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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
Exhilarating ride. The excesses documented in this book are almost unbelievable, and yet they ring true. The 90s was a crazy time period, and anyone with ambition who was there at the right place and right time could have probably ridden the success wave.
Crazy life; easy read
Jordan led a crazy life, had plenty of fun, and lived through the crash to tell his story. 3 stars on the story; bonus star because it's an easy read.
Jordan led a crazy life, had plenty of fun, and lived through the crash to tell his story. 3 stars on the story; bonus star because it's an easy read.
While interesting, I can’t help but think that the movie is massively superior.
I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again. The Duchess, "loins," Ludes--good god. Themes that are exciting and superficially appealing were repeated to the point that I think my next book will have to be a Computer Science textbook. I can't help but think: what in the world was in the original 1200 page manuscript that he gave to his editor?
I don't mean to imply that this was a worthless read. Character development was (mostly) quite good. He detailed bouts of paranoia in stunning detail. The rehab speech was powerful. Given the content and length of the book, a tell-all conclusion would have been appropriate. Instead, the epilogue spanned about two pages and the book ends on a subdued note. It cheapened the reading experience. But, don't forget to buy the sequel! You've got to be kidding me.
See this review and others on my blog
I don't mean to imply that this was a worthless read. Character development was (mostly) quite good. He detailed bouts of paranoia in stunning detail. The rehab speech was powerful. Given the content and length of the book, a tell-all conclusion would have been appropriate. Instead, the epilogue spanned about two pages and the book ends on a subdued note. It cheapened the reading experience. But, don't forget to buy the sequel! You've got to be kidding me.
See this review and others on my blog
Mình đã rất expect cuốn này vì ấn tượng về phim rất tốt dù mình đã xem từ lâu r. Nhưng đọc mình thấy khá thất vọng. Kể dài dòng, chủ yếu để mô tả sự giàu sang và cuộc sống phóng túng. Không đi sâu vào tâm lý nhân vật, khá nông. Chắc do cuốn này là tự truyện chứ k phải truyện
What a roller coaster ride. I enjoyed the movie and the book even more. I love a good cautionary tale.
What an appalling book. For starters, it’s the raunchiest thing I’ve ever read. When the author isn’t describing sex with his wife, or sex with hookers, he’s objectifying every woman he sees with graphic descriptions of their anatomy or discussing the state of his erection. When he’s not doing any of those things - and sometimes even while he is - he’s describing all manner of drug consumption, obsession, and abuse. I mean, I guess I knew going in that this book was about a drug and sex addict, so I shouldn’t have been too surprised. It didn’t even bother me too much at first, but I don’t know if it got worse as the book went on or if it was just the slow accumulation of the sheer quantity of material, but by page 516 or so I was exhausted by the debauchery.
Speaking of exhaustion, it wasn’t only the hedonism itself that grated at me, but its numbing repetitiveness. I don’t know how many times he talked about the “loamy loins” of his “luscious Duchess” or the “drool” of a Quaaludes high. When it wasn’t repeating itself, the storytelling suffered by trying to be so high-energy, so over-the-top, so exaggerated with the author’s absurd self-conception that at least half of the reconstructed details aren’t even believable. (Did I mention the heavy dose of racial stereotyping?)
Try to look past the shock-value satire, and we find deeper problems. The author’s relationship with money was so toxic that it gave me new appreciation for modern leftists’ desires to (metaphorically) “eat the rich.” Now I’m a proud capitalist (though far from a dogmatic one). I have no grudges toward billionaires who acquire their wealth by selling better spreadsheet software, better e-commerce experiences, or better electric cars, which millions of people voluntarily purchase because it makes their lives better, too. Innovation brings economic growth, which is not zero-sum. But that doesn’t mean other people can’t come along and do zero-sum things with the wealth others create. The author basically became a multi-millionaire by manipulating pump-and-dump penny stocks, deceptively hawking them to moderately wealthy business folk (who probably actually contributed to society to earn the money they used to buy Stratton’s worthless stock picks), and doing whatever else he could get away with to skim off even more. (In the end he’s literally proud of the fact that he had ripped off thousands of dollars from the leader of a rehab organization who basically saved his life from drugs.) The closest the author came to actually adding value to the world through legitimate exchange was assisting Steve Madden’s budding shoe business, but even there the author’s activities mostly consisted of scheming how to scam Steve out of as much money as possible.
But if the corruption involved in the author’s accumulation of wealth was bad enough, the corruption involved in using it was even worse. Besides the tired stream of drugs and hookers, the author developed a bloated sense of entitlement, bribing policemen to get out of tickets, bribing the hospital to bump someone else to get his newborn’s heart looked at first, and otherwise using his wealth and privilege to get special treatment everywhere he went, even in rehab, as if waiting in lines, mingling with non-millionaires, or actually ever facing any consequences for his behavior was some kind of preposterous concept beneath someone of his intelligence, riches, and/or ability to consume copious amounts of drugs.
Now let’s go even deeper. The saddest part of the whole thing, is that after using his brilliant charisma to motivate young stockbrokers to fleece investors out of money, manipulate his family and friends into serving his own ends, and finally almost kill himself, the author is now turning around to use his brilliant charisma on all of us, spinning a life story cleverly massaged to make himself out to be a sympathetic hero who lived a really crazy life, hoping you won’t slow down long enough to think twice about all the incredibly indefensible things he did. I mean, when the dude’s yacht is sinking (because he was demented enough to insist on taking several close friends and family into a storm), he convinces one friend to literally endure electric shocks in the turbid water collecting below deck to rescue his special stash of drugs, and he’s proud of it. I’m actually very glad the author survived his ordeal and congratulate him for his successful rehab. I’m even willing to grant some understanding that a lot of his manic behavior was influenced by his very serious addiction. What I can’t condone, however, is the utter lack of remorse and repentance for all the harmful ways everyone else was affected by those actions, but instead trying to sweep all that under the rug in the name of just telling a wild story. The only part I actually enjoyed was the brief peak (however reliable) into the inner workings of one small part of the financial sector of New York City in the pre-Internet days, and the only reason I’m not giving this book the minimum number of stars is because it’s good for naive and trusting people like me to remember that this kind of corruption and self-serving greed actually exists.
Speaking of exhaustion, it wasn’t only the hedonism itself that grated at me, but its numbing repetitiveness. I don’t know how many times he talked about the “loamy loins” of his “luscious Duchess” or the “drool” of a Quaaludes high. When it wasn’t repeating itself, the storytelling suffered by trying to be so high-energy, so over-the-top, so exaggerated with the author’s absurd self-conception that at least half of the reconstructed details aren’t even believable. (Did I mention the heavy dose of racial stereotyping?)
Try to look past the shock-value satire, and we find deeper problems. The author’s relationship with money was so toxic that it gave me new appreciation for modern leftists’ desires to (metaphorically) “eat the rich.” Now I’m a proud capitalist (though far from a dogmatic one). I have no grudges toward billionaires who acquire their wealth by selling better spreadsheet software, better e-commerce experiences, or better electric cars, which millions of people voluntarily purchase because it makes their lives better, too. Innovation brings economic growth, which is not zero-sum. But that doesn’t mean other people can’t come along and do zero-sum things with the wealth others create. The author basically became a multi-millionaire by manipulating pump-and-dump penny stocks, deceptively hawking them to moderately wealthy business folk (who probably actually contributed to society to earn the money they used to buy Stratton’s worthless stock picks), and doing whatever else he could get away with to skim off even more. (In the end he’s literally proud of the fact that he had ripped off thousands of dollars from the leader of a rehab organization who basically saved his life from drugs.) The closest the author came to actually adding value to the world through legitimate exchange was assisting Steve Madden’s budding shoe business, but even there the author’s activities mostly consisted of scheming how to scam Steve out of as much money as possible.
But if the corruption involved in the author’s accumulation of wealth was bad enough, the corruption involved in using it was even worse. Besides the tired stream of drugs and hookers, the author developed a bloated sense of entitlement, bribing policemen to get out of tickets, bribing the hospital to bump someone else to get his newborn’s heart looked at first, and otherwise using his wealth and privilege to get special treatment everywhere he went, even in rehab, as if waiting in lines, mingling with non-millionaires, or actually ever facing any consequences for his behavior was some kind of preposterous concept beneath someone of his intelligence, riches, and/or ability to consume copious amounts of drugs.
Now let’s go even deeper. The saddest part of the whole thing, is that after using his brilliant charisma to motivate young stockbrokers to fleece investors out of money, manipulate his family and friends into serving his own ends, and finally almost kill himself, the author is now turning around to use his brilliant charisma on all of us, spinning a life story cleverly massaged to make himself out to be a sympathetic hero who lived a really crazy life, hoping you won’t slow down long enough to think twice about all the incredibly indefensible things he did. I mean, when the dude’s yacht is sinking (because he was demented enough to insist on taking several close friends and family into a storm), he convinces one friend to literally endure electric shocks in the turbid water collecting below deck to rescue his special stash of drugs, and he’s proud of it. I’m actually very glad the author survived his ordeal and congratulate him for his successful rehab. I’m even willing to grant some understanding that a lot of his manic behavior was influenced by his very serious addiction. What I can’t condone, however, is the utter lack of remorse and repentance for all the harmful ways everyone else was affected by those actions, but instead trying to sweep all that under the rug in the name of just telling a wild story. The only part I actually enjoyed was the brief peak (however reliable) into the inner workings of one small part of the financial sector of New York City in the pre-Internet days, and the only reason I’m not giving this book the minimum number of stars is because it’s good for naive and trusting people like me to remember that this kind of corruption and self-serving greed actually exists.
I tried with this one but I had to stop before I finished. I just didn't care. I don't mind reading about an anti-hero but this guy does not think he's an anti-hero. He's an ass but throughout all of his antics is his bro humor. He's just so so impressed with himself.
Also, it's just terribly written. He uses the word "loins" so many times. If I got a dollar for every "loins" I would have made a killing. I wonder if Jordan wrote this with a thesaurus nearby. He uses big words when not necessary. He says someone wears perfume insouciantly. I mean honestly . . . what the heck?
Also, it's just terribly written. He uses the word "loins" so many times. If I got a dollar for every "loins" I would have made a killing. I wonder if Jordan wrote this with a thesaurus nearby. He uses big words when not necessary. He says someone wears perfume insouciantly. I mean honestly . . . what the heck?
One of the few times I thought the movie was better than the book.