Who can forget Sherman McCoy's unfortunate drive through the Bronx in Tom Wolfe's classic, The Bonfire of the Vanities? Or what about Charlie Keleman's close encounter with three sharks in Top Producer. If you like financial fiction, here are five books that belong on your shelf. Are there others you'd like to add to our literary Wall Street of fame? |
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Okay, okay. Liar's Poker is non-fiction. We don't care. Michael Lewis' portrait of bond traders, from 1984 through the crash of 1987, is still appointment reading. We like to think of Liar's Poker as fact that could be fiction. It's that good. |
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Here's "fiction that could be fact" according to Norb Vonnegut. Top Producer is a must read—whether you're considering a career on Wall Street or need company at the beach. John Searles, Book Editor for Cosmopolitan, said, "It's a corporate thriller from a guy who lived in that world for many years. So he knows what he's talking about." |
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The Bonfires of the Vanities arrived in 1987, and it's still brilliant today. Tom Wolfe made "masters of the universe" an everyday expression in conversations about Wall Street. It's easy to forget that The Bonfires of the Vanities was Wolfe's first novel. When he delivered this classic, he was best known for his non-fiction works including The Right Stuff.
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What's Ben Mezrich's book doing here? Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is non-fiction. You might argue it's not even about Wall Street. But we disagree. And we pose the following question: What's the difference between Vegas and a hedge fund?
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The Chairman. No, we're not talking about a 1969 film starring Gregory Peck, who travels to China with a bomb planted inside his head. We're talking about Stephen Frey's novel. In The Chairman Frey introduced Christian Gilette, the billionaire hero of an ongoing series. We especially like Frey's detailed knowledge of the capital markets.
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