DOLLARTORIUM

Praise for DOLLARTORIUM

Dollartorium took me by surprise. A few pages in, I didn’t think I was going to like it at all. Everything about it seemed too earnest, too on-the nose. The narrator’s voice was unusual and a little heavy-handed, the characters were cardboard cut-outs, and there was something cartoonish about the whole thing. But then it clicked. I’m not sure why, but about 50 pages in to Ron Pullins’ book, I bought into the storytelling and it became the strangest and most memorable book I’ve read in some time.

—TURN & WORK

Dollartorium captures that tension with clarity, humor, and an undercurrent of quiet anger that makes it linger after the final page.

—LITERARY TITAN

Pullins balances humor and social commentary deftly, using Ralph's "corn dog morality" as a counterpoint to the Dollartorium's teachings that "One will never get rich merely working for a living." Ralph's journey through this bizarre world of financial education builds toward an inevitable reckoning as the Dollartorium empire collapses under its own corrupt practices.

—BOOK BELOW

Uncomfortably relevant, this is a modern satire that entertains while asking hard questions about success and what we’re willing to sacrifice in its pursuit.

—SUBLIME BOOK REVIEW

Ron Pullins’ Dollartorium is an absolute delight, bursting with imagination and wit that transforms a story about money and ambition into pure enjoyment. Ralph, Stella, and Phyllis come alive through their actions and choices, from Ralph’s careful devotion to making corn dogs to Stella’s thoughtful support of her father and Phyllis’s comically extreme pursuit of wealth.

—READER’S FAVORITE

As the novel details Ralph’s journey, it pokes fun at greed, capitalism, Republicans and the American dream. While it’s quirky and silly, liberal readers will likely enjoy this cautionary tale against unchecked greed. Pullins is an engaging storyteller, and silliness is part of his charm.

—BLUE INK REVIEW

Ron Pullins leverages satire to make Dollartorium a thought-provoking story while eliciting plenty of laughs.

—NOVELS ALIVE

"An honest worker is seduced by the allure of corporate America in this funny, purposeful novel”

—Independent Book Review

Pullins utterly skewers our era of death rattle capitalism. Like the great satirists before him, you don't know if you should laugh or cry--or both. Fun read, fun ride. We might as well giggle on our way to ruin." 

                              —Joshua Mohr, author Unnamed Press

The Dollartorium is an allegory for our times, a surreal meditation on the illusions, and delusions, that underpin late-stage capitalism and a society in which almost every relationship is monetized. It depicts an American Dream turned nightmare, while celebrating beacons of integrity and love in turbulent times, as well as the possibility of awakening. It provides an unsparing look at rampant greed and still radiates hope in the human spirit.

—Alice Hatcher, author, Dzanc Books

The novel (Dollartorium) is incredibly strong. There isn’t any excess fat on it, its sentences are direct and purposeful, its thesis clear. The ingredients here are spare but don’t leave the reader wanting: in a work of absurdist satire like this, it’s good to keep the practical stuff simple. It’s a satire of capitalism that takes Ralph, the owner of a small and honest corn dog business, and throws him into an exaggerated entrepreneurship self-help seminar called the Dollartorium. Ralph’s small business is mainly aimed at making people happy, but his wife, who’s convinced by those awful CNBC-style marketing shows that make you feel bad for caring about anything other than making one dollar into two, pushes him to a capitalist hellscape and we watch to see whether he holds up against that.

—Ted McLoof, Teaching Professor, University of Arizona, author of Anhedonia and Empty Calories and Male Curiosity

Came for the cover (I know, but I like it ok?) stayed for the American business model humor: ‘Sell it quick before someone finds out you have no idea what you're doing.’

—Kayla Christy

In the entertaining satirical novel Dollartorium, a family’s sense of good fortune evolves as they learn to recognize the burdens of serving two masters.

—Reviewed by Karen Rigby

Playlist for DOLLARTORIUM

About RON PULLINS

RON PULLINS is a writer working in Tucson AZ. His works have been published in numerous journals including Typishly (Editor’s Choice), Southwest Review, Shenandoah, Sunspot, etc., and been nominated for Pushcart. Pullins won the 2022 Malcolm Lowry award for Dollartorium, a satirical novel, forthcoming from Unsolicited Press, Feb 2026. His novella, Ice Dancing, 2019, has been published in Sunspot Literary Journal and Fracture will be published in the fall of 2025. Fracture was a finalist and published Sunspot 2023 First Chapter and the novella will be published in Sunspot Fall 2025.  His plays, long and short, have won awards and been produced from coast to coast. A piece of his novel in progress, The Loin, was featured in a radio podcast by Mauhaus Productions, 2025.