Not a formal synopsis! Just my own notes
A cross between Falling Down, Taxi Driver and Less Than Zero.
Narrated by the lead character. This is necessary because he interacts with others infrequently.
Lotto is such a fixture in society, most of us do not put much thought into why we want to win – especially not enough thought relative to how much we put into it over the years. I don’t have fancy tastes – or needs – so my default answer to the fantasy what would you do with it is charity. I’d like to make a difference. My lousy $10 gamble each week cannot make a difference to anything, cannot even pay food for a rescue pet. But millions, that can make a a difference. And then when I won, it opened up doors into my psyche that I could not have even known were there, otherwise.
19, autistic, OCD, parents dead, lives alone in the family home.Works at a warehouseEats plain food.Methodical habits.No friends, no life.TV, video games, work, sleep, no-brand lemonade.
Work colleague used to have a girlfriend, who would visit him at work sometimes. Barry had imaginings aboput her, dreamed about her, desired her. She dies of a drug overdose. Colleague told the police who her dealer was but nothing was done. This torments Barry, makes him angry. He sees the dealer sometimes when he walks to the supermarket. Dreams of killing him, but he is weak and useless.
Then he wins lotto. He goes to shopping malls, and wants for nothing. He goes to a resort, and experiments with getting drunk. He goes to fancy clothing stores and looks wrong in everything. He looks through a list of 1000 charities.
He passes the drug dealer again and on a whim he follows him. He sits in the same Maccas and observes him, making calls and texts. He follows him to an apartment building.
At home Barry starts planning. Devices. A stealth van. More following, and gets an understanding of who the dealer’s supplier is, location. He rents apartments overlooking where dealers do their street trade, and films them, follows them.He ends up with a big flowchart of an entire crime ring. He goes to the police. They do nothing.
He decides to infiltrate them, as a customer. He integrates himself into a drug, alcohol, party culture. He quite likes it. He becomes friends with a prostitute. Meanwhile his following takes a twist, he starts stalking a woman he fancies (but doesn’t know).
He gets close to a senior drug figure, someone who he wants to kill, because he is nasty and cruel to people and animals.
He gets a gun (not easily, it is a whole subplot, the difficulty it is for someone like Barry, in a country like Australia)
He cannot go through with it.
The prostitute is in trouble and needs his help.
The woman he stalks goes on multiple dates with someone
He orders a hitman on the dark web.
He goes into business (as a silent investor) with a drug lord
And everything falls apart at once, and despite his ineptitude, the bad guy dies, the prostitute is saved, and he gets the number of the woman he is stalking.
Somewhere along the way we get a hint about what he can use his $100M for.
We see tech in bad ways
Robots – this is 5 years in the future – that people tip over.
Self driving cars that are frustrating.
Tracking tech
Surveillance tech
Drug tech – microdosing and cool drugs that are actually quite pointless.
An anti-hangover drug
Bitcoin
We might see how Barry avoids surveillance when he infiltrates them.