Sad Desk Salad

Lighthearted. Jessica Grose’s debut novel, Sad Desk Salad, is a humorous excursion into the out-of-balance and conflicted life of a blogger. Protagonist Alex Lyons writes a gossip blog for the site Chick Habit. The pressure of feeding the blog with new posts leads Alex to bathe irregularly, dress in a dirty muumuu and eat a salad at her home desk when she has time to eat. She hopes her audience of women at work eating their own sad desk salads will generate lots of hits, especially for her lunchtime posts, because she fears losing her job. Her relationships experience the impact of her stress as she addresses the concerns of how much privacy the web allows. I found this novel to be funny in many places, while the subject matter allowed for a degree of seriousness. I expect the target audience for the novel is young women, so readers in that demographic should certainly sample an excerpt to see if this style is to your taste. For an older guy, this was not humorous enough to rate a recommendation for humor. If it is satire or parody, I didn’t get it. I was mildly entertained as Grose took me in a lighthearted way into a world I know little about and to characters for whom I developed no empathy. Rating: Two-star (Mildly Recommended) Click here to purchase Sad Desk Salad from amazon.com.

The Fateful History of Fannie Mae: New Deal Birth to Mortgage Crisis Fall

Quasi. Readers looking for a deeper understanding of the rise and fall of Fannie Mae will find a crisp account of the past seven decades of that organization’s highlights and lowlights in James R. Hagerty’s book, The Fateful History of Fannie Mae: New Deal Birth to Mortgage Crisis Fall. Bob Hagerty is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who has covered the mortgage business and the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) extensively. He relates how a public purpose was paired with private capital to create a quasi-governmental entity that became the largest holder of residential mortgage debt. Political machinations over many years led to inadequate capital and a weak regulatory framework. Investors took gains in the good years and taxpayers are now covering losses. I worked at Freddie Mac from the mid-1970s to the late-1990s, so I know the subject of this book from an inside perspective. Hagerty gets all the headlines right in this book. There is more to each story than what he presents, but those nuances may be meaningful only to those who were immersed in the business. General readers will find in this book a cogent presentation of how Fannie Mae came to be, to grow and to generate huge losses. Any reader with an interest in public policy, especially relating to housing, will enjoy reading this book. Rating: Three-star (Recommended) Click here to purchase The Fateful History of Fannie Mae from amazon.com.

Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story

Junior. Greg Smith expanded the fifteen minutes of fame he earned by resigning from Goldman Sachs in a startling 1500 word New York Times editorial and has written a 250 page memoir titled Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story. All memoir becomes a matter of perspective, and Smith’s junior role at Goldman gave him a perspective that represents one slice of the firm and one set of experiences. Reading this book is like eavesdropping, bringing the reader into places where we might not normally be, to the point where there was entirely too much recollection of chatting at urinals. Yuk. That and other unnecessary contexts pack this book with anecdotes that meant something to Smith, but not to many others. His main point is that his values and the behavior he saw at his company became misaligned. From p. 236, “I knew in my heart there was something deeply wrong in the way people were behaving, in the way they didn’t care about the repercussions, in the way they saw their clients as their adversaries.” Readers who want an inside view of Goldman will get a sliver here. Readers who like a coming-of-age memoir are likely to find this one interesting. Any reader expecting the revelation of secrets won’t find them in this book. Rating: Three-star (Recommended) Click here to purchase Why I Left Goldman Sachs from amazon.com.

NW

Confusing. Readers with a high tolerance for confusion and with patience to allow ambiguity to last a long time are those most likely to enjoy reading Zadie Smith’s NW. I was infuriated and confused for at least the first half of the book. I struggled to try to piece together what Smith presents which required me to allow her to take me where she chose, not where I expected or preferred to go. By the end of the novel, I felt it was an unusual experience, but her writing was worth my time. After I finished, I read part of the beginning of the novel again, and felt far less confused than I did on the first reading. I recommend sampling an excerpt before plunging into this creative and unusual novel. Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended) Click here to purchase NW from amazon.com.

In Sunlight and in Shadow

Images. If you’re looking for a long novel to enjoy on these cold winter nights, consider Mark Helprin’s In Sunlight and in Shadow. The vivid images of Manhattan after World War II provide a lush backdrop for two main motifs: a love story between protagonist Harry Copeland and heiress Catherine Thomas Hale, and Harry’s violent encounters with the protection racket. Harry inherited a struggling leather goods business from his father, and Catherine is the only child of a wealthy Wall Street financier. If there is such a thing as a character who is too virtuous, Helprin may have created one in Harry. Without fail, against all obstacles, Harry’s character remains steadfast in doing what’s right. The light and dark themes from the title to the descriptive language to the scenes of love and war, provide striking contrasts of the best and worst in human nature and behavior. This is a big book set in a big city addressing big issues. Readers who like to become immersed in a place and time alongside likeable heroes and wicked villains are those most likely to enjoy this lushly written and satisfying book. Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended) Click here to purchase In Sunlight and in Shadow from amazon.com.

Ancient Light

Memory. I find that as I get older the sharpness of my memory comes into very clear focus, especially when I recall people or events decades ago. John Banville writes lyrically about memory in his novel Ancient Light. I read this novel slowly and savored the fine language. I found myself pausing to reread Banvillle’s choice of words and appreciate how perfectly constructed his prose can be. I’ve liked Banville’s crime novels written as Benjamin Black, and that quick pace and unadorned language is a sharp contrast to this more literary style of fiction. Readers who like detailed images and finely crafted prose are those most likely to enjoy this finely written novel. Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended) Click here to purchase Ancient Light from amazon.com.

Live by Night

Gangster. It’s the vivid storytelling that brought me pleasure while reading Dennis Lehane’s Live by Night. I wanted to know what would happen next in the fascinating life of Joe Coughlin. As the criminal son of a senior Boston police executive, there were many directions that Joe’s life could take. Lehane plucks him from Boston and delivers him to Tampa where he turns around a flailing criminal enterprise and makes millions during Prohibition. Readers who like novels mostly for the story are those who are likely to enjoy this one. Rating: Three-star (Recommended) Click here to purchase Live by Night from amazon.com.