A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism [Paperback]

Peter Mountford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2011

On his first assignment for a rapacious hedge fund, Gabriel embarks to Bolivia at the end of 2005 to ferret out insider information about the plans of the controversial president-elect. If Gabriel succeeds, he will get a bonus that would make him secure for life. Standing in his way are his headstrong mother, herself a survivor of Pinochet’s Chile, and Gabriel’s new love interest, the president’s passionate press liaison. Caught in a growing web of lies and questioning his own role in profiting from an impoverished people, Gabriel sets in motion a terrifying plan that could cost him the love of all those he holds dear.

In the tradition of Martin Amis, Joshua Ferris, and Sam Lipsyte—set against the stunning mountainous backdrop of La Paz and interspersed with Bolivia’s sad history of stubborn survival—Peter Mountford examines the critical choices a young man makes as his world closes in on him.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product Description
On his first assignment for a rapacious hedge fund, Gabriel embarks to Bolivia at the end of 2005 to ferret out insider information about the plans of the controversial president-elect. If Gabriel succeeds, he will get a bonus that would make him secure for life. Standing in his way are his headstrong mother, herself a survivor of Pinochet's Chile, and Gabriel's new love interest, the president's passionate press liaison. Caught in a growing web of lies and questioning his own role in profiting from an impoverished people, Gabriel sets in motion a terrifying plan that could cost him the love of all those he holds dear.

In the tradition of Martin Amis, Joshua Ferris, and Sam Lipsyte—set against the stunning mountainous backdrop of La Paz and interspersed with Bolivia's sad history of stubborn survival—Peter Mountford examines the critical choices a young man makes as his world closes in on him.

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Amazon Exclusive: Garth Stein Reviews A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism

Garth Stein is the author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, Raven Stole the Moon, and How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets.

Peter Mountford’s striking debut novel, A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism, is a smart and entertaining book. Set near the peak of the financial bubble in 2005, the book charts the story of a young financial journalist, Gabriel de Boya, recently hired as an analyst for a notoriously unscrupulous hedge fund. Gabriel’s first mission is a test of his abilities: go to Bolivia and find a way to profit from the Bolivian presidential election. In Gabriel, Mountford creates a complex, charismatic, and engaging character, a chameleon who works himself into increasingly precarious positions as his mission is both facilitated and complicated by his love affair with the Bolivian president-elect’s press liaison.

In Mountford's novel, the stakes of international finance and the personal lives of those involved intersect in a beautifully drawn Bolivia. A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism accomplishes that rare trick of being a book of ideas and politics while remaining, at its core, a profoundly intimate, character-driven story and a tremendously good read.

I highly recommend this captivating debut novel by a remarkably promising young writer.

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A Note from the Author

In 1983, when I was seven, my family moved from a quiet neighborhood in Washington, D.C., to Sri Lanka. Two weeks after we arrived in Colombo, the country was consumed by a bloody month of ethnic strife—what became known as Black July. That strife turned into a nearly thirty-year-long civil war. Then, in my early twenties, I spent two years in Ecuador writing about the country’s ailing economy. Ecuador was embroiled in a rapid succession of revolutions and spectacular economic catastrophes at the time, and I saw a similar irrepressible current of culture and beauty running beneath these disasters. Also, I saw how inextricably wed finance is to history, and to the lives of everyday people.

In sharp contrast to those experiences, I also spent part of my childhood in a wooded suburb Washington, D.C., where incidents in the personal and professional lives of my friends’ parents often ended up in the headlines of newspapers.

It was through experiencing these kinds of stark contrasts—between power and powerlessness, wealth and poverty—that I was inspired to write A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism. The book dramatizes my time living and working in South America. Economics is often thought of as a dry subject (the so-called "dismal science"), but it has always seemed utterly dramatic to me, and in this book I’ve tried to reveal how exciting and funny and engaging this material can be.

--Peter Mountford

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Review

"The Bolivian setting is colorful and engaging, as are the financial maneuverings."
-Publishers Weekly

"[T]he novel holds the reader's interest to the end... [Mountford's] affectionate portrayal of Bolivia is probably the book's strongest point."
-Library Journal

"This is a solid read that is both adventurous and thought-provoking on the themes of racial identity, South Americans, politics, and wealth."
-Booklist

 “A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism is, quite simply, one of the most compelling and thought-provoking novels I’ve read in years. It’s extraordinarily vivid, populated by characters whose fates I cared about desperately, beautifully written, timely beyond measure, but above all it conveys -- with impressive precision and nuance—how we are vectors on the grid of global capital; how difficult it is to even attempt to be an authentic, let alone admirable, human being when we are, first and last, cash flow.”
— David Shields, author of Reality Hunger: A Manifesto 

"A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism is a terrific debut novel—smart, moving, beautifully written. Peter Mountford's parable of the voracious global economy reminded me of Graham Greene's The Quiet American in its clear-eyed depiction of the realpolitik of our age."
— Jess Walters, author of The Financial Lives of the Poets

"A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism is a brilliant debut novel, one that is generous in giving readers an original cast of vividly-drawn and unforgettable characters, learned in its knowledge of the interwoven worlds of finance and politics, sexy, and thoroughly cosmopolitan. Peter Mountford is easily one of the most gifted and skillful young writers, already accomplished, I have had the pleasure of reading in many years."
— Charles Johnson, author of Middle Passage and Dreamer

“In his debut novel, A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism, Peter Mountford has something important to say about the ambiguous moral ground where the personal meets the political. He has experience and sophistication beyond his years and is well-positioned to mine this vein. This novel is worth your time and attention.”
— David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars

"Peter Mountford, in his amazing debut as a novelist, has updated the gilded myth of Wall Street swashbucklers in expensive suits and spun it out into the world in a hellbent tale, dramatizing the contorted rationalizations practiced by the financial elite to justify their self-delusion. Forget fame, respect, making the world a better place. Transcend the craving for money by acquiring a truckload of it. Buddha as a hedge fund operator, reallocating soullessness throughout the system."
— Bob Shacochis, author of Swimming in the Volcano and The Next New World

"Peter Mountford's A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism is a sharp, funny and terrifying novel— in a world so much like our own (part of the terror: it may, in fact, be our world), Gabriel's actions and the reactions of those around him caused me to wonder, again and again: how do I wish to live in this world, and what latitude might I find?"
— Peter Rock, author of My Abandonment

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (April 12, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780547473352
• ISBN-13: 978-0547473352
• ASIN: 0547473354
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #538,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Mountford was born in Washington, DC, in 1976, and grew up there apart from three formative years in Sri Lanka. After earning a degree in international relations from Pitzer College in 1999, he spent two years as the token liberal at a think tank called the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. During that time, he lived in Ecuador. When he returned to the US, he quit the think tank and began writing fiction.

Peter's first novel, A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) won the 2012 Washington State Book Award and was a finalist in the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize.

Peter's short fiction and essays have appeared (or are forthcoming) in The Atlantic Monthly, Best New American Voices 2008, Granta, Conjunctions, Salon, ZYZZYVA and Boston Review, where he won second place in the 2007 contest, judged by George Saunders. He's currently a writer-in-residence at Seattle's writing center, The Richard Hugo House.

PRAISE:

A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism is a terrific debut--smart, moving, beautifully written. Peter Mountford's parable of the voracious global economy reminded me of Graham Greene's The Quiet American in its clear-eyed depiction of the realpolitik of our age.

-Jess Walter


A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism is, quite simply, one of the most compelling and thought-provoking novels I've read in years. It's extraordinarily vivid, populated by characters whose fates I cared about desperately, beautifully written, timely beyond measure, but above all it conveys--with impressive precision and nuance--how we are vectors on the grid of global capital; how difficult it is to even attempt to be an authentic, let alone admirable, human being when we are, first and last, cash flow.

-David Shields


Peter Mountford's A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism is a sharp, funny and terrifying novel--in a world so much like our own (part of the terror: it may, in fact, be our world), Gabriel's actions and the reactions of those around him caused me to wonder, again and again: how do I wish to live in this world, and what latitude might I find?

-Peter Rock


Peter Mountford, in his amazing debut as a novelist, has updated the gilded myth of Wall Street swashbucklers in expensive suits and spun it out into the world in a hellbent tale, dramatizing the contorted rationalizations practiced by the financial elite to justify their self-delusion. Forget fame, respect, making the world a better place. Transcend the craving for money by acquiring a truckload of it. Buddha as a hedge fund operator, reallocating soullessness throughout the system.

-Bob Shacochis


A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism is a brilliant debut novel, one that is generous in giving readers an original cast of vividly-drawn and unforgettable characters, learned in its knowledge of the interwoven worlds of finance and politics, sexy, and thoroughly cosmopolitan. Peter Mountford is easily one of the most gifted and skillful young writers, already accomplished, I have had the pleasure of reading in many years.

-Charles Johnson


In his debut novel, A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism, Peter Mountford has something important to say about the ambiguous moral ground where the personal meets the political. He has experience and sophistication beyond his years and is well-positioned to mine this vein. This novel is worth your time and attention.

-David Guterson

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Aptly Titled April 3, 2011

By Rita Sydney VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Peter Mountford's title for the book, "A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism" is an absolutely spot-on description of the story he tells.

The young man is Gabriel, raised alone by a refugee from Pinochet's Chile who is now an ultra liberal professor. Mother and son have a close, sympathetic relationship but (or maybe therefore) Gabriel believes it is necessary to not tell her that he's working for a Hedge fund, the Calloway Group.

Gabriel is fluent in Spanish and comfortable in Latin America from trips there with his mother, as well as a study semester during college. He comes to Bolivia a few weeks before the 2005 election which Evo Morales is expected to win. Gabriel's job is to find any information that would let the Calloway hedge fund "outgun" other funds and thereby attract the greed of millionaire players.

Gabriel meets a young woman, Lenka, who happens to be the press liaison for Morales. They begin an affair; Gabriel feels welcomed when she introduces him to her extended family; they fall in love.

At 25, Gabriel thinks he knows what life is all about. He saw clearly the difference between America and Bolivia. The American dream of fame and fortune was only a fantasy unlike in other countries where children were not told they could achieve anything they wanted.

With a life that has been cushioned by his mother's six figure income, Gabriel does not himself care for "cushiness." He doesn't intend to make money the focus of his life. All he wants is to make enough money to be "done with the issue of money forever."

The future to Gabriel seems filled with possibilities. He can picture himself living in New York or in Bolivia, making do or freed from worry about money. Although he admits he loves Lenka, he sees that the future may contain other loves.

This book is about LATE capitalism. There's no longer any pretense, any looking away from what capitalism entails.

Gabriel understands, as Buddhism explains, that the greediness in the financial world he has come to inhabit is the result of a craving for more and more. At the same time he accepts that the "capitalist paradigm" is based on that craving.

He has told the truth to Lenka about working for a hedge fund. At one point in the story she confronts him with the fact that those he works for "would never really invest in Bolivia." He struggles to explain that the Calloway Group does in fact invest, only "not in a way that contributes."

The reader gets an up close experience of capitalism as Gabriel, who has come to fear that his job is not secure, develops a scheme for investing that would "aggressively maximize winnings."

His plan is to short sell shares in a gas company, then spread rumors using information he has importuned from Lenka.

While his profit would be huge, he calculates that detection by the SEC for securities fraud is negligible. He comes to think of the scheme as a morality play "because those who lost the most would be those who bet against the future of Bolivia."

At this point in the book the story unfolds in a way true to itself that wasn't, at least to me, predictable. In fact, at mid-point in this book it became a page turner.

Only at the end of the book did I fully appreciate how Mr. Mountford fit all the parts together to make a thought-provoking, satisfying reading experience.

I highly recommend this timely, well-written book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unexpectedly exciting book about economics (and other stuff) December 7, 2012

By Frank G.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I heard about this book because of a story that was carried on NPR, Q and elsewhere about the author helping a Russian translator steal his book and was intrigued. I bought the book because I liked the fact that he didn't view the "theft" in the black and white terms that some would, and figured one good turns deserves another.

I started reading because I wanted to get my money's worth, but continued because the story was compelling, and mysterious. I was somewhat reminded of a Graham Greene storyline, albeit with slightly lower stakes (less murder).

Buy this book for the author's strange gesture of helping a Russian struggling to steal from him, and read it because you won't be able to put it down!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Morality story for our times! July 8, 2012

By peter nisius

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is probably the best book of the last sixty that I have read in the last two years. The protagist is well drawn and not at all sympathetic with many flaws and a devious nature. You do not know if he is going to do the moralistic thing at the end or betray someone who can be the women of his dreams. The story throws in a man's fear of his mother and thier dishonest relationship and the game theory of choices and decisions too keep things moving along. The writing compares favorably to Irwin Shaw and Jonathan Tropper's two other author's I deeply enjoy. I eagerly await the author's second book but this a excellent book that should not be overlooked.