Book Review: "Margo's Got Money Troubles" by Rufi Thorpe

Every now and again I do want to read something a little heartfelt, lighter and sometimes, it can be funny too. I'm really picky when it comes to comedy in books because more than often, I simply don't find it funny. Books like I Hope This Finds You Well and My Year of Rest and Relaxation often get the balance between breakdown and comedy completely right and now, I have had someone recommend me Margo's Got Money Troubles which, at first seems nice and light but when you dig deeper - it has quite an intense message about motherhood and expectation.

Margo is a twenty-year-old community college dropout living in a small California apartment with her baby daughter, Bijou. She’s working a low-wage job that barely covers childcare and rent. Thorpe paints Margo as someone bright and funny but weighed down by the grinding realities of single motherhood and poverty. The first few chapters establish the tension between her responsibilities and her yearning for something more than just survival. I think that this is something that resonates with quite a few people. Most people I know who have full-time jobs (and pretty alright ones at that), are barely making ends meet with most of their money going on bills and rent. The writer really hits the nail on the head with this one.

Margo’s complicated relationship with her parents looms large. Her father is a disgraced former wrestler whose fame has curdled into bitterness and obscurity, and her mother is emotionally absent, consumed by her own troubles. This backdrop of fractured family ties sets the stage for Margo’s struggles with identity as she doesn’t want to repeat her parents’ failures but also feels trapped by the cycles of disappointment and dysfunction they left her. I think again, there's a universality to this dysfunction. Everyone to some degree has something 'up' with them that their parents have given them. I suspect that to some degree, my lack of a will to socialise is perhaps part and parcel of something over there but I honestly don't want to look.

In a mix of accident and inspiration, Margo stumbles into the world of adult content creation. What starts as a weird experiment which driven more by necessity than passion, grows into something viable. She discovers that her body and her personality, dismissed in other arenas, can be sources of income and control here. The author treats this subject with some amount of maturity, avoiding cliché and focusing instead on Margo’s agency and wit. Honestly, it is difficult to find conversations about this topic which are actually quite mature and in-depth because nobody really talks about the fact that perhaps 99% of people who start this actually require money. The author does well not to moralise or try to teach us a lesson, but instead she takes steps to show us the world in which Margo just clearly isn't doing too well. We are left to make our minds up about what she's doing and why she's doing it.

Alongside financial shifts, Margo tentatively explores relationships. She meets new friends and romantic interests who complicate her already chaotic life. The author uses these encounters to explore themes of trust and vulnerability which fit nicely into the broader story. We are left with a question: how can Margo be seen for who she is, when she’s so invested in hiding parts of herself? Her relationships mirror her inner conflict: a desire for connection versus fear of judgment. I think again, the universality gives this novel it's big positives. For example: I bet we have all wanted to hide various parts of ourselves in order to get people to like us, but then we tend to question whether we are being authentic. There's a whole argument and conversation there we aren't having.

As the book continues, we get more of a three-dimensional look at Margo's life and because of the fact the author avoids moralising, we are definitely left to come up with ideas for ourselves. Most of the time we are on Margo's side. Once we meet her parents, we are even more on her side. Once we see her life, we are even more on her side. The author does a brilliant job of constructing this relatable character, this human story and this incredible narrative of universal themes and symbols to which many of us can relate.