channeling Gordon Gekko…

Book review:

The Financier

by Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

First published 1912, Harper and Bros., New York.

The Financier was written before its time.

It’s just amazing that Dreiser wrote this gritty novel in 1912, before anyone even thought of derivatives, credit default swaps, sub-prime “liar loan” mortgages, no-fault (for bankers and brokers, that is) national financial meltdowns, and politically-motivated government shutdowns. Frank Cowperwood is the ethically-challenged “financier” whose star and fortunes rise so marvelously and then collapse with equal flare. He seems so absolutely convincingly contemporary that I had recurring transient episodes of reverse déjà vu as I learned about his desperate ambition and burnout.

Frank is a first-rate villain in The Financier. He burns his friends and enemies with equal disdain, he channels Gordon Gekko with suitably theatrical energy, and he is most deliciously unrepentant when his schemes go awry, his loans get called, and then his empire crashes around him.

I emphasize “deliciously unrepentant” because, unlike the contemporary villainous free spirits of Wall Street, Frank promptly goes to jail for his crimes.

The Financier so obviously is the kind of novel that might be written by a baroque clone of Michael Lewis. If you’d like to work out a bit of the residual rage you feel about the man-made financial cesspool we wallow in, try this American classic.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2018 All rights reserved.

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