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Loading... Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoffby Andrew KIRTZMAN, Bernie MADOFF (Associated Name)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book is an easy read and I finished it in two days. There is not much new information about the actual fraud; many of the events described in the book have already been discussed in various articles and newspapers. There is, however, a significant amount of information about the young Bernie Madoff - his childhood years, college experience and family background. All of this is interesting reading, but unfortunately gives little insight into the motivation behind the heinous crimes he committed later in life. The behind the scenes details, especially of the last twenty years, focused more on the outside relationships - how he connected with investors and how he built up his mystique - than on the inside workings of how the scheme was conducted. Highlights include the fascinating (and appalling) facts regarding the SEC investigation which in essence cleared Madoff just a few years before he was exposed, as well as the allegations (ignored by the government) that were raised for years by a few private citizens. All in all, it is a worthwhile read if you are keenly interested in one of the biggest frauds ever committed. ( )
[Betrayal is] a perfect meld of business details and personalities, including the still unresolved role played by Madoff's wife and sons in the scam. The author is more interested than Arvedlund in Madoff the man and in the emotional aspect of this financial soap opera. He has perfect pitch when it comes to the agony and shame of the Jewish community for finding such a gonif (Yiddish for thief) in its midst. Writing melodramatically about his subject’s “descent into evil,” Mr. Kirtzman argues that Mr. Madoff was not, as he himself implied, “a good man who got into trouble late in his career and couldn’t get out of it,” but someone who likely began “his criminal operation when he was in his 20s”... Mr. Kirtzman’s determination to construct a novelistic, you-are-there sort of narrative leads him, especially in the book’s closing pages, to relate events from an omniscient viewpoint — going so far as to describe Mr. Madoff’s thoughts (“A calm washed over him. It was time to reveal his secret”) as he plots “the rollout of his surrender” — when in fact the author is often relying on second-hand sources or a single party’s perspective on events.
"Accurate and highly readable." --Wall Street Journal Emmy award-winning journalist Andrew Kirtzman, explores "The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff" in Betrayal--an in-depth, personal look at the architect of the biggest financial fraud in history. The New York Times calls Betrayal, "a novelistic, you-are-there sort of narrative," and the shocking story of the King of the Swindlers--and his hundreds of celebrity and corporation victims, and the everyday people who tragically invested their life savings with him--does indeed read like a page-turning thriller. But it's all amazingly, disturbingly true. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)332.6092Social sciences Economics Finance Investing Biography And History BiographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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