The Wolf of Wall Street Summary and Reviews

The Wolf of Wall Street
by Jordan Belfort

The Wolf of Wall Street
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Book Summary Information

Author: Jordan Belfort
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-08-26
ISBN: 0553384775
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Bantam

Book Reviews of The Wolf of Wall Street

Book Review: A disappointing read, a deceiving title, and not much to offer
Summary: 1 Stars

A colleague recommended I read The Wolf of Wall Street, explaining how he couldn't put it down once he got started. Sadly enough, I did not quite enjoy the book half as much as he did.

The title, The Wolf of Wall Street, left me with the impression that the book would follow a slick investment banker or a shrewd stock broker, discussing how he made tens of millions of dollars before reaching 30 years old, and possibly delving into the antics and behaviors that would earn a young guy such a name like "The Wolf." However... no such topics were touched upon even once in the entire book. Jordan Belfort, the author of this self-aggrandizing autobiography, could have titled the book with a phrase he used (and used proudly at that) in almost every chapter to describe the spectacle that had become his daily life subsequently following his rise to opulence: "Lifestyles of the Rich and Dysfunctional."

Had I known not a single story in the entire lengthy book would even so much as take place on Wall Street, I likely would not have picked up the book. Had I known this was a 500+ page story dominated by seemingly exaggerated tales of drug abuse, and had I known most of those drug-related stories would simply be recycled and reused in one form or another in just about every chapter, then, once again, I likely would not have spent hours and hours reading this work. The Wolf of Wall Street doesn't even attempt to explain where and why Mr. Belfort received that nickname for which the book was apparently named. Had I wanted to read an entire story about sexual debauchery, drug addiction, and the dysfunctional families such popularly indecent tendencies give way to, I would have gone to the `Self-Help' section at the book store (as opposed to the `business' section, where this book was found).

This simply was not the story I expected, and the slick marketers who designed the cover and helped come up the title for this novel really pulled the ol' "bait and switch" on us innocent readers. Anyway, I should have put the book down after page 100, but I just kept waiting for the good part, or the insightful part, or the meat of the story..., but, truth be told, this book lacks direction, lacks a plot, lacks in insight, and doesn't ever really go anywhere.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, and I struggle to understand why my coworker would ever refer a book like this to me in the first place. I will not read the sequel, because I already feel like I read the same 100 pages 5 times over - I wasted enough time and money the first time around, and I refuse to read another 500 pages worth of Jordan Belfort repeating the same stories in various settings.

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