Destiny and other follies
Calder Brandt beat the odds—but the victory came with a price. As he moves through sterile corridors and stark truths, memories collide with the present, and one question lingers: What does it mean to truly live when every day feels like a gift you didn’t ask for? Destiny and Other Follies is a deeply human story of endurance, identity, and the quiet reckoning that comes when life refuses to fit the plan. Poignant and unflinching, it speaks to anyone who has ever wondered what they owe to life—and to themselves—when tomorrow is never guaranteed.
Lovers of literary novels that blend gritty realism with suspense and a splash of drama will find Destiny and Other Follies… an enthralling read. Venters hurls readers into the troubled worlds of the cast with reflective prose of profound philosophical depth.
Venters’s skillful analogies and descriptive writing sometimes steal the spotlight from the plot, but, along with the richness of Calder’s emotions, they also serve to invigorate the mechanics of corporate life: business meetings, email threads, the explanations of proposals. Despite the challenge of tracking the story’s large cast, Venters ensures they are realistic, relatable, and grounded in contemporary corporate power dynamics, with developments like Calder’s poor health post-throat cancer becoming their own character.
Razor-sharp, funny, and painfully true. A dark comedy of aging and ambition that leaves no illusion unshattered.
Destiny and other follies
Calder Brandt beat the odds—but the victory came with a price. As he moves through sterile corridors and stark truths, memories collide with the present, and one question lingers: What does it mean to truly live when every day feels like a gift you didn’t ask for? Destiny and Other Follies is a deeply human story of endurance, identity, and the quiet reckoning that comes when life refuses to fit the plan. Poignant and unflinching, it speaks to anyone who has ever wondered what they owe to life—and to themselves—when tomorrow is never guaranteed."
Venters’s skillful analogies and descriptive writing sometimes steal the spotlight from the plot, but, along with the richness of Calder’s emotions, they also serve to invigorate the mechanics of corporate life: business meetings, email threads, the explanations of proposals. Despite the challenge of tracking the story’s large cast, Venters ensures they are realistic, relatable, and grounded in contemporary corporate power dynamics, with developments like Calder’s poor health post-throat cancer becoming their own character.
Lovers of literary novels that blend gritty realism with suspense and a splash of drama will find Destiny and Other Follies… an enthralling read. Venters hurls readers into the troubled worlds of the cast with reflective prose of profound philosophical depth.
Razor-sharp, funny, and painfully true. A dark comedy of aging and ambition that leaves no illusion unshattered.
What happens when a cancer survivor, facing a world where business has become personal, wants more than merely to survive?
Destiny
and other follies
A psychological tale of suspense about a career gone wrong, Destiny and Other Follies shadows business consultant Calder Brandt as he defies backstabbing colleagues in his pursuit of promotion. His struggle is mirrored by his young Bosnian wife, Hana. Her own work challenges and loneliness reveal a marriage locked in an isolation of its own making, one held together only by a shared devotion to their Weimaraner, Darwin. Set against the impersonal backdrop of high-stakes consulting and the grim reality of deteriorating health, the story asks: How can we hope to thrive in a corporatized and disconnected world where “humane” has lost all meaning?
What happens when a cancer survivor, facing a world where business has become personal, wants more than merely to survive?
Destiny and other follies
A psychological tale of suspense about a career gone wrong, Destiny and Other Follies shadows business consultant Calder Brandt as he defies backstabbing colleagues in his pursuit of promotion. His struggle is mirrored by his young Bosnian wife, Hana. Her own work challenges and loneliness reveal a marriage locked in an isolation of its own making, one held together only by a shared devotion to their Weimaraner, Darwin. Set against the impersonal backdrop of high-stakes consulting and the grim reality of deteriorating health, the story asks: How can we hope to thrive in a corporatized and disconnected world where “humane” has lost all meaning?
Club Magie Noir
A personal outlet to explore the power of AI.
About
Gregory Venters was born in Northern Virginia and grew up outside Annapolis. He received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and did brief stints in the US Navy and for various corporations. After earning an MBA from the University of Edinburgh, he worked for over twenty years as a management consultant in the UK, US, and Europe. He lives in the Salzkammergut region of Austria.
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