"So, you'd recommend applying for a job in finance?""Absolutely."
Liar.
"Have you ever struggled with your decision to go to Wall Street?"
"Never."
Liar, liar, days-of-the-week panties on fire.
"And you're really happy with your career path and your life in the firm?"
"Couldn't be happier."
Shameless. Pathological. Liar.
I had never been more ashamed of myself in my life.... (ch. 17)
Alex, a new bond analyst on Wall Street, starts out her job without her own desk, learning by watching computer monitors over the shoulders of other analysts, carrying up pizza boxes for lunch for the entire floor, and being called by the mostly male staff, "Girlie"... After several months, she finally gets her own desk, however, more responsibilities, and a year end bonus of over $100,000.
Two years later in 2008 when the markets begins to spiral downward toward a crash, her boss assigns her to her Alma mater, the University of Virginia, to recruit new employees to their finance firm on Wall Street.
Apart from a looming financial crisis, what happened between 2006 and 2008 to make bond girl Alex Garrett change her mind so drastically about her career on Wall Street? An interesting, often humorous, look at the people who spend their days living on the edge, trading and selling in the high powered world of finance.
I expected this book to be dry and overly complex, given the setting and the subject matter, but the author made the novel easily readable. Her main character Alex grew on me after I sceptically watched her try to fit into Wall Street and then do a slow double take. Toward the end, I found myself cheering the new Alex on.
Title: Bond Girl: A Novel by Erin Duffy
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: William Morrow; Reprint edition (January 24, 2012)
Genre: contemporary fiction
Objective rating: 4/5
About the author: Erin Duffy is a Georgetown University English major, Class of 2000, who spent more than a decade working in fixed income sales on Wall Street. This is her first novel.
I received a complimentary review copy of this book.
This one sounds really interesting to me, and I think I would enjoy it. I am particularly interested in the change of direction that the character faces and how she handles that. Great review today. I might have to see if I can grab this one from the library.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you enjoyed this one for the most part. It sounds a little different to what I'd normally read, but not *too* different that I'd not be tempted to pick it up! Thanks for sharing your review!
ReplyDeleteStephanie
- Please visit my latest post & if you haven’t already, enter my International Giveaway!
Harvee, we do have similar taste in books. I just finished this one too. I was surprised by it too. Enjoyed your review.
ReplyDeleteMason
Thoughts in Progress
I would think that the subject would be hard to grasp as I often frustrate my husband when he talks to me about the Market!! But, it sounds like the author realized that many of her readers weren't experts so she wrote her story with that in mind. Sounds thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fun read that might explain what my son does all day (he works in the finance industry).
ReplyDeleteThis is my husband's world. I hear enough about it already ;) It is a facinating and distubing field.
ReplyDelete