Michael Lewis, 213 pages. W.W. Norton & Co. $25.95
Michael Lewis possesses the rare storyteller’s ability to make virtually any subject lucid and compelling. In his new book, he makes topics such as European sovereign debt, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank not only comprehensible but fascinating.
The book could not be more timely, given the worries about Europe’s deepening debt crisis. Combining his easy familiarity with finance and the talents of a travel writer, Lewis sets off to give the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal upheaval of 2008, such as Greece, Iceland and Ireland, tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the run-up to that disaster.
The book doesn’t aspire to provide a broad overview of the debt crisis but instead hands the reader a small but sparkling prism by which to view the problem. Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
