I just finished reading Jess Walter’s The Financial Lives of the Poets, a funny novel about a father who gets himself into trouble trying to support his family during a tough economic time. Much of the humor comes from the author’s comments on the sorry state of the United States. 

Walters also wrote The Zero (a finalist for the National Book Award), Citizen Vince, Land of the Blind, Over Tumbled Graves and Ruby Ridge. He lives in Spokane, Washington. For more information: www.jesswalter.com