Review by Choice Review
The "new third world" of the book's title refers to first-world countries that have run up debts so large that default is now a serious option. Bestselling journalist Lewis (The Big Short, CH, Jul'10, 47-6378; Moneyball, CH, Apr'04, 41-4733) visits Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany, and California, trying to discover why some speculators are betting that sovereign debt default will trigger the next financial crisis. Lewis has an acerbic take on some societies and people he visits: the Icelanders are aggressive but naive, the Greeks totally corrupt, and the Germans fascinated with excrement. The reader will enjoy both Lewis's stay with Greek monks who have an uncanny ability to deal in real estate and his bike ride through traffic with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although Lewis's writing style makes his discussion of the underlying financial themes readable and humorous, it also tends to push these themes into the background because they are not as entertaining as his observations about the cultures and people he encounters. His bad news is that people given too much money often act foolishly. The hope he holds out is that people forced to deal with the consequences of that foolishness often show creativity and innovation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers and all levels of undergraduate students. R. E. Schenk emeritus, Saint Joseph's College (IN)
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Part travelogue, part finance journalism, this latest from Lewis tours the countries hardest hit by the financial crisis of 2008-e.g., Iceland, Greece, and Ireland-taking on complex economic issues filled with arcane minutiae and making them utterly compelling. Over the course of his travels, Lewis has numerous culture clashes: while touring Iceland he boards in a room with a natural heat source "so powerful... that some great grinding, wheezing engine must be deployed to prevent it from cooking me." Dylan Baker offers up folksy, everyman narration that is clear and entertaining. He both elucidates complicated financial passages for listeners and captures the spirit of Lewis's adventures. Additionally, Baker is adept at conveying Lewis's dry-and slightly morbid-sense of humor. A W.W. Norton hardcover. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Lewis (The Big Short) puts his own spin on financial-disaster tourism, traveling to places we hear about in the headlines but whose economic troubles few of us really understand: Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany, and even California. Originally written as a series of articles for Vanity Fair, these pieces all reflect Lewis's flair for making complex financial shenanigans comprehensible to the nonbusiness reader as well as his talent for teasing character profiles (like the Texas financier who bought 20 million nickels for their metal value) and stories out of nameless bureaucracies and amorphous events. The individual chapters are engaging, but they remain a somewhat disconnected group without much in the way of an introduction or conclusion to bring them together. Lewis also tends to engage in a bit of cultural stereotyping that may not be to all readers' taste-Icelanders, for example, have a "feral streak," and Germans are fascinated with all things scheisse (shit). Verdict Lewis is red-hot right now (thanks in no small part to recent movie versions of The Blind Side and Moneyball) and there will be demand for this title, which, despite its shortcomings and depressing subject matter, is fascinating.-Sarah Statz Cords, The Reader's Advisor Online (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Big Short (2010), Lewis dug deep into the housing-market failure that precipitated the economic collapse of 2007-08. Here the author tours Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany and California to compose a broader picture of what went wrong. Like Lewis' other bestsellers, this book is alternately wry, snarky, laugh-out-loud humorous, serious and, most importantly, filled with insights. The author is a master at explaining financially complex realms by casting them as narratives of individuals. In each place, he finds people famous, infamous and nearly anonymous who can fairly be rendered as villains or heroes. Each chapter started as an article for Vanity Fair, yet the seemingly disparate features coalesce nicely in the book. Lewis is willing to court danger by generalizing about the characteristics within each nation that led to unexpected consequences. As usual, the author delivers a nice balance of trenchant analysis and lucid writing. In regards to Greece, the most distressed nation of all, "it turned out, what the Greeks wanted to do, once the lights went out and they were alone in the dark with a pile of borrowed money, was turn their government into a piata stuffed with fantastic sums and give as many citizens as possible a whack at it." An enlightening, scary journey.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
