A woman wins a fabulous lottery; a frustrated middle-age man waits for his wealthy father to die; an unemployed father and widower struggles to earn a living wage; an older man of means has an affair with a much younger woman; a privileged but harassed suburban woman and a homeless man meet in a subway station: each story, built upon familiar motifs, leads into the core of the characters' sense of who they are. The narrative drama arises from what they face and how they live during their present circumstances. For the readers, the stories transform the ordinary, which many have felt themselves, into a new dimension of experience.
Several of the stories in Net Worth are very effective. The first one in the book, Lottery, is about a woman, Annie, who wins $42 million from Loto-Québec. But she has reservations. What would it do to her life? Is all that money worth it? Radu gets into Annie's doubts and confusion very well, dissecting the virtues and pitfalls of sudden wealth, how it seeps into every aspect of your life, your behaviour, your relationships. All the stories are thought-provoking and reflective, each in its own way, using money as a vehicle to explore such diverse subjects as a spouse's early death, old age, leaving an inheritance, waiting for an inheritance, divorce, and coming early into the personal independence of adulthood. The varied meanings of having, keeping, and losing money come up frequently in each of these contexts. These stories are a wonderful exploration into what money does to us all.
-- The Ottawa Review of Books, September 2018
Net Worth by Kenneth Radu is certainly one of the most unique reads I have come across in the 2018 publishing season. The language is simple yet the concepts it brings forward are thought-provoking and enlightening. In short, this book is a great piece of literature.
--Stephen Buechler, Library of Pacific Tranquillity blog, Fall 2018
As a writer of short fiction whose very first collection The Cost of Living was nominated for the Governor Generals Award, Radu evinces a sure voice and deft hand. Of his previous book Earthbound, also published by DC Books, a reviewer in The Fiddlehead states 'the variety is dazzling and somewhat daunting because Radu writes convincingly in all of these voices.' Anatanas Sileika confirms in The Toronto Star that Radus earlier book of stories, A Private Performance, is a 'collection of sparkling gems.' Years of crafting the art of the short story has led to Radus mastery of effect and style, not to mention an undercurrent of humour and wit, which enables him to handle emotionally charged and complex dramas. In the words of Prairie Fire reviewing Radus collection Sex in Russia, 'displays the necessary empathy to reveal his protagonists natures, while his morally centered prose provides perspective.
