Book DescriptionAldous (Gus) Cotton, the asthmatic hero of the Booker Prize-nominated Fairness, has a problem: His name is Harry Cotton, Gus’s father. Besides neglecting his duties as a parent and spending more time carousing with the racing set than making a living as a jockey, Harry appears dead set on detaching himself from any real-life responsibilities. His transition from racing silks, champagne parties, and, above all, the sweet experience of riding Ampersand, the legendary Gold Cup winner, to an existence in a grim world of lice-infected brothels, gambling houses, and professional exile is brought about by an unfortunate penchant for excess. Not that Harry’s life lacks for adventure or drama during his meandering fall from grace, in which he chases a beautiful Jewess to prewar Germany, fights on the Italian Front, and ends up at war’s end as a spy in Ireland. Throughout his gradual decline from the toast of the town for his success on Ampersand to his gin-soaked later years in London, Harry gives the reader a chance to behold the decades surrounding the twentieth century’s greatest struggle through the eyes of a notorious realist. If only this could help Gus’s predicament: how he must try to love this character who is at once appalling yet wholeheartedly refreshing.
