Books like Three Dollars

We would all like to think that when it comes to the crunch with every day living that we make the right decisions. We all make choices in our lives and some can be either positive or to our detriment. For Eddie Harnovey, a Chemical Engineer working for the Department of Environment, his life revolves around his work and the three women in his life, his wife Tanya, daughter Abbey, and his childhood sweetheart Amanda who appears in his life without even trying every nine-and-a-half years.In an era commonly touted as the time of "economic rationalism" homeowners are facing losing their homes in greater numbers, privatisation of State-owned industries is on the increase and welfare is being cut. For those employed the old adage of "job for life" is now disappearing fast and these concerns will soon hit Eddie and family like a rock. First Tanya finds herself on the brink of losing her university teaching position and her ex-lover want's Eddie to falsify a report to allow a smelting plant to be built by Amanda's father. As a man of principle, Eddie is not willing to do that and will be his undoing.Despite the bleakness of the prose, there is a fair amount of humour and hope that can be found in the pages. My only complaint that just like The Street Sweeper, there is more than just a hint of didacticism that depending on what side of the political spectrum you are on, may rub you the wrong way. Overall apart from that Three Dollars is a compelling and at times dramatic look at a time that is still as relevant today as it was then.