Story was compelling. Young man works for investment firm. Makes a boat load of money. Spends a boat load of money on women, fast cars, drugs and other extravagances. Power and money gets to his head. Mistreats people, mainly women he sleeps with. Then young man loses job. Becomes a pariah---no one wants to hire him. Wife divorces him. Good-bye opulent life style.

Time for a comenback but it’s not that easy. He has to reckon with the demons inside him. Spends time working in a book store and trying to get by on a very low income and diminished expectations.

Well written book. Lots of karma inside...
( )

I almost gave up on this one a hundred times, and hated the first 2/3 of the book, but Holly and the last few chapters saved it for me. ( )

A fun look at the 1980s from the perspective of a high-riding Wall Street trader who made and spent huge amounts of money during the tumultuous decade. Rooney writes from his older and wiser perspective as he recounts how he gained and lost everything - his job, his home, his wife, and his friends. Rooney's downfall is very human at times - it takes him a surprisingly long time to realize how fall he has fallen in the world - and almost too easy to relate to. Good, but not amazing reading (not quite as good as the same author's novel A Reliable Wife). ( )

I both liked and disliked The Fall of Princes. Basically, it's about the self-excessive lifestyles that went on in NYC in the 1980s. As usual, Robert Goolrick's writing is great (I have read and loved his past two novels), but here I just didn't like the protagonist, a man who seemingly gets what he deserves, and he reflects on that. I don't think any reader could possibly like this person -- certainly, almost no one else in this novel liked him either.

It wasn't until the last forty pages of this novel that I finally started feeling some sympathy for this train-wreck of a guy. I wish Goolrick had made Rooney, and the people around him, at least a bit more likeable. I got the sense (from what I've read of Goolrick's background) that this novel may be semi-autobiographical, and perhaps for that reason Goolrick didn't want us to like what was going on, or the characters, because he didn't like himself and some of his actions in the past. ( )

4.5 Stars, rounded to 4

In this semi-autobiographical novel, author Robert Goolrick takes us to Wall Street in the boom era of the 1980s. For those men on the Street, life was a never ending party. Loose women, fast cars, high fashion, and an endless supply of drugs and alcohol fueled their nights. But it was also the advent of the AIDS epidemic, and all around them they watched their friends die, fearful of the disease, but also unheeding of the choices they were making.

I was fascinated by this book from start to end. It is brash, bold, and incredibly in your face. The language that Goolrick chose to tell the story was perfectly suited to the time. Told in the first person, Rooney, who lived his life on top of the world before it came tumbling down after one wrong choice on a night like any other, tells us his history and also his present.

This story shares many similarities to the author's own life, though it his not his entirely. I was quite impressed by his ability to fictionalize his story in this manner, giving over just enough elements to lend authenticity, but also not making it all about him. Previously, I had not entertained any thoughts of reading Goolrick's memoirs, The End of the World As We Know It, but it is now solidly on my radar.

This is the second book I've read by this author, and despite their differences in time and content, stylistically they have much in common. I am more than a bit impressed by his ability to write such vastly different stories and yet allow his voice as an author shine through so clearly. His second book, Heading Out to Wonderful, has been taking up space on my Nook for a couple of years, but I will now be making plans to read it very soon. Goolrick has rapidly become one of my favorite contemporary authors and I look forward to reading any future publications. ( )