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Brian Finney is a professor, army veteran and a seasoned award winning non-fiction writer. He’s recently expanded in the the fiction realm with his first novel “Money Matters“. We had a chance to chat with him about his new book and his career as a writer our Authors Spotlight series.
What inspired you to become a writer?
After three years in the Air Force and five years in industry, I joined the University of London as a tutor/organizer. Teaching adult students literature made me want to write it. The result was seven non-fiction books, the second of which was an award winning biography of Christopher Isherwood. Money Matters, my eighth book, is my first work of fiction. It is a Finalist in the 2019 American Fiction Awards.
Your favorite author & why
My favorite authors have changed over time. First came D, H. Lawrence and his emphasis on emotion over intellect. Next came Samuel Beckett and his cultivation of a style of minimalism. Then I was drawn to Martin Amis for his break with traditional middle-brow English fiction, accompanied by Salman Rushdie who instituted the transnational novel.
Describe your book in 30 words or less
Jenny, a millennial, resists the world of money; but when she agrees to investigate a woman’s disappearance, she has to fight it in all its shapes – political corruption, the ultra-rich, and a Mexican drug cartel.
Why should we read “Money Matters”?
For a start, Money Matters is a page-turner. It traces a woman’s late coming-of-age as she turns amateur detective. Set during the 2010 mid-term election, it confronts contemporary issues of immigration and wealth disparity. And late on it is also part-romance. So it keeps readers on their toes to the end.
List of other books you’ve written
- Terrorized: How the War on Terror Affected American Culture and Society. Amazon: Kindle, 2011.
- Martin Amis. Routledge Guides to Literature. London and New York: Routledge, 2008
- English Fiction Since 1984: Narrating a Nation. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
- D. H. Lawrence. Sons and Lovers: A Critical Study. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin; New York: Viking Penguin, 1990.
- The Inner I: British Literary Autobiography of the Twentieth Century. London: Faber &
- Faber; New York: Oxford UP, 1985.
- Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography. London: Faber & Faber; New York: Oxford UP, 1979. (Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial prize)
- Since How It Is: A Study of Samuel Beckett’s Later Fiction. London: Covent Garden P, 1972.
What books have influenced your life most?
Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the Durbervilles, for its portrayal of the impact of modern urban civilization on earlier rural society.
Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable), for its stylistically pared-down exposure of ways we deceive ourselves.
Toni Morrison’s Beloved, for its revelation of how slavery continued to haunt later generations after it was abolished.
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