Other People's Money by Justin Cartwright
Bloomsbury $39.99
It would be very easy in these economically grim times to write novels casting bankers in the harshest of lights - simple moustache-twisting pantomime villains. What Justin Cartwright does in Other People's Money is more interesting and far more entertaining.
This is not a tirade against the uber-wealthy bankers playing fast and loose with other people's money in the lead up to the global financial crisis. This is, instead, an examination of stereotypes and the real people who inhabit them.
It's a story, yes, of a bank and a banker who have stretched too far and diversified too naively but it's also a story of sons and fathers, and wives and of tradition versus modern thinking.
The iconic, family-owned bank Tubal & Co, is run by Julian, son of the ailing but ever-present Sir Henry. The bank is about to be sold, while Julian and those around him desperately try to hide the fact the bank is about to fail. Funds are being diverted and fairy tales told to shore up the family institution and name.
Thankfully for high-finance novices, technical-speak is kept to a minimum, and with good reason. This isn't about investment philosophies, this is about people - how rebellion against a previous generation can result in triumph as well as tragedy; and how money attracts more money as well as freedom, and of course resentment.
Most importantly, in the middle of all this, Other People's Money is also often very funny.
Cartwright never excuses Julian, but never totally excoriates him, either. He is, in the end, left stranded, a little weak and pathetic, his father both the more heroic and more villainous character - and more respect-worthy for it.
But Cartwright does not reserve his judgement for the wealthy. He has plenty to say, subtly, about the sycophantic loyalty wealth inspires, and perhaps most interestingly, about the single-minded antipathy and vengeance it encourages.
This book won't vindicate or give release to any long-held resentments against those who helped create our economic woes, but it will make you think about the human failings and habits which have seen it happen time and time again. And it will you entertain you nicely along the way.
