[.uk] Bombardiers (ISBN 0140254501)

Amazon.com Review:
Regardless of how you feel about investment banking ("It's a complete scam!"; "It's a great way to make a killing!"), this non-stop novelistic indictment of the shark-infested financial world--and by extension, much of the corporate world--is bound to make you laugh uproariously--and think deeply. As fast-paced and frenetic as the stock exchange on a Monday morning.

Fragmented and uneven:
Sid Geeder is a "bombardier", an investment banker who spends every waking moment working for the Atlantic Pacific Corporation. When he's not working, he's thinking about work. Stressed beyond his limits, the only thing that keeps him going is knowing that he only has nine months before he can cash in his stock options, and retire at the age of thirty-four. But Sid isn't the only trader with problems. Eggs Igino is the newcomer to the team, and he worships Sid as a mentor. As he tries to get the hang of life on the trading floor, Eggs finds he may be in over his head. Gorgeous Lisa Lisa may be a good trader in her own right, but she constantly encounters difficulties as she tries to make it in a man's world while hoping to find true love. And when Coyote Jack suddenly becomes unable to pronounce a single number without stuttering, he finds himself managing this team of money-hungry, dysfunctional employees. BOMBARDIERS moves at lightning speed, but despite the fast pace of the novel, the story falls flat. Perhaps it's because the characters don't seem real enough. They don't evolve, change, or grow over the course of the novel. Or perhaps the fault lies in the overuse of investment jargon and the utter focus on the life of a day-trader, all of which loses steam after the first hundred pages. Po Bronson drew on his own experience as a day trader to write this book, and it shows. His knowledge of the business is unquestionable, but BOMBARDIERS would have been a much more engaging book had he limited the number of essays on bond sales, and focused more on plot and characterization. Sudden and frequent point of view changes also left me dazed, and I often had to backtrack and re-read entire paragraphs to figure out what was happening. A fragmented, uneven look at the world of investment banking, BOMBARDIERS falls short of an intriguing read.

The Truth Hurts:
There is no better book that shares the hypocrasies and truisms investment banking than Bronson's book. Having worked in this industry for a number of years, I can attest that there is far more in this book that is true than fiction - as hard as it might seem for someone not affiliated with this industry to grasp. Unfortunately, only insiders will appreciate how revealing this book is because there is so much that will whiz over the average readers head. Much of this, to the average reader, is pure silliness and fun. But it's not so.

Uproarious, disquieting and all too real:
This is the Catch 22 of the stock market set, sort of, in which the "Third Law of Information Economics" has a good solid ring to it, over sands of shifting substance. Hilarious and manic, this first novel features a room full of brokers strung out on fear and greed. "It was a filthy profession, but the money was addicting, and one addiction led to another, and they were all going to hell." The book's great strength is the writing, which snaps and sizzles with wicked glee and doesn't let up from first page to last. Its weaknesses are lack of plot and no main character. Sid Geeder is the closest Bronson comes to a protagonist. An old man of 34, with just nine months to go before his five years are up and he can cash in his shares and become a rich man who will never have to work again, he's the King of Mortgages. The more he hates an offering the better he can sell it, in hopes one of these deals may finally bring the whole corrupt system crashing down. He sells the Resolution Trust Corp.'s "preposterous intention to borrow a gazillion dollars in order to shut down some thrifts," by assuring his accounts "that the government is a safe investment because we can count on them never to solve their problems." Eggs Igino is the new kid, the maverick. "In a world of unmerciful uniformity, rebels were hard to come by," muses sales manager Coyote Jack. He was King of Mortgages in the old days, four or five years earlier when "Mortgage bonds were brand-new and nobody understood them, so they were easy to sell, because no client wanted to admit he lacked the intellectual brain power to understand these complex variable cash flows." Nowadays he clings to his own Third Law: "Never hire anyone you can't fire," and berates his crew unmercifully. "Coyote Jack watched with unbearable pleasure. To have Sidney Geeder howling angry and Eggs Igino wildly subordinate was the perfect market condition for selling bonds." The deals get more and more outrageous until finally U.S. capitalism has decided to attempt a hostile corporate takeover of the assetts of the Domican Republic. Eggs Igino mysteriously disappears and is there ever any hope Sidney will get to cash in his shares and retire? Forget suspense, story line, all that rot. This is your national deficit at work and as your peals of laughter slowly subside, you'll be left with the disquieting notion that every word is still true, though the book was first published in 1995.

Praise from a Fellow Writer of a Finance Novel:
Po Bronson's book is a clever satirization of life on a bond sales desk. Having been on a trading floor, I found that the antics and brutally competitive environment depicted by Bronson were wonderfully authentic. Bronson also does a great job in explaining esoteric market concepts well. I know the challenge of accomplishing that from writing my work on the finance world: "Imposters at the Gate: A Novel about Private Equity". The uproarious humor and ease of use of language make it a great read!

Funny, very easy read ... and true:
Why you shouldn't trust your broker, or get a job in the industry! Po Bronson worked in the business and his account rings true.