After all, the book is set in 1987, a boom time on the sharemarket, with money flying around the stratosphere ready to fall into the hands of those with the nerve to reach high enough and grab it, the blurb on the back of the book says.
The 1987 events of a Rugby World Cup win and a sharemarket crash are part of our history.
McGee is a true son of Otago, born and schooled in Oamaru, a University of Otago graduate, an Otago rugby player and a junior All Black who took a principled stand against the controversial 1981 South African rugby tour. He wrote the brilliant 1980 play Foreskin's Lament.
Everything seemed to scream out "read me, I am worth it", but I could not find any key point that would drag me into the plot and relentlessly hold me there.
Mike, the main male character, does, I suppose, make many other men look good. He has three children by three different mothers and some of those children have less than elegant qualities.
Why Mike's current girlfriend Louise was putting up with the loser before dumping him for someone more upwardly mobile remains a mystery throughout the book.
When he is dumped, he slinks around his former wives trying to spark some of the previous romance.
There are some uncomfortable moments in the book, which kept me going back for more. Some of what McGee is saying about his world in 1987 is easily translated to what is happening in financial markets now.
Just look at the bonuses paid to financial institution chief executives now and then and there really is not much difference.
Without meaning to insult any of McGee's previous work, the book should be turned into a serial to run on prime time television.
• Dene Mackenzie is a Dunedin journalist.
