‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ is thought-provoking and hilarious

Content warning: Contains mentions of substance abuse. 

Rufi Thorpe’s “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” is an absolute roller coaster. Its pages include everything you could imagine and then some: an affair, young motherhood, wrestling, chicken wings, romance, custody battles, substance abuse, Fortnite and, yes, OnlyFans. It’s as action-packed as it sounds and yet, with a touch of humanity and a whole lot of humor, Thorpe creates the perfect storm of a novel.

Margo Millet, a 20-year-old college student, the daughter of a former Hooters employee and a chronically absent wrestling star falls into an affair with her English professor and gets pregnant. Against nearly everyone in her life’s wishes, she decides to keep the baby. Margo isn’t sure why she wants to do it. Whether to prove she can, to spite the father or to simply do what is right, all she knows is that she wants to keep it.

Margo’s way of navigating the world — by following her wants yet not truly understanding them —  is her most authentic quality. When she keeps the baby, when she allows her ex-pro wrestler and recovering addict father, Jinx, to move in with her, when she fights for custody of her child and even when she joins OnlyFans, Margo makes choices for reasons she does not understand. And she admits that. 

She oscillates between supreme confidence and insecurity, between contentment and despair, security and instability, in a uniquely human way. As a 20-year-old college student myself, I understand the way Margo feels. I, too, often don’t know the true reasoning behind my desires. I don’t always know how to navigate moral gray areas. And, though I try to do the right things, sometimes I feel like a bad person.

It is Margo’s authenticity that keeps the novel on its tracks despite the craziness of the plot. Normally, highly modern references to things like TikTok, Fortnite and OnlyFans make me cringe, but Thorpe is so funny and authentic that it works. Her characterization of these references is so spot-on that hearing Margo talk about posting a TikTok or playing video games sounds like hearing a spunky friend talk about doing the same things, especially since Margo often directly addresses the reader and breaks the fourth wall.

The authenticity of Margo’s emotions extends to everything she does. As a reader, you can feel her love for her son, Bodhi, bursting through the pages. You laugh with her, feel for her when she cries and learn about the crazy world of social media and OnlyFans with her. And, in some of the most emotionally poignant moments of the novel, your heart drops in shock and horror with her.

Thorpe uses Margo’s strong emotions and naivete to explore issues like substance abuse, abortion and sex work, all in a fresh way. Margo’s perspective of her father shifts as her understanding of his addiction, loneliness and the cyclical nature of recovery deepens. She learns that addiction is multidimensional; her father can be tender and helpful, making pasta and cleaning the house, while at the same time struggling with his addiction. Through her own experience, she learns the contradictions in societal pressures around abortion and sex work — how she had to choose between two different kinds of shame over her pregnancy, and how the same men who subscribed to her for her content would send her death threats. Margo’s brutal honesty and reflective nature give Thorpe space to ask nuanced questions about modern morality.

Margo’s interest in literature and perspective, gained from the class she took with her baby’s father on narrative perspective, adds another dimension to the story. Margo switches between first and third person, recognizing that sometimes a third-person perspective can help us be more charitable to our past selves. As Margo creates her OnlyFans persona, she thinks about what goes into creating a character, how we get to know an author through her writing and how we, as readers, communicate with the literature we consume.

“Margo’s Got Money Troubles” is hilarious, upbeat and extremely imaginative. Margo’s uniquely hopeful, albeit sometimes naive, perspective in the face of her many challenges moves the plot forward in a positive direction. I found myself captivated by Margo’s quick wit and impulsivity, always wondering what she might do or say next. Thorpe captured the perfect balance of plot-driven conflict and humor to make “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” entertaining, thought-provoking and utterly unpredictable all at once.

Daily Arts Writer Claire Rock can be reached at rockcl@umich.edu.

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