The Wolf of Wall Street
by Jordan Belfort
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jordan BelfortEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-08-26
ISBN: 0553384775
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of The Wolf of Wall Street
Book Review: Oh wolfie, give it a rest.
Summary: 1 Stars
At one point, I stood far away from the trash can, ready for my free throw. "If I can toss this book in, I don't have to finish it." I missed. Sigh. On the plus side, this book helped me endure a boring shift at work.
If you want to read well-crafted literature that's similar in its subject matter (an actual Wall-Streeter, as opposed to boiler room Wolfie, and his dabblings in misogyny, drugs, excess, crime, etc.), try "American Psycho." Much more worth the time and a real bang-for-your-buck shock value as opposed to this schlock. Brett Easton Ellis is a bona fide writer, Belfort is a clown with a laptop.
Negatives. Where to begin?
I don't believe half of what is in this book, and the half that is true most likely got left out. Am I sniffing a million little pieces -- I mean -- rats? The "piles" of coke on his desk into which he crashes his head like hitting a pillow? Gotta be lifted from Scarface. Hilariously, Belfort claims that the book serves as a warning to prevent others going down the same debauched path. This would be a miraculously caring and selfless feat given the fact that his self-awareness level lurks somewhere down around Dante's ninth circle of hell, if not directly in it.
The "prose" -- loosely termed -- invokes a vision of Belfort yelling this "true" story over thumping sound system to one of his cretinous little friends as they get simultaneous lap dances during a binge-fueled night at Scores. Perhaps a creative writing course might be in order for the next sequel, "Wolfie's Capers in White Collar Camp." You know book number three is inevitable.
He claims that the captain of his yacht referred to the starboard side as the "right." Even at gunpoint, no captain would call use that term, much less risk the lives of guests and crew by sailing out into gale force winds and twenty foot waves, so I wonder what additional sinking-of-the-Nadine info he's lying about/leaving out. He refers to his wife as his most prized "possession," always a nice thing to read as a female. Our Miller Lite heroine does little more than shop, [...], throw water at his face and withhold sex or give him sex, depending on which way the wind doth blow, endowing her character with as much dimension Barbie doll. We endure so much description about her chiseled cheekbones and flowing blonde mane and "loamy loins" (a campy phrase repeated three-countem'-three times!), why can't we learn one iota about her as a person? Why does she put up with his crap? He guesses she likes the "Life" he provides her (duh), but I would have liked more depth when it comes to Nadine. Actually, more depth everywhere would be nice.
There is simply no resolution to all the conflict in this book. He speaks nothing of amends to the hundreds (thousands?) he's screwed over, yet he claims to love The Program. Although now sober, he has not become a new or improved person, and even brags about taking advantage of others in rehab with bribes and motivational speeches to gain unearned privileges. He's still a despicable self-enamored bull artist -- his writing this book proves it. There's no remorse or lesson, it's a 500-page brag session. And it's dedicated to his children? Sad. I hope his children never have to witness how depraved their father portrays himself, or the poor things will need intense therapy and heavy psychotropic meds for the rest of their lives.
I could go on and on but why waste our time? Seriously, save your money for the movie (yep, it's coming in 2010). At least DiCaprio's acting talent may do the story justice, unlike Belfort's writing talent (or lack thereof, that is).
Summary of The Wolf of Wall Street
By day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and international globe-trotting. From the binge that sank a 170-foot motor yacht, crashed a Gulfstream jet, and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to the wife and kids who waited for him at home, and the fast-talking, hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did his bidding, here, in his own inimitable words, is the story of the ill-fated genius they called?In the 1990s Jordan Belfort, former kingpin of the notorious investment firm Stratton Oakmont, became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper who led his merry mob on a wild ride out of the canyons of Wall Street and into a massive office on Long Island. Now, in this astounding and hilarious tell-all autobiography, Belfort narrates a story of greed, power, and excess no one could invent.
Reputedly the prototype for the film Boiler Room, Stratton Oakmont turned microcap investing into a wickedly lucrative game as Belfort?s hyped-up, coked-out brokers browbeat clients into stock buys that were guaranteed to earn obscene profits?for the house. But an insatiable appetite for debauchery, questionable tactics, and a fateful partnership with a breakout shoe designer named Steve Madden would land Belfort on both sides of the law and into a harrowing darkness all his own.
From the stormy relationship Belfort shared with his model-wife as they ran a madcap household that included two young children, a full-time staff of twenty-two, a pair of bodyguards, and hidden cameras everywhere?even as the SEC and FBI zeroed in on them?to the unbridled hedonism of his office life, here is the extraordinary story of an ordinary guy who went from hustling Italian ices at sixteen to making hundreds of millions. Until it all came crashing down?
From the Hardcover edition.
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