The Wolf of Wall Street

** spoiler alert ** The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort was an interesting novel that left me completely disinterested. As someone going into business, this book intrigued me. I also really want to watch the movie, but I wanted to read the book beforehand, so that helped me with picking this read. I thought this book would be over the top exciting, since that's all I've heard about the movie, but alas it was not. This book was probably my most boring read of the year, and that's not an over-exaggeration. This book is said to be non-fiction, but Jordan Belfort's opening lines at the beginning of the book also say he may or may not have changed the timelines, which lead me to believe it's not 100% accurate. (But is anything 100% accurate in a memoir? You are relying on memory, which can tell some pretty epic lies...but that's another story). Reading about all the antics within his career was definitely interesting - it's not something I really thought about. All the drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, etc and all the craziness tied in together was definitely the basis of a really cool read. But, this book fell flat. The first "book" (it's separated into books that have chapters in each) was fast paced and epic! I was hooked to every word I read! But Book two and onward left me feeling "meh". It was slow paced, then it would suddenly pick up pace for two pages, and go back to boring again. That being said, Jordan's life is definitely worth a read - but maybe by a different author? This is Jordan's first book, so with a little more experience and skill this book could have knocked it out of the park. Jordan definitely has talent in writing, it just needs a little more tweaking before he becomes a really great author. As the narrator, Jordan does come off as that wealthy rich kid stereotype everyone hates. It is sometimes annoying listening to his ranting about how much money he makes, and his hot wife, and how he cheats and does drugs and will absolutely quit but never does. That felt like it was 60% of this book - the same comments being repeated in different ways. "I'll quit..." then he doesn't, "I'll stop!..." then he doesn't, and so on. There's also no remorse for what he does. He is destroying lives, but hey, I'm rich so whatever! That's what I got out of this book. There was no life lessons at the end, no big "Ta Da! I've done well!", it's just him being rich and all of the bad things he does in his life, and the end! His penis, erection and everything about his sex life is mentioned numerous times - and of course, according to him it's god walking on earth. He rarely insults or looks down on himself, but will quickly do it to anybody else. Overall, I'm sure Jordan's life was and is interesting, but his story could have been told better. It's almost as if he hasn't learned anything in his life, or at least that's how it's portrayed. And, better yet, there's another book in this series if you want to continue reading because HE DOESN'T FINISH HIS STORY IN THIS BOOK. 2 out of five stars. Why? It had so much potential, and was so great in the beginning, but tumbled far down about one quarter into the book.

Very entertaining book. You'll only wonder how much is fiction and how much is the truth.

I hadn't heard of Jordan Belfort until early this year, when I was wined&dined by a flashy executive who told me about the time he worked (&played) with some guy called 'The Wolf of Wall Street'. The stories he regaled were pretty far fetched; and when he told me a movie was being made about this guys life, I was even more curious. I pretty much forgot all of this, as you do, until my friend mentioned he was reading a book called 'The Wolf of Wall Street'; naturally, as soon as he was finished, I snapped it up. The quality of the writing in the book won't blow you away, but the events are wild enough that you can forget about that and just go along for the ride. It does though, make some of the 'between the action'' parts a little tough going. I get the impression it was very much written with the screen in mind. There's no doubt it will make a great movie. Jordan's life is like something out of a movie, and despite his lapses in judgement and below the border business, he comes across as likeable, caring and driven. If you look past the antics and the vast amounts of money, you might see; as I did, a guy who got too powerful too young and failed to cope emotionally with that success and responsibility - his ruin through drugs and irresponsibility being a consequence of his need to keep up appearances and a fear of failure. I know very little about Wall Street, and I'm sure most who see the movie will be similarly clueless; I'm trying to guard against assuming this book is a majority representation of life on Wall Street, but I guess I'll need to read around for myself to decide! If you want an easy read but a Hollywood type story, give it a go. If you just want the story of Jordan Belfort, I'd say wait for the movie. The book is pretty plotless, and there are no characters to fall in love with, but it's raw and punchy with an honest feel. I think the book is better than what I gave it credit for whilst reading it, the imagery has stuck with me and I'm definitely going to see the movie. Says something.

Let me be honest with you: I wanted to read this book because Marty made the movie and the title captivated me. I thought I was going to be overwhelmed with Wall Street terminology and transactions but I couldn't be more wrong. This is a surreal, mind-boggling memoir about a stockbroker who went to Wall Street when he was very young, with no addictions and five years latter we encounter this: "(...) “Hi, my name is Jordan, and I’m alcoholic, a Quaalude addict, and a cocaine addict. I’m also addicted to Xanax and Valium and morphine and Klonopin and GHB and marijuana and Percocet and mescaline and just about everything else, including high-priced hookers, medium-priced hookers, and an occasional streetwalker, but only when I feel like punishing myself. Sometimes I take an afternoon massage at one of those Korean joints, and I have a young Korean girl jerk me off with baby oil. I always offer her a couple hundred extra if she’ll stick her tongue up my ass, but it’s sort of hit or miss, because of the language barrier. Anyway, I never wear a condom, just on general principles..." I've never laughed so hard in my whole book-worm life. I had a wonderful time reading this book. Leaving my guffaws aside, I liked the way it is written. It's overloaded with action, yet it has long descriptive paragraphs. There is a lot of people around Jordan, which means lots of characters. But every time someone new appears, he does a full description and he even grants the person with a nickname. Yes, nearly everyone is named after some striking quality, and it's very helpful to remember of who we are talking about. Jordan Belfort, the autor and narrator of the book is unapologetic, egocentric, and an extreme cheater. He was an horrible human being. And at this point I need to mention again that books with awful narrators are quite a challenge, because if the narrator is perfect is obvious you're gonna like him and the book. Besides the drugs, the hookers and all the insanity surrounding Jordan, we get to read a lot about Wall Street frauds, specially money laundering. Old ladies with odd hats walking pass Swiss customs with bags full of dollars, ladies with money sticked to their bodies, mules sleeping with bankers... everything has its place in this magnificent book. Finally, one last deviant thought to wrap up this review. There is a scene described in one of the last chapter that is exactly a Breaking Bad one. (view spoiler)[Jordan threatened her wife with a knife, fought with her around their house, pushed her down the stairs and took their daughter. Does that seem familiar? Skyler and Walt fighting around the house with a knife and Walt taking Holly away? Yeah, maybe. But wait, both Jordan and Walt changed their mind and returned their daughter to her mother. (hide spoiler)] I don't know if I'm going to read Catching the wolf of Wall Street any soon, but what I'm sure of is that this Thursday, I'm going to the cinema!