Book description
In early 2000 the bottom dropped out of the life of writer David
Denby when his wife decided to leave him. Propelled to make some money
quickly, and seized by the 'irrational exuberance' of the stock
market, then approaching its peak, Denby enthusiastically joined the
investment frenzy. Over the next few months he listened raptly to
bullish stock analysts, dreamy hi-tech gurus and boastful heads of
companies. He plunged into a season of mania and was swept forward on
currents of hope, greed and hucksterism - with cataclysmic results.
American Sucker is a mesmerising account of those years of madness.
What begins as a money chase and an engagement with rampant capitalism
soon becomes an encounter with such timeless issues as love, envy,
true value - and life and death itself. This is a classic tale of the
bubble related not by a market guru or an investment professional but
by a witty, perceptive and eloquent outsider.
David Denby is a staff writer and film critic for the New Yorker and
was formerly a film critic for New York magazine. His first book, Great
Books (1996) was a finalist for the US National Book Critics Circle
Award. He lives in New York.
