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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Having received his MBA degree in 1999, Cruver was hired by Enron in late March 2001 to be part of a bankruptcy-trading group. Through Cruver, we see how a typical Enron employee viewed the company's dramatic collapse. He talks about the initial concerns when CEO Jeff Skilling resigned, worries of layoffs as new falsifications of financial statements came to light, and the idle days of going to work after most operations had ceased. Although expressing resentment at the millions made by top executives, he writes with a wry sense of humor. He tells how, even after he was fired, Enron accidentally kept paying him for months. He also recounts that when he was first hired, some employees jokingly referred to Enron as the "Crooked E," supposedly because of its slanted-E logo. The book's title is deceptive in that the author was an insider only in the sense that he worked for Enron. Except for one unidentified source, most of the book's information about Enron's fraudulent accounting practices came from public sources. Still, because Cruver's fast-paced book puts a human face on the many employees hurt by the Enron and similar scandals, it is recommended for most business collections.
Lawrence R. Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Cruver was hired as a senior manager at Enron in March 2001 to develop products and markets for bankruptcy risk management, a complex commodity concept that the company invented. During his tenure there, Enron stock plunged from $61 a share to mere pennies as the stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. He got close enough to sources at the top to understand the complicated web of partnership arrangements that kept huge debts off the books while lining the pockets of top Enron executives. Cruver details how from his first days at Death Star (the unofficial nickname for the giant Enron complex), he witnessed a surreal corporate culture that hired and fired ruthlessly in search of the best and brightest, especially those who could keep their mouths shut about bad news. The company had evolved from a simple natural-gas provider to a complex entity that traded in abstract commodities while holding virtually no real assets. This house of cards eventually came tumbling down, beginning with the resignation of CEO Jeff Skilling and ending in bankruptcy, layoffs and the well-known public scandal that followed. Cruver succeeds in making sense of the whole mess while also generating sympathy for the hapless employees. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Hardcover: 366 pages
Publisher: Basic Books (August 14, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786710934
ISBN-13: 978-0786710935
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (55 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #716,506 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
I wasn't dreaming. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
snow shovel business, retention bonuses, severance plan, opening price, trading floor, weather derivative, bankruptcy risk, closing price

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Ken Lay, Death Star, Wall Street, Jeff Skilling, Enron Corp, Andy Fastow, Arthur Andersen, New York, Liz Perry, Brian Cruver, Enron Field, Office of the Chairman, Rebecca Mark, River Oaks, Smith Street, Bernie Bickers, Conquer Corporate America, Joe Sutton, Star Wars, Subic Bay, Tom White, Building Guy, Enron Energy Services, Northern Natural Gas, Odd Todd

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 6 books:

Star Wars: Episode 6 Return of the Jedi (Star Wars Cinemanga) by LucasFilm on page 310
Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart on page 274
Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad on page 187
A Few Good Men by Aaron Sorkin on page 263
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by George Lucas on page 310

See all 6 books this book cites

9 books cite this book:

Intelligent Internet Knowledge Networks: Processing of Concepts and Wisdom by Syed V. Ahamed on page 442
Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist by Om Malik on page 99
The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade by Joseph E. Stiglitz in Back Matter
The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade by Joseph E. Stiglitz in Back Matter
The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead by David Callahan in Back Matter

See all 9 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald

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A Beginner's Guide to Short-Term Trading by Toni Turner

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Power Failure by Mimi Swartz

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Smartest Guys in the Room by Peter Elkind

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	70% buy the item featured on this page: Anatomy of Greed: The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider 3.9 out of 5 stars (55) $25.00
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	8% buy The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron 4.6 out of 5 stars (135) $10.88
	8% buy Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story 4.3 out of 5 stars (148) $12.21

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Customer Reviews

55 Reviews

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (55 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars totally unexpected - hilarious!, August 17, 2002

By	"tomwilk2" (Texas) - See all my reviews

I bought this book thinking I would just learn about the Enron mess, and HOLY COW was I surprised! A tragedy? Yes, but also absurd. As strange as it sounds I was laughing out loud, couldn't put it down because it was fun to read. The author does explain Enron's business and what happened, and as he says it's "not about energy"...but this book also takes you through Enron's wacky culture, with real people and real events as they unfolded from the inside. I felt like I was getting the real story, with political and media agendas brushed aside. Anyone working in the corporate world should read this book to understand how/why Enron failed and to learn what the signs are (the signs that the author and others at Enron missed). This is one of those rare non-fictions that doesn't put you to sleep. A fun, easy, and extremely informative read!!

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Enron Casualty to Get Revenge!, August 27, 2002

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Brian Cruver was an expendable middle manager in one of Enron's flimsy business ventures, and got laid off when the company went into its infamous bankruptcy. So in this book we get an antidote to the far more common news accounts of Enron that have focused on the plight of ripped-off stockholders or the criminal actions of the executives. In this very readable and unexpectedly funny book, Cruver describes the collapse of the company from the point of view of hapless employees who only knew a little about what was going on, but couldn't do anything about it as they were too far away from the real power. We also get great insights into the plight of the thousands of laid off employees who had to comprehend the debacle they had witnessed, and try to shake off their reputation as former "Enronians."

As a sort-of insider, Cruver has unique insights into the bizarre Enron corporate culture that demanded profits at the expense of ethics or even common sense. Cruver theorizes that the root of this evil was the company's ridiculous peer-review process, in which getting a favorable rating meant keeping your job, and the rating was tied to your generation of profits above all else. Thus every single employee was under immense pressure to inflate profit reports, ignore bad news, and crush all their co-workers. This went all the way to the top, as executives went to the extremes of unethical behavior to increase "shareholder" value. Executives also saw the whole company as a way to enrich themselves, through shady business ventures, partnerships with non-existent companies and entities, and a brazen disregard for accounting rules. Thus we have a group of greedy and power-hungry execs who forgot that they were running a real business with employees, customers, and vendors as they gluttonized themselves.

Cruver does a great job describing the basics of Enron's disastrous accounting shenanigans, that made the company artificially prosperous before collapsing like a house of cards, without losing the reader in technical jargon. He also aptly describes the intense hatred that employees developed for execs like Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow, who all got extremely wealthy by essentially stealing from the public market and shafting their employees. Cruver has relieved his unemployment with this highly readable book that provides many keen insights, with a dryly sarcastic humor, into the Enron disaster that you probably won't find elsewhere. I understand that a movie will now be made from this book. Looks like Cruver has himself a fresh new career.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than being there!, August 25, 2002

By	"stock-picker" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

As an investment professional covering energy stocks I am intamately familiar with the Enron story, from it's humble beginnings in the mid 1980's to it's specatcular blowout late last year. "Anatomy of Greed" was right on the money in describing this horrible /fantastic meltdown and Cruver's insights and humor make this story educational, accessible, and entertaining for just about anyone. I have met some of the personalities in question (Lay, Skilling, etc.) and his characterizations were spot on. Likewise, his descriptions of the events that brought down the house of cards were simple enough for the lay person (sorry, bad pun!) to understand but thorough enough to see what really happened. You really get a feel for what it was like to be at Enron on the front lines while the company went from a new economy titan to the butt of late night talk show jokes. Though his time there was short, his is an invaluable perspective that outside journalists have not, nor will never be able to match. On top of which, some of the anecdotes he shares made me laugh out loud.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars you can take the boy out of Enron...
This book goes a long way towards explaining the current (2009) economic crisis.

If the subhuman filth that inflicted this vile slime on the world is in any way... Read more

Published 9 months ago by S. Hawkins

5.0 out of 5 stars A 21st Century Morality Play
Brian Cruver has an axe to grind, but not where you would think. Cruver, a former Enron employee, takes aim at the corporate culture which led to the downfall of Enron (as well as... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Martin P. McCarthy

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice insider's account
Midway through Anatomy of Greed, as author Brian Cruver described the increasingly bizarre mood on the Enron trading floor after the company imploded, I began imagining this... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Thomas Veil

4.0 out of 5 stars The inside reality of the crooked E
Most readers will know that Enron was once the 7th largest company in the world. The same readers will know that its corporate collapse destroyed many lives. Read more

Published on April 23, 2007 by J. Cameron-Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars View from the ranks
Cruver worked on the trading floor as part of a new business group at Enron and his account in "Anatomy of Greed", built around his firsthand experience, offers a look at the... Read more

Published on December 11, 2006 by Carla Fair-wright

5.0 out of 5 stars Great insight to a high-profile, compelling story!
I thought Mr. Cruver did a spectacular job bringing an insider's perspective to this story. Nice work.

Published on October 13, 2006 by Bookstar

5.0 out of 5 stars A well put together book!
Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down. Not only is Cruver's writing crisp and concise, but the book has a wide range of emotions to help you feel engaged... Read more

Published on August 3, 2006 by ICUH8N

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating on Many Different Levels
Unfortunately the title, Anatomy of Greed, does not give the correct impression of what the book is about. It is not the anatomy of anything. Read more

Published on June 10, 2006 by Stephen Schwartz

5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Eye Opener
If you don't have a clue to what the suits are doing every day between 9 and 5 read this book. It was very insightful and an easy read.

Published on November 29, 2005 by Dottie A. Randazzo

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, enjoyable and informative reading....
I was doing an assignment on Enron issue and that is when I picked up this book from library among other books on Enron. Read more

Published on October 25, 2005 by Sim

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