Swirling Waters

Business interrupts a strained farewell at a Paris railway station when Clifford Matheson arrives too late to satisfy his wife Olive. The financier has risen from a Montreal broker's office to prominence in London and Paris, and Olive takes pride in the status his wealth brings. A meeting with shipowner Lars Larssen now occupies Matheson, while his scientific work with his half-brother John Rivière meets with Olive's impatience.

Max Rittenberg sets financial ambition beside the different values that shape family relationships. The opening recalls the brothers comparing their hopes, one seeking scientific distinction and the other measuring success in money. In the Canadian passages, Larssen's employee Dean enjoys a larger salary, buys presents and begins to think differently about his importance. His changing outlook gives the novel another view of opportunity and its effects. Readers drawn to business fiction will find social observation woven into scenes of negotiation, personal pride and competing loyalties.