“But you worship money, Nate. You’re part of a culture where everything is measured by money. It’s a religion.” “True. But sex is pretty important too.” “Okay, money and sex. What else?” “Fame. Everybody wants to be a celebrity.” “It’s a sad culture. People live in a frenzy. They work all the time to make money to buy things to impress other people. They’re measured by what they own.” This is part of a conversation between two characters, Nate and Rachel, in John Grisham’s novel, The Testament (1999). Rachel is a missionary in a remote part of a swampy land called Pantanal in Brazil. She was the illegitimate daughter of one of the richest men in the world, an American industrialist named Troy Phelan. But she had severed all links with her father (there was little more link than her name) after the death of her mother. She had even changed her name so that nobody would ever link her with Phel...
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