[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-114651-en":3,"doc-seo-114651-105":28,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":89},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":20,"language":21,"language_code":22,"site_id":23,"html_lang":22,"table_of_contents":24,"faqs":25,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":26,"read_time":27},114651,687197207057,"Sage","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0",1,"Story & Novel","The Return of the Player - Michael Tolkin","The Return of the Player follows Griffin Mill as his financial collapse erupts from private investments and a damaging merger, leaving him deeply depressed and unable to hide the consequences. While only his closest circles feel the shock—especially through the strain on his marriages—Lisa pursues legal action after learning his financial state, reflecting on divorce calculations, strained income, and the brutal arithmetic of assets. The opening frames impotence, depression, and mounting uncertainty as catalysts for decisions that reshape relationships.","THE RETURN OF THE PLAYER  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nALSO BY MICHAEL TOLKIN  \nThe Player Among the Dead  \nUnder Radar  \nThree Screenplays: The Player, The Rapture, The New Age  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nTHE RETURN OF THE PLAYER  \nMichael Tolkin  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nCopyright © 2006 by Michael Tolkin  \nAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in areview. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. Selection from pages 374–377 of Commentary on the Torah by Elliott Friedman copyright © 2000 by Richard Elliott Friedman, reprinted with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Published simultaneously in Canada Printed in the United States of America  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \neBook ISBN-13: 978-1-5558-4748-7  \nGrove Press an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.  \n841 Broadway New York, NY 10003 Distributed by Publishers Group West  \n[www.groveatlantic.com](www.groveatlantic.com)  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nFor Stephen, Garen, Teddy, and Leo  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nSome of this book was written at Yaddo. I am grateful for the privilege.  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nI invited W. D. Howells to come with us to the first night of Clyde Fitch’s dramatization of The House of Mirth. The play had already been tried out on the road, and in spite of Fay Davis’s exquisite representation of Lily Bart I knew that (owing to my refusal to let the heroine survive) it was foredoomed to failure. Howells doubtless knew it also, and not improbably accepted my invitation for that very reason; a fact worth recording as an instance of his friendliness to young authors, and also on account of the lapidary phrase in which, as we left the theater, he summed up the reason for the play’s failure.  \n“Yes—what the American public always wants is a tragedy with a happy ending.”  \n—Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance  \n[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com)  \nOne  \nGriffin Mill was broke, he was down to his last six million dollars. Noone knew he was ruined—not Lisa, his wife; not June, his first wife; not even his lawyer—but the $3 million in investments that he made in the late 1990s (on the advice of his business manager, convinced of a permanent new economy charged by an expansion of wealth made possible by technology), having reached $22 million in February of 2001, were now barely doubled; and what might have been $25 million—if the Studio’s stock had once again reached $80, and he could have exercised his option for a half-million shares at $30—was now gone forever, because the parent company had made a stupid merger, box office was down, it would never return, and the stock hadn’t seen better than $17 in five years. He owed June and their two children, Ethan and Jessa, $300,000 a year out of his salary of $1.5 million before taxes, but since his income after taxes was barely $750,000 a year, that left him only $450,000 to spend after the alimony. He paid two mortgages. If he sold his house with Lisa he might clear a million, but where would they go? The distress of his situation made him impotent, and he was allergic to Viagra.  \nIt was Griffin’s impotence and depression that had sent Lisa to a divorce lawyer, who asked her to secretly make copies of Griffin’s financial statements. Griffin, who loved his second wife and believed in the strength of their marriage much as he once believed in the value of Global Crossing (high of $61, low of zero), had never established a way of hiding his assets, and his prenuptial agr","cbCaifZbylo4fggW","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifZbylo4fggW","pdf",782662,196,"English","en",105,"# One\n## Griffin Mill’s financial collapse\n## Lisa’s legal strategy","[{\"question\":\"What triggers Griffin Mill’s crisis at the beginning of the story?\",\"answer\":\"Griffin’s money situation collapses as investments made in the late 1990s fail to keep their value, compounded by a disastrous parent-company merger, weaker box office, and declining stock performance.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does Lisa decide to involve a divorce lawyer?\",\"answer\":\"Griffin’s impotence and depression lead Lisa to seek legal help, and the lawyer advises her to secretly copy Griffin’s financial statements.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the lawyer’s analysis affect Lisa’s options for divorce?\",\"answer\":\"The lawyer shows that Lisa cannot afford a divorce because her share of stock would be under $5 million, which would yield only about $150,000 a year at a conservative 3% return.\"}]",1785401927,302,{"code":4,"msg":29,"data":30},"ok",{"site_id":23,"language":22,"slug":31,"title":13,"keywords":32,"description":14,"schema_data":33,"social_meta":84,"head_meta":86,"extra_data":88,"updated_unix":26},"the-return-of-the-player-michael-tolkin","",{"@graph":34,"@context":83},[35,52,66],{"@type":36,"itemListElement":37},"BreadcrumbList",[38,42,46,49],{"item":39,"name":40,"@type":41,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":43,"name":44,"@type":41,"position":45},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":47,"name":12,"@type":41,"position":48},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",3,{"item":50,"name":13,"@type":41,"position":51},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-return-of-the-player-michael-tolkin/114651/",4,{"url":50,"name":13,"@type":53,"author":54,"headline":13,"publisher":56,"fileFormat":59,"inLanguage":22,"description":14,"dateModified":60,"datePublished":60,"encodingFormat":59,"isAccessibleForFree":61,"interactionStatistic":62},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":55},"Person",{"url":39,"name":57,"@type":58},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-30",true,{"@type":63,"interactionType":64,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":65},"ViewAction",{"@type":67,"mainEntity":68},"FAQPage",[69,75,79],{"name":70,"@type":71,"acceptedAnswer":72},"What triggers Griffin Mill’s crisis at the beginning of the story?","Question",{"text":73,"@type":74},"Griffin’s money situation collapses as investments made in the late 1990s fail to keep their value, compounded by a disastrous parent-company merger, weaker box office, and declining stock performance.","Answer",{"name":76,"@type":71,"acceptedAnswer":77},"Why does Lisa decide to involve a divorce lawyer?",{"text":78,"@type":74},"Griffin’s impotence and depression lead Lisa to seek legal help, and the lawyer advises her to secretly copy Griffin’s financial statements.",{"name":80,"@type":71,"acceptedAnswer":81},"How does the lawyer’s analysis affect Lisa’s options for divorce?",{"text":82,"@type":74},"The lawyer shows that Lisa cannot afford a divorce because her share of stock would be under $5 million, which would yield only about $150,000 a year at a conservative 3% 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