Product Description

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Should I Do with My Life?, Bombardiers is Po Bronson’s first novel, a devastating satire of the business world told through the lens of a crazed and colorful group of salespeople forced to push increasingly absurd financial products.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344473 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-30
• Released on: 2003-12-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Amazon.com
Regardless of how you feel about investment banking ("It's a complete scam!"; "It's a great way to make a killing!"), this non-stop novelistic indictment of the shark-infested financial world--and by extension, much of the corporate world--is bound to make you laugh uproariously--and think deeply. As fast-paced and frenetic as the stock exchange on a Monday morning.

From Publishers Weekly
First-novelist Bronson takes on modern business in a black comedy about a group of money-crazed and eccentric bond traders in San Francisco.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This savage satire of the sleazier elements of Wall Street follows the fortunes of Sid Geeder, King of Mortgages in the trading firm of Atlantic Pacific. Sid can sell anything to anybody, all day and every day. Others, like Lisa Lisa and Nickel Sansome, eavesdrop, cajole, and bribe to copy Sid's techniques. The arrival of maverick Eggs Igino unbalances the corporate culture, however. Since none of the salespeople understands the market, finance, economics, or even the nature of the products they sell, they all fall apart in various ways trying to meet quotas until the biggest sales job of all comes along: the selling of an entire country. As a former bond trader, Bronson makes ferocious humor from the daily obsessions of this stressed-out bunch. Yuppies and MBA candidates should read Bombardiers before they have their next job interview; anyone owning stock will find food for thought here. For popular collections.
--Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svcs., Ridgecrest, Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The Truth Hurts
There is no better book that shares the hypocrasies and truisms investment banking than Bronson's book. Having worked in this industry for a number of years, I can attest that there is far more in this book that is true than fiction - as hard as it might seem for someone not affiliated with this industry to grasp. Unfortunately, only insiders will appreciate how revealing this book is because there is so much that will whiz over the average readers head. Much of this, to the average reader, is pure silliness and fun. But it's not so.

Uproarious, disquieting and all too real
This is the Catch 22 of the stock market set, sort of, in which the "Third Law of Information Economics" has a good solid ring to it, over sands of shifting substance. Hilarious and manic, this first novel features a room full of brokers strung out on fear and greed. "It was a filthy profession, but the money was addicting, and one addiction led to another, and they were all going to hell."
The book's great strength is the writing, which snaps and sizzles with wicked glee and doesn't let up from first page to last. Its weaknesses are lack of plot and no main character.

Sid Geeder is the closest Bronson comes to a protagonist. An old man of 34, with just nine months to go before his five years are up and he can cash in his shares and become a rich man who will never have to work again, he's the King of Mortgages. The more he hates an offering the better he can sell it, in hopes one of these deals may finally bring the whole corrupt system crashing down. He sells the Resolution Trust Corp.'s "preposterous intention to borrow a gazillion dollars in order to shut down some thrifts," by assuring his accounts "that the government is a safe investment because we can count on them never to solve their problems."

Eggs Igino is the new kid, the maverick. "In a world of unmerciful uniformity, rebels were hard to come by," muses sales manager Coyote Jack. He was King of Mortgages in the old days, four or five years earlier when "Mortgage bonds were brand-new and nobody understood them, so they were easy to sell, because no client wanted to admit he lacked the intellectual brain power to understand these complex variable cash flows."

Nowadays he clings to his own Third Law: "Never hire anyone you can't fire," and berates his crew unmercifully. "Coyote Jack watched with unbearable pleasure. To have Sidney Geeder howling angry and Eggs Igino wildly subordinate was the perfect market condition for selling bonds."

The deals get more and more outrageous until finally U.S. capitalism has decided to attempt a hostile corporate takeover of the assetts of the Domican Republic. Eggs Igino mysteriously disappears and is there ever any hope Sidney will get to cash in his shares and retire?

Forget suspense, story line, all that rot. This is your national deficit at work and as your peals of laughter slowly subside, you'll be left with the disquieting notion that every word is still true, though the book was first published in 1995.

Funny, very easy read ... and true
Why you shouldn't trust your broker, or get a job in the industry! Po Bronson worked in the business and his account rings true.