Love and the Monroes
On the subject of things alien, successful non-abductees may be interested in the book Love and the Monroes, by Suzanne Power. This seems to be an example of what I believe is called ‘chick lit’ (as discussed in suitably bemused tones by Alan Frost in the September 2004 issue), but it is notable in that (i) the title does not involve shopping, capital cities, or wanton acts, and (ii) the protagonist is an actuary. On starting the book, I had been looking forward to reading some breezy descriptions of ICAs, perhaps with vigorous fornication going on as the credit risk model whirred in the background, or as the operational risk team flipped their coins; I had been looking forward to reading blood-warming descriptions of life among the guidance notes; and I had been greatly looking forward to reading scenes in which the characters would resort to Actuary magazine editorials as a sure cure for a broken heart. Imagine my disgust on finding that the heroine’s job was that of risk manager in a bookmaking firm: what a cop-out! Not a single FSA regulation in sight, let alone any reference to this great magazine.
The heroine gives as one of the reasons for moving from her original insurance job to a job at a bookmaker, ‘it got me round using the term “actuary”, which is one up from pest controller and undertaker in the league table of off-putting jobs, but it’s still ranked below politician, tax inspector, and traffic warden’. That may give some idea of how much research into actuaries went into this book.
Pliny (the Elder) contended that no book is so bad that it does not contain at least one item of interest. I would have liked to say, jocularly, that in the case of this book at least the words ‘the end’ were of interest. However, I gave up on this tripe long before that. Perhaps the book would be effective in warding off alien abductors?
Matthew Edwards
