and before long the rollercoaster ride goes flat as the lows cancel out the highs.;With nothing left to lose, Chris tries to beat his crooked cohorts at their own game and rip off his lifelong friend and partner into the bargain. After all, he's a reasonably educated man, he convinces himself, who's more than capable of outwitting these ignorant thugs. Chris soon learns that there are many skills that college can't teach you and suffers humiliation after humiliation at the hands of his new found, frighteningly streetwise 'friends'. Because Chris is not really a liar, nor is he a cheat. So the only person he ever lies to or cheats successfully is himself - as every conman knows, the scam won't work if the mark's not greedy:;"The great thing about lying to yourself you don't have to look into the face of the person you're lying to...";Frothing with self-loathing, Discontent is something of a morality tale - or should we say immorality tale? It's the story of a man who has everything, yearns for more and ends up with less - at least for a while. We can see what he's doing to himself - and that makes us turn the pages with a morbid fascination in the hope that he'll redeem himself. It's not a happy book - but like the blues, the misery shared makes the reader feel good.