Review: A punk rock record label owner strains for respectability in 'hilarious,' twisty 'Sucker'

Chuck Gross, the hapless narrator of Daniel Hornsby's "Sucker," has big-time dad issues. When a friend gives his shoulder an encouraging squeeze, Chuck calls it "the kind of thing an affectionate father would do, or so I've heard."

His frosty father isn't entirely useless, though. The corporate influence of the old man — Chuck calls him a "sinister libertarian billionaire" — lands his 30-year-old son a cushy job in Silicon Valley, thus triggering the strange events that fuel this winning comic thriller.

Chuck has always downplayed his lineage. He's even shortened his last name. But he seldom says no to Charles Grossheart Sr.'s money or connections.

Grossheart funds Chuck's expensive small business, a punk rock record label. But Grossheart is threatening to slash his contribution unless Chuck gets a conventional job. Luckily, Chuck is friends with Olivia Watts, whose tech company, Kenosis, is peddling a vague sort of wellness.

Olivia hires Chuck, though there's an unspoken condition: She'll trumpet his moneyed roots to let venture capitalists know she has powerful allies. This places him in countless uncomfortable situations, like when his label's star performer Thane makes a smartphone video of Chuck glad-handing Kenosis donors. If the video goes public, Chuck's punk cred is dead.

Himself an opportunist, Thane befriends Olivia. After a brief fling, he goes missing. His disappearance sends his new album, "Sucker," barreling up the indie charts. This, of course, benefits Chuck. Might he be responsible for Thane's disappearance?

At Kenosis, meanwhile, Chuck stumbles across gory evidence, like a secret room stuffed with bags of blood. It seems clear that Chuck's friend is up to something far worse than Elizabeth Holmes, the real-life Silicon Valley scammer on whom Olivia is based.

With trouble on multiple fronts, Chuck must act. It's a tough assignment for a self-described wimp who ceaselessly cites his own shortcomings: bad grades, a flabby torso, a smarmy personality. "The hate people carry for me has a Twinkie's shelf life," he says.

Chuck's humility gives him a hint of everyman likability, which underpins a plot that takes numerous twists. An entertaining page-turner, "Sucker" is also a keen send-up of tech industry grandiosity, as well as an homage to "The Crying of Lot 49." Fictional places and characters from Thomas Pynchon's great satire are part of Hornsby's California backdrop.

Hornsby, who lives in Minneapolis, nails Silicon Valley-ese. Kenosis' slogans — among them "Speed matters. Most decisions are reversible." — are as ludicrous as Olivia's claim that nature itself suffers in comparison to her corporate campus' manmade biome. And Olivia's efforts to inspire creativity, including the mandate that staffers must hang out with poets, yield some hilarious scenes.

As evidence of her limitless potential, Olivia invokes her newest product, designed to confer immortality on those who can afford it. Maybe we should believe her. After all, Silicon Valley has never misled us before, has it?

Kevin Canfield is a regular contributor to the Star Tribune's books coverage; his next review will be of Richard Russo's "Somebody's Fool."

Sucker

By: Daniel Hornsby.

Publisher: Anchor, 288 pages, $27.