As a business nerd, I was drawn into this tale of personal and professional drama whose actions had profound effects on the M&A market in the late 1980's. The inner workings and high-stakes games between major stockholders, executives, investment bankers, and lawyers receiving exorbitant amounts of money for wounding and destroying companies while professing to save them, reveals the ugliness of greed and fragility of oversized egos among the elites. When the reader thinks the story cannot get more confounding or convoluted, the next chapter will open a door into the deeper mire of the events. Thankfully, the writer does an excellent job of keeping the reader on the path and despite the interwoven tales of intrigue and host of characters, I never felt lost or confused.

The more business experience and knowledge you have, the more likely you are to appreciate the nuances and complexities of what happened in the businesses and courtroom. The author does a good job of explaining some of the arcane information and technical jargon of Wall Street and Madison Avenue without making the story too simplistic for non-business experts. I think this is a great strength of the book because, beyond the narrative, a business person can learn much about what to do, and not to do, as a fiduciary, member of the board of directors, or executive. It should make one wise to the behavior and words that might reflect duplicity in others.

Beyond the book itself, the author had an excellent essay in the back of the book on the ethical use of dramatic dialogue in narrative non-fiction. He discusses his views on the proper and improper use of constructed dialogue including manipulating a reader by constructing a dialog that reflects the writer's bias. He provides great insight into the process of careful and ethical construction of non-fiction dialog that would be helpful to writers and non-fiction readers alike. ( )

Getty Oil (Subject)