Money & Family is a Terrible Mix~ As Evident in Western Alliances, an August release, by Wilton Barnhardt
by Jeneane Vanderhoof
Wilton Barnhardt with the new release, Western Alliances, brings to page one of the oddest families of creation- but then the rich and the powerful say and do things that always mystify those without, don’t they? While the patriarch of the family, Salvador, is the only one in the family who is, at all, down to earth, his knowledge of the stock market, his self-control (especially when it comes to his money), and his desire to support his children throughout the entirety of his and their lives, lends the feel to readers that the father ends up with what he deserves, with regards to his disappointing children, in teaching them they could always count on him for money. While some of his views change on this issue toward the end of the book, the fact that he raised children who never thought to ever support themselves- makes him just as strange (when it comes to life) as his relations.
Lena, Salvador’s wife and the mother of his children, after leaving him; when her new husband abruptly dies, not having changed his will, and not swapping the first wife for the second (Lena), the woman devotes any time she has to gaining money from the dead husband’s estate or the live ex-husband, by any means, rather than find any way to make money herself. And the children, Roberto and Rachel are just like their mother and ever dependent on a man with stock market smarts that make him valuable to others, even outside the family. And as he tries to find his way around the looming financial crisis of 2008, when he gives his children direction on their trust, what happens is the beginning of the end, so to speak, in a way.
At least for some of the family.
While they have never been close, Salvador had set the children up with money for their future, in a trust. Essentially it is stock in a company and had the financial crisis not happened, Roberto and Rachel would have been set for life. When Salvador sends them an email with direct instructions on what they are to do to get the most return on their accounts, with the financial crisis looming, the children completely ignore the email, and the directions and meet with their father having set up none of it. Salvador begins to see the monsters he has raised- and supported. And, I think that he will have to continue to support them, even if they lose their current investment, which sits uneasily with him. Especially after he sees what little they expect to do for the investment he gave them- even with direction. So begins the unraveling of the children’s future and what they expected it to be- Roberto travels around the world, writing his journal that he never thinks will be published, and Rachel, the forever student who studies ancient art and a degree that will never be finished.
However the worst of the family, Lena, always has her hand out and finds this a perfectly normal way to survive in life. When she isn’t invited when the children initially meet with their father over their investment changes, she goes anyway- of course, to stay aware of what is going on with everyone else’s money- because she is always at work to make it her own.
She even gets to the point, in the story, where she “rolls” her own children, creating a predicament, which is all a lie, to get money out of their hands, and into her own. The children believe they have bought a property they will all share and live in, but, in reality, all is a lie so that Lena has money to live on. Despite her lack of finances, Lena still presents herself to others as living high on the horse. With all kinds of fake charities, the only charity Lena actually collects money for- is herself.
Wilton Barnhardt pens a wonderful story in which a family is forced, each in their own way, to come of age- no matter how late. Whether it is lack of money, too much money and nothing else, or even the failure of one’s own body, to have to turn to others for help because you physically can’t go on living alone- to read the debacle of each unfold, to discover how wealth can ruin a life, even Salvador’s — when you have it, when it goes away when it is right in your grasp and your fingers touch it before it is ripped out of one’s grasp- Western Alliances begs the question- is all the money in the world- worth all that can happen to those in our lives when they come to depend on a never-ending money tree? And, when that tree is you- did you do the right thing, in planting that seed for yourself for others to use? A definite 4 and a half-star read, the story is one I will come back to every few years and want to read again and always find something new that I didn’t see the first go round.
Happy Reading!