Walking In Wuhan

I'd been waiting for this one to hit bookstands for quite some time. Ben Mezrich is well-known for his book Breaking Vegas, the story of a group of Harvard grads who won millions playing blackjack thanks to a sophisticated card-counting method. In the opening of Rigged, Mezrich admits he's attracted to the stories of high-powered go-getters who try and beat the system. He finds just such a person to drive the narrative in his new book.

A graduate of the Harvard Business School, David Russo -- an alias for real-life HBS graduate John D'Agostino -- begins his career pushing paper at Merrill Lynch before being plucked to work in the fast-paced, high-risk New York Mercantile Exchange. The Merc is where oil futures are traded, with traders making and losing millions of dollars per day based on the whims of the price of crude oil. Russo soon finds himself fighting to stay ahead. The Merc is dominated by fast-living savants from some of the roughest neighborhoods in Brooklyn and immediately clash with Russo, who they see as a hot-shot kid with a silver spoon.

Russo gets invited to Dubai, the oasis of capitalism in the Middle East where he meets a young go-getter who works in the United Arab Emirates' treasury department. Together they hatch a highly controversial scheme that could make the Merc millions, and cost Russo everything. Mezrich's books obviously appeal to males, who tend to gravitate towards the alpha male main characters he uses to push the narrative. Russo is a symphateic character, who quickly had me wrapped up in the story -- I read the thing in two days. Even if you don't find the Entourage/Big Shots/Alpha Male-type shows and books appealing, this book is definitely worth picking up.