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jaclyncrupi's review against another edition
4.0
A fun read about the GFC in Ireland and investment banking. Not an easy task!
elevy2's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
thrillhouse57's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Both a commentary on capitalism and the virtue of art. In both cases, the lesson is: we never learn.
ekurt1's review against another edition
4.0
When I saw Paul Murray had written something new, I picked it up immediately because Skippy Dies is, in my opinion, among the greatest contemporary fiction. Perhaps because I always had Skippy in mind, this book seemed too mellow, characters tad underdeveloped. That might be one of the biggest perils of writing something like Skippy, so rough and shocking and layered - the later works will forever be compared to it, even if they have completely styles. I think the book starts out quite ambitiously and then delivers something else - don't get me wrong, this was a pleasant read but I was expecting the 'Ulysses II' the book Paul mentions and I got a nice romantic comedy.. noone is left unhappy at the end.
I realize that as readers we are extremely biased towards the big bangs - the deaths, the misery, and if we do not get that, we rarely rate a book 5 stars. You cannot get away with a happy ending if you aren't Jane Austen or a teen blockbuster author - which is quite sad because we absolutely need happy books that are readable literature but then we fail to appreciate them.
I realize that as readers we are extremely biased towards the big bangs - the deaths, the misery, and if we do not get that, we rarely rate a book 5 stars. You cannot get away with a happy ending if you aren't Jane Austen or a teen blockbuster author - which is quite sad because we absolutely need happy books that are readable literature but then we fail to appreciate them.
coronaurora's review against another edition
Such a solid start, but a weird authorial decision to move this away from the premise 200 pages in completely ruined it for me. If only Murray had stayed on track and have this banker shadowed by the author, this could have been the coolest satire on the vacuousness and ignored humanity of those working in high finance. Unfortunately, the premise along with all the attached throwaway comedy is binned unceremoniously and with the whole novel effectively reset, I just hadn't begun to enough for the two chief characters to follow through their actions and fates in a new set up that they were fashioning for themselves. I also thought that as it went on, the details of the machinations of day-to-day high finance and attached current affairs came in relief-less information dumps that became chunkier the further one read, and added to the sudden leaden weight.
Murray does write well though, but for me this was off the mark.
Murray does write well though, but for me this was off the mark.
blairmahoney's review against another edition
3.0
A bit of a disappointment after Skippy Dies but still entertaining. The plot is pretty contrived and the cluelessness of Claude, the narrator, is a bit of a stretch at times, but there's some nice satire of the banking industry. Reminded me a bit of Joshua Ferris, but I think Ferris is better.
cruffine11's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked this. I will continue to read Murray's bookse
jfaberrit's review against another edition
4.0
This book is simultaneously funny enough to have earned a five-star rating, but also empty enough in its center to earn somewhere between two or three. Murray's ear for the banking industry is hilarious, if ridiculously depressing in an existential sense. Rarely has the financial industry been so amusingly and deservedly skewered, properly blamed for its ludicrous overindulgences and tendency to work against humanity as a whole. If the crazy investment schemes described in the book haven't been tried yet, I'm confident that they will be the time the year is over. That said, the heart of the novel is basically empty, essentially mirroring the void at the center of the novel-within-the-novel. In the end, there really isn't a story here, and Paul Murray the author seems to have bettered Paul Murray the character primarily by being able to at least fill several hundred pages with a lot of good jokes and a very thin plot. It was even an enjoyable read, but there isn't a whole lot there.
jgirl105's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
katykelly's review against another edition
5.0
This grew and grew on me, and I can't think of a reason not to give it 5 stars. Absolutely bizarre, but at the same time very carefully structured and paced, with the very different feelings threads pulling together to make sense.
Normally I wouldn't touch a book about bankers, finances and the banking crisis with a bargepole. I didn't manage to finish Murray's first book, but something about the synopsis appealed to me, and the book, despite its length, didn't at any point feel like a chore.
Yes, it's about a banker - the french Claude, living and working in Dublin, with no parents, no partner, only his job as an investment banker. His life takes a turn when he finds a man who has been following him around is a writer, wanting to make his next book about 'Everyman' Claude, giving the public insight into the real world of a banker. Paul begins to follow Claude around in his day-to-day activities, and the banker's vision of his life begins to change as he attempts to explain what he does to the writer. The writer who has his own secrets...
As soon as you see the writer is called 'Paul', you wonder if this is the author placing himself in his own book. In a 'book within a book', the story is self-referential, cleverly referring to genre conventions and storylines that might take place in a book, that Claude then wants to take place in his own story - can he make them happen?
It's a complicated plot, and with the financial side too, much too difficult to explain any further. In some ways, I was reminded of The Wolf of Wall Street, with its insider look at banking and its tricks and dodges. The book is full of them. The financial crisis is explained, and Murray manages to squeeze a lot of humour out of it.
I thought this was genius. There are some fantastic characters in Claude's bank, some created to be stereotypes, some more human (especially Claude's female colleague), and I did feel more aware of what happened to bring the world's banks to their knees.
Claude really is an Everyman in the author's book - he's only a pawn in the grand scheme of the banking world, though his work does contribute to the problem, it's not of his creation. He observes it both from a step away but also from the middle of the sweating, shouting greed machine.
Highly recommend this, it's a lot funnier that you'd have expected, you don't have to understand finance to enjoy it, and it's a multi-layered story that entertains.
Normally I wouldn't touch a book about bankers, finances and the banking crisis with a bargepole. I didn't manage to finish Murray's first book, but something about the synopsis appealed to me, and the book, despite its length, didn't at any point feel like a chore.
Yes, it's about a banker - the french Claude, living and working in Dublin, with no parents, no partner, only his job as an investment banker. His life takes a turn when he finds a man who has been following him around is a writer, wanting to make his next book about 'Everyman' Claude, giving the public insight into the real world of a banker. Paul begins to follow Claude around in his day-to-day activities, and the banker's vision of his life begins to change as he attempts to explain what he does to the writer. The writer who has his own secrets...
As soon as you see the writer is called 'Paul', you wonder if this is the author placing himself in his own book. In a 'book within a book', the story is self-referential, cleverly referring to genre conventions and storylines that might take place in a book, that Claude then wants to take place in his own story - can he make them happen?
It's a complicated plot, and with the financial side too, much too difficult to explain any further. In some ways, I was reminded of The Wolf of Wall Street, with its insider look at banking and its tricks and dodges. The book is full of them. The financial crisis is explained, and Murray manages to squeeze a lot of humour out of it.
I thought this was genius. There are some fantastic characters in Claude's bank, some created to be stereotypes, some more human (especially Claude's female colleague), and I did feel more aware of what happened to bring the world's banks to their knees.
Claude really is an Everyman in the author's book - he's only a pawn in the grand scheme of the banking world, though his work does contribute to the problem, it's not of his creation. He observes it both from a step away but also from the middle of the sweating, shouting greed machine.
Highly recommend this, it's a lot funnier that you'd have expected, you don't have to understand finance to enjoy it, and it's a multi-layered story that entertains.