The Financial Lives of the Poets is the fifth novel by the American writer Jess Walter.
The novel explores the global financial crisis, through the eyes of a business reporter turned poet.
The New York Times was largely positive, calling it successful at "captur[ing] the fiscal panic and frustration" and full of "blistering wisecracks".
[1] The Los Angeles Times called it "darkly funny, surprisingly tender [and] verse sprinkled", though the review highlighted the characters in the novel as flawed and "bumbling", bringing their woes upon themselves.
"[3] The Daily Telegraph review was more mixed, describing it as a "zeitgeist novel", humorously reflecting on the economic depression, yet at the same time flawed.