The Nature of Monsters — Ronald Damien Malfi

RobertCrofton,a socially ineptand naïve young farmboy,arrives in Baltimore to write his first novel and to reacquaint himself with an old home town friend: poet-turned-prizefighter Rory Van Holt. In an effort to resume their peculiar and mysterious friendship, Robert Crofton abruptly ensconces himself in Rory Van Holt's circle of friends-and soon finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire that is their lifestyle.They are corrupt and privileged socialites, damaged by extraordinary wealth, gluttony, greed, arrogance, and power. Dreamlike, the characters floatin and out of Robert's life with inebriated casualness while Robert's innocence invites these characters to subtly abuse and ridicule him while also accepting him, for the purpose of their own relief against monotony, into their monstrous society. When Nigel Sweeny, Robert's eccentric and doomed cousin, falls in love with Donna Taylor, Rory's fiancée, they find themselves trapped in a bizarre and often contradictory love-quadrangle.The Nature of Monsters is both uniquely modern and delicately classic in its style and execution.The story is an exercise in human frailty and love,while exploring the struggle between personal gratification and the damning, acquisitive allure of monetary wealth.