Wayne’s plot was made to gallop, and it does not disappoint ... It’s not just the sex that’s provocative; it’s the way the reader is steadily pulled into Conor’s dilemma... to the point that some of his actions seem almost justifiable. It takes a long time narratively to root against him at all.
[A] well-paced, smart, class-obsessed thriller ... The tone of The Winner has a creepy Highsmithian placidity, coolly measured while depicting bad things being done and cannily covering up the evidence ... A savvy take on sex, money and power ... He can write a thoughtful novel about moral ambiguity and corruption that’s also a movie-ready page turner, with enough room for a sequel.
Wayne skillfully orchestrates the whipsaw in [Conor's] consciousness between reproachful self-knowledge and slimy self-justification ... Class is a subject seldom addressed in contemporary American fiction ... Teddy Wayne’s latest makes a welcome contribution to the neglected subject.
Terrific ... The Winner, which has some very canny things to say about class and privilege, owes its biggest debt to Theodore Dreiser. This is An American Tragedy diabolically turned on its head.
Wayne has built his career by crafting unlikable male protagonists and wielding a sharply honed narrative voice, and these skills culminate in The Winner ... Wayne excels at creating rich characters who readers empathize with and can relate to. They are everyman-archetypes, if everyman was rotten to the core ... The success of The Winner stems from the effort Wayne put into retaining the reader’s sympathy for the protagonist, even long after his descent into despicability ... There are moments in the narrative where procedural elements slow down the pacing, and Conor probably should have spent another year or two in law school. But these are relatively minor quibbles. Wayne has packaged a literary examination of wealth and privilege as a summer thriller. We should feel shame for allowing Wayne to manipulate us into sympathizing with Conor O’Toole, but our failure speaks to the strength of his writing. The Winner delivers another scathing indictment of human nature, even if that means indicting ourselves.
The Winner isn't as nuanced as similar novels, but readers who want a light read and enjoy seeing bad people get their comeuppance will find many scoundrels to root against in this ferocious book
The summer idyll, the comedy of manners, turns gruesome, as lies and rationalization lead to way worse. A novel that puts a fresh twist on getting what you deserve.
Underheated ... Wayne’s prose teeters on the precipice between stirring and overwrought... and the pacing is lethally slow, without sufficient atmosphere to offset the lack of action.
