Pathway to Glory
A Novel
Greed undermines an ambitious man’s happy life in the the thrilling novel Pathway to Glory.
Set in 1960s New York, Edmund Schiavoni’s novel Pathway to Glory is a redemption story about money, family, and pride set against a backdrop of success and ruin.
Paul, an ambitious CFO, puts his family and pride on the line when he attempts to strong-arm his way into the CEO position of his successful but tumultuous company. And after inheriting thirty-six thousand dollars from an aunt, he invests every cent in stock against his wife’s wishes, based on an overheard conversation on the train. Still, despite his machinations, Paul remains a quite human hero—a family man who loves his wife and sons, and whose self-respect and ambition have led to a respectable, if not lavish, lifestyle. He is proud but impulsive: the same qualities that compel him to ask for a promotion and invest his money in an unknown stock keep him from buying out of the stock and drive him to hire a safecracker with connections to the mob.
As the novel progresses, Paul devolves from a cautious deliberator into a proud cynic, provoking anxiety. Still, his destructive decisions have a consistent quality, and scenes featuring him and his wife are authentic. Few other characters in the novel can boast the same kind of development. Indeed, the book’s secondary characterizations are loose, with one of Paul’s coworkers described as “physically attractive, having a lean, supple body, immaculately groomed, dark-brown hair, and well-proportioned, early thirties facial features that embodied, when he so desired, an ingratiating personality.”
Most of the action takes place in meetings and conversations. The book’s office settings are competitive but otherwise unexciting, and bureaucratic and financial jargon is too dominant. Still, some of the book’s exchanges are electrified thanks to their speaker’s charged motivations. Commentary on the kind of language used in business settings also wends in, though such exposition is sparing.
The story moves at a steady pace, building from Paul’s eavesdropping toward the marital discord that follows from his bad decisions. But its multiple deus ex machina incidents strain credulity, weakening its stakes, from Paul’s unencumbered inheritance to convenient departures within his company that make room for him to move on the CEO position. Such moments are explained in the context of the story, but without being wholly convincing.
Humanizing a man’s pursuit of financial success, Pathway to Glory is a thrilling novel in which self-destruction accompanies a CFO’s single-minded ambition.
Reviewed by
Ben Linder
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
