Moral Hazard

A most intelligent book about working on Wall St in speechwriting. Quieter than highly recommended "Bond Girl", Cath is struggling with the endorsements of crap she has to pump out and also with the onset of Alzheimers in her much older husband. Tragedies, both, but the soul selling means very little in comparison to the loss of her beloved after only ten good years.

"All around us, impossible sums of money were heaped on people who were no more deserving of it than any other kind of professional." And that's mild!

The descent of Cath's husband Bailey into dementia is somewhat mitigated by the strong friendship of Mike, a risk manager, who schools Cath at the beginning of her tenure and helps her to become an adept student of mediocre show more Wall St managers.

Most painful is her terrible experience at a hardly disguised St. Vincent's Hospital, where the DNR on Bailey and Cath's wishes are brutally disregarded. I do believe this is a truthful tale and oh so vividly and beautifully written. And it would a way better movie than that idiotic "Blue Jasmine". show less

This was a really interesting book. Cath is a left-wing thinker, forced to work on Wall Street when her much older husband, Bailey, develops alzheimers. She begins to lead a double life - writing for the morally corrupt during the day, spending time with her husband at night. Wall Street and her husband begin to fall apart at the same time, and Cath is struggling to hold her life together. And I'm not giving anything else away.

The book is written in an intimate style and you feel really invested in the story. I was suprised when it was over, though the book didn't feel incomplete. Overall a really interesting read.

This was a beautifully written account of morality in the world of high finance contrasted with the morality, or rather moral dilemmas, in one's personal life. Highly readable.

Moral hazard is about a woman whose husband is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and who, to obtain the money needed for his care in health-care expensive USA, gets a job as speechwriter for a mid-level investment bank on Wall Street. The wife’s name is Cath (not Kate) and the husband’s name is Bailey (not Bob Cato, the name of Jennings’ husband). Kate Jennings, though, did work as a speechwriter on Wall Street. Fictional Bailey and real Bob are both artists/designers, and both men were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but Bailey’s end has a particular drama to suit Jennings’ purpose.

From its very start, in fact, it’s clear that Moral hazard has been carefully written and structured, despite its closeness to Jennings’ life. For my show more full review, please see: https://whisperinggums.com/2016/02/28/kate-jennings-moral-hazard-review/ show less

Compared to Snake, I found this book boring and superficial. I skipped through most of it and just read the parts about Cath and her husband battling the onset of dementia. The bits about her job in the financial industry were extremely dull.

According to the NY Times, this is a fine novel. It is a short novel. It's painless to read but I just don't get it.