Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #788823 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

An empty tale
As an oil trading professional on a business trip, my curisosity was aroused by this book. I was hoping for someone to reflect the true nature of the oil market. Not just its futures exchange facet, but also its physical trading side which is replete with excitement.

Unfortunately, i was sorely disappointed. I fail to see how the world of oil has changed with the opening of the Dubai merc, where less tham a mere couple of thousand lots change hands every day. Dubai is a great city and nation with plenty of opportunities, but this book makes it sound like something earth shattering was done, which is not the case. It was more a case of ho-hum, lets open a new post office.

To make matters worse, as another reviewer pointed out, nothing really happens in the book. Some mild disagreement occurs on the board, some mild threats are made, but everybody is happy in the end. No attempt was made to explore the underpinnings of the market or trading strategies. Rather, we get a childish listing of all the toys people in my industry supposedly play with. Please Mr. Mezrich, can i move to your version of the oil world?

Basically, if you want a colourful description of the trading floor with a few anecdotes thrown in, you would be better off visiting the Nymex floor in person, just dont get there at the opening time described in the book, you'd have to wait an hour! A poor effort overall.

Utter Drivel
It is hard to know where to begin to describe the awfulness of this book. The offensive nature of its description of Dubai, the complete inaccuracy of its description of the oil industry and the utter lack of writing talent. Mezrich's style is pure Mills & Boon, with apologies to Mills & Boon.

As an oil industry professional I was encouraged to read the book by colleagues for a laugh. I guess I did laugh a lot at the bunkum but overall it made me angry rather than amused. I have to assume there was absolutely no checking of any facts, between them the author and his muse couldn't even get the opening time of the Nymex floor right.

'How an Ivy League Kid Changed the World of Oil' - this must be a reference to his hair gel because it certainly has nothing to do with the oil market itself.

Sorry Mezrich, this book is tosh. Readers, you have been warned.

By the way, I wanted to rate this book with no stars but the system wouldn't allow it.

Rigged
Rigged is another story from Ben Mezrich about some smart American grad done good. The author admits that this is his speciality / rut in the book's intro - but the difference between this one and the others is that it is (not to put too fine a point on it) awful, where previously they've been good fun.

Mezrich's prose has always tended towards the breathless hyperbole, but here he excels himself, creating his own fantasy world where he can namedrop brands like an American Psycho (frankly, it seems BMW may have actually paid for product placement in the book), where all women under motherly age are merely beautiful scenery, where effectively he can play out his fantasies of being one of those lucky few men (for in this world, it is only men) who make it rich young.

Casual sexism aside (which it is at least possible to imagine has roots in trading floor reality), this is not necessarily a problem, as it probably adds interest to an essentially dull tale. But this time around, his wide-eyed fanboy style grates and feels out of place, where in previous books it seemed rather more appropriate. This time the story is basically a teetering pile of stereotypes heavily garnished with drool over the perceived life of the wealthy.

The best bit about this book is the final chapter - not because it's the end, but because it is written by the central character and explains his life a whole lot better than Mezrich did, in a lot more perspective.

But it doesn't redeem the rest of the book. By all means read Breaking Vegas, or Ugly Americans - but skip this one.