The Embezzler comes from a time when Americans still remembered the great depression and the old-money blue-bloods hadn’t entirely released their hold on New York. Auchincloss captures their views of themselves more realistically than a lot of writers probably have done. That, if no other reason, probably makes this book a worthy expenditure of time.
However, Embezzler is also a study in the tension between honor of the old-time variety, loyalty, and gratitude (or the lack of those).
Prime, member of a poor-relations line of wealth meets Rex Geer, a minister’s son with a promising future, struggling through Harvard early in the century. Geer is on the brink of needing to drop out of school. Prime, before they become friends, sympathizes enough to visit a key authority and arrange for Geer to continue his education. He brings Geer to his home many times for summer stays, to the dismay of his family and societal equals, introducing him to the people who eventually give Geer the openings necessary to his future.
Late in his life and many years after his Wall Street disgrace and prison, Prime observes, “today I’d be snubbed by Rex Geer who’d probably be a haberdasher in Jersey City if it weren’t for me”.
Thanks to interventions in his life by Prime and thanks also to Geer’s own talent and initiative, Geer becomes one of the most financially powerful men of the time.
Midway through the depression and at the peak of his career Prime secures loans against his sinking fortunes, using a foundation’s resources he’s responsible for illegally to stay afloat. As the stocks creep further downward he finds himself on the brink of discovery. He goes to Geer (who’s meanwhile having a long-term affair with Prime’s wife) in hopes of a loan. Geer refuses in the name of honor and justice, leaving his former friend ruined, imprisoned, shunned by his class. Geer’s testimony becomes a factor in Prime’s conviction and imprisonment.
The book is a great illustration of human perspective and frailty, the story told from the three key viewpoints of Prime, Geer, and Prime’s wife. The spoiled playboy old-family Prime, flawed in many ways, understands compassion and honor at a personal level and lives by it. Geer, of poor-class antecedents understands honor societally and legally and shows little grasp of those other qualities in his behavior.
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