Customer Reviews

Present Value: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a smart funny cruel book about the loathsome rich and the geek lawyers who serve them. A perfect cultural referent to early 21st century America-captures the mood post-September 11 and mid-Enron. Career-driven blackberry-sporting soulless seniorpartners, rich kids, the professional bankruptcy industry and corporate executives to whom ethics must be a vaguely distasteful foreign idea all take it on on the chin There is some silly naming (The main law firm is "Elboe, Fromme $ Athol" certain Washington characters are named after Shakespeare's Henry IV characters and the 2002 Red Sox are represented by goats) which is not distracting enough to detract from the story. This is the book Tom Wolfe must have wished he wrote. Also some good simple descriptions of how complicated financial transactions work.

I would really give this 4 1/2 stars were I able. I loved every page in this book until the last few. The ending left me feeling as if there should be more. It was too pat, almost contrived, a bit as if the author were pressed to simply end it. But the author's descriptions of corporate life (non-life is more accurate) are right on and his depiction of the frustrated company president as he grasps to hang onto his options is hysterical, especially in light of all the Enrons, Worldcoms, and SEC scams we read about daily. It's very scary to realize this is a true account of a fictional company, that a company's lifeline is so connected to the stock market that a series of planned but nefarious trades could be its permanent downfall.

I disagree with a previous reviewer who didn't understand the presence of Ronnie in the story. This book is significantly deeper than one would initially believe. Ronnie is the road that could be taken. I highly recommend this book.

Wow, he nailed it. If you ever worked for a large corporation, particularly at the executive level, you KNOW these people. Yeah, Willet trashes the CEO and portrays him as a self-centered incompetent, but he couldn't have built a company that successful without a brain and some astute politicing. But all the ladder-climbing, and ass-covering, and back stabbing, and greed, and...he got it right.

Sent a copy to my Father-in-Law and he dropped it at about page 100, just when it really getting good. Said it was too negative. He does lambast corporate excess and people that think good and bad are the same as right and wrong. But the plot is interesting, the characters well developed, and emotions and dialogu well played.

I loved it.

While short of a great book such as Bonfire of the Vanities, Present Value succeeds as social commentary and as a great yarn with interesting characters. The types are extreme -- the power-and communication-obsessed wife and the distant son -- but they obviously are based on what's out there. Having lived through a Ch 11 bankruptcy (in middle mgt, close enough to see the upper echelon's behavior and its all-too-evident flaws), I thought that the descriptions of the exec's, their greed, and their cluelessness were priceless. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone.

The opening scene in this book is deliciously funny; beware if you've ever lost your temper at your kid or had to wait in a car-queue at school or the day-care center. And there is plenty of wit elsewhere too in this wonderful satire of the blackberry set. Worth taking some time off from your email to read! But Willett is not afraid to be sentimental either, which is why some readers may be disappointed by the ending. I wasn't. This is a funny book, but it has a secret at its center: a heart. In the end it is about making up not breaking up, and I respect it for that. Also, unputdownable.

Terrific present-day social satire - yes, the ending is a bit sweet & pat, but otherwise this book absolutely nails a) the seamy side of corporate America, b) bloodsucking attorneys, c) windbag politicians, d) suburban Boston and e) aging yuppies sporting trophy kids & Blackberries.

This book is a blast - loved it.

Wow! I don't really know how to classify this one but its eyecatching cover made me stop and pick it up. It's about a family with all the things they could want, but things don't hold a family together,as we find out. When Fritz Bubanker is fired from his firm and sent to jail for insider trading his family life changes for the better. Has an interesting plot twist and great flash backs of fritz's college econimic lessons.

I grabbed and gobbled Sabin Willet's newest, "Present Value". Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" is the testament to high-priced American greed gone bad (please, please don't see the movie!). Willett starts out on a very promising note. He's witty and sharp, and he sets his parable to Enron's story in a well-grounded toy distribution company. How the company has positioned itself for disaster by catering to all the current American corporate fads (an attorney that shadows the CEO at all times, so that everything said is privileged, the "off the books" subsidiaries, all venture capital deals, the need to find some third quarter revenue SOMEWHERE so that everyone's stock options won't be disturbed, etc.)is at the core of this corporate fairy tale gone bad.

In chapter one, Willett's sarcastic wit shines through as he describes the ritual of his hero, Fritz Brubaker, dropping off the children (Precious Cargo) at their exclusive private school. His treatise on the massive, fully-equipped line of SUV's is exceeded only by him revealing the brattiness of his spoiled offspring. We move on with nice-guy Fritz opening up his eyes (finally) to the difficulties in his marriage, where his wife Linda is more fond of her Blackberry device than she is of him, and the ethics of the company he works for are seriously in question.

The Brubaker family is headed for a fall, and in a thinly disguised plot twist, the weight of the white collar crime that brings them to their knees all falls on Fritz. As Fritz makes a couple of legendary appearances in court, the story recaps how he got to this place, including his entanglement with a wife that resembles a shark more than a feminine ideal. Through
it all, Willett's skill at making you care about Fritz, and the lightning quick speed with which his life falls apart, keeps you reading without pause.

The story starts to turn south with the introduction of Ronnie, a private investigator. Ronnie doesn't fit into the story, and the subplot between her and Fritz adds a jarring note. Despite this, Willett winds to the end of Fritz's incarceration, keeping things light, and letting the reader wonder whether the Brubakers will ever be able to set things right again.

A fine read, a light touch, but no Thomas Wolfe here. Just a clever novel that feeds our fascination with the ethical malaise in American corporations.

I purchased this book because I thought it would be in the same satirical vein as Tom Wolfe, however it isn't. It is a relevant story about white collar crime,with an interesting twist to it at the end of the book. This twist also happens to be a 'present value'. I enjoyed the book, especially when I got to the end and the story suddenly came together.The middle got a little bogged down trying to explain the nature of this crime, and for one who isn't in the finacial world it can be a bit tedious, and not important to the enjoyment of the story. It is a good read by itself without understanding all the technical details of the stock market. Honestly? I couldn't put it down.Its good food for thought for all of us who struggle with todays present values.

I thought this book was superb. I really enjoyed the read. The story was not the main motivator, as much as the writing style and character development. I agree with other reviewers re: the similarity to Tom Wolfe. In fact I loved the Economic College Class chapters so much, that I copied them and sent them to my son who is taking economics in college.