LitPick Review
To Outwit the Fate is a book on the life of a Polish student Matt who believes that his life events are controlled by bad luck. Matt was born in a poor family and his only goal in life is to make money. His plan is to study and work full-time. He believes that once he graduates college and gets a job, he'll make enough money to live a normal life. However, his bad luck doesn't relent from being kicked out of college, to living with an older woman for sponsorship, to one day meeting his sponsor dead. Matt's first decision was to dispose of the body and pretend to be her sponsor in order to claim her inheritance. But this action puts Alicia, his only confidant and friend, in danger and also lands him in prison. Yet, in a twist of fate, prison turned out just fine.
Opinion:
To Outwit the Fate completely left me speechless and with a lot of unanswered questions, which left me wanting more. My thoughts on the main character, Matt, is that he is not just plagued with bad luck, but also with bad choices. The obvious choice after seeing someone was murdered is to go to the police, but he was too blinded by his ambition to see the danger he was putting himself in. Matt's desperation and impulsive thinking is the cause if his downfall. What I found the most interesting in the book was how blunt with words most of the characters were, especially Matt and Alicia. Matt, being the narrator of the book, always pointed out Alicia's ugliness. Alicia always pointed out that she thinks Matt is not a respectable person. I couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards Alicia because her wonderful body and brains were always masked by the fact that everyone sees her as ugly. She never could love herself. I also love how the touch of unimportant characters added to the book because every character as unimportant as they were, added to Matt's misfortune in one way or another. The one thing this book taught me is that even in the darkest clouds, there is always a silver lining. This is a well-written book!
