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Title: American Sucker by David Denby ISBN: 0-316-19294-5 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.39 (23 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: They Won't Be Making a Movie of This Book
Comment: Unfortunately, I read this book close on the heels of Pete Rose's self-pitying life-story. So I guess I was not in the mood for another guy who's got it all and loses some of it. Boo hoo.
The big difference between Rose and Denby is that Denby can write. I loved Denby's first book and I enjoy his reviews and articles. And I even dabbled in the market along with so many others (although not with the amounts of cash he had to burn). So I thought Denby would have something to say to me.
The market bubble is over and I find it just isn't as fascinating now as it was then. Debny thinks so, too, but I guess he'd already committed to writing this book. And his various obsessions (too late to be a mid-life crisis) are too personal and too common to be terribly interesting.
Several reviews and blurbs have mentioned a similarity to Woody Allen, but I didn't see any humor here. Denby splices parts of movie reviews and magazine articles that he wrote at the time into the narrative and that is interesting, but the attempts to emulate the Great Books seem a bit forced. The Man With The Dutch Masters Face who shouts a stock tip to him in the street, then haunts his dreams, for instance. Honestly.
Denby seems like a nice guy, and we can all sympathize with him, but I think I'll stick to reading his reviews.(H. Cota)
Rating: 5
Summary: Not Just A Financial Story....A Human Story
Comment: This is not just a book about finance, though at first glance it would be easy enough to mistake it for one. The clever cover design resembles a stock ticker, and if you dip into the opening pages, you will learn that this story begins with author and critic David Denby's goal of making a million dollars. Denby wasn't seeking wealth merely for the sake of wealth; at the beginning of 2000, his wife had told him their marriage was at an end. Denby became obsessed with the idea of holding onto the seven-bedroom Manhattan apartment he had shared with her and their two sons. If only he could ride the seemingly steadily rising tide of the stock market and make that million, he could buy out her share and preserve their home.
Denby is a long-time film critic (New York magazine, The New Yorker) and author of "Great Books," a passionate account of his return to college in middle age to rediscover the seminal works of western civilization. Although ostensibly about his financial quest, the reader slowly discovers this book is really about his quest to rebuild and maintain a meaningful life. He comes under the spell of New Economy stars who would fall mightily within a couple of years, including ImClone founder Sam Waksal and Merrill Lynch Internet analyst Henry Blodget. Denby adopted a course he knew was risky (though how risky, he didn't realize) by focusing on new technologies such as ImClone's cancer drugs and the firms producing the tools that would usher in the true Information Superhighway, with the entire contents of the Library of Congress transmitted to the other side of the globe at light speed. Denby works to learn as much as he can about those to whom he has entrusted his money and dreams, and the more he learns, the more aware he becomes of the betrayal that eventually wiped out the savings and shattered the faith of tens, if not hundreds of thousands.
Throughout, Denby is engagingly, openly frank about the impacts of the financial roller coaster ride he experienced. At one time or another, his sleep habits, his bowel habits and his sex life suffered. But what seemed to have been at stake most of all was his sense of self and the realization of the things that really matter in life, including making the most of the limited days we are given. His narrative closes with a hopeful reaffirmation of these core values.
This is passionate, vivid book with lessons for us all.--William C. Hall
Rating: 5
Summary: A gripping read even for the investment neophyte...
Comment: While it's true that Denby is at his heart-wrenching best when he tackles the issues of his personal life (the divorce, the brief addiction to internet porn, his love for his boys, the affair, etc.)the investment stuff is fascinating, too. After having heard the names Waksal and Blodgett thrown around in the news for too long, we now have a vivid portrait of these very human men as seen through Denby's eyes. Denby patiently explains everything from the inner workings of the NASDAQ, and how a drug gets approved with the FDA, without "dumbing down" and keeping the reader glued to their seat. Why has this book been so blasted by other Amazon readers? Denby is a treasure.
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Title: Down and Dirty Pictures : Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film by Peter Biskind ISBN: 068486259X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Hollywood Animal : A Memoir by JOE ESZTERHAS ISBN: 0375413553 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 27 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing by Roger Lowenstein ISBN: 1594200033 Publisher: The Penguin Press Pub. Date: 22 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind ISBN: 1591840082 Publisher: Portfolio Pub. Date: 13 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Great Books by David Denby ISBN: 0684835339 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 25 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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