Yikes. You know it really sucks that a bunch of Wall Street a-holes created mortgage backed securities and in order to continue to feed their machine, bundled riskier and riskier mortgages together, and then decided to sell portions of those bonds over and over again in a way that nearly bankrupted the company. And with their giant government bailout they turned around and gave themselves big fat bonuses in amounts greater than average Americans will see in their entire lives. So yeah, The Big Short is infuriating.But... as with anything Michael Lewis, it's so damn well written. I mean, I have an English literature degree, there's no way I should understand and be able to speak intelligently about collateralized debt obligations, but I can. So thanks Michael Lewis. This book takes a deep dive into the origin and abuses that led to the financial collapse of 2007/2008 and the following recession. It's a hard look at the people on the inside of Wall Street that care only about making money for themselves and had no qualms about what their actions might do for the rest of America. And it applauds without glorifying the individuals who figured out the system was on the brink of collapse and bet against it. Everyone was asleep at the wheel on this one and it could absolutely happen again. Which is probably the worst part. I watched the movie after reading the book and it's very well done. I don't say that often.
4.5 Stars.
There are very few book that get put on my DNF pile. But if it hadn't been for a work road trip and hours of windshield time, The Last Mrs. Parrish would have found itself discarded on the pile.
Let's begin at the beginning and then we'll get into spoiler territory.
TLMP starts in the mind of Amber Patterson, a woman with a clear agenda to get close to Daphne Parrish, a wealthy socialite in the town of Bishops Harbor, CT. Amber ingratiates herself to Daphne by pretending to have a sister who died of the same terrible disease as Daphne's character. And so the first 60% of the book is Amber moving closer and closer into Daphne's circle, somehow fooling everyone as to who she is and what her motives are. But as the reader, we know that Amber is a con artist intent on only one thing - getting Mr. Parrish in bed and becoming his wife.
So now just hold up here because this is part of the most irritating part of the book. Amber is deceptive and wiley, but she's not entirely all that smart or brilliant. Her plan does seem to be working because Daphne seems especially vulnerable to taking this dull homely girl under her wing. And that's all fine, but the premise that all that would be enough to turn the head of her supposedly faithful and adoring husband was just all a little too much to swallow. It was all a little too perfect a narrative. And the steps that were taken to get to those points were just a little too far outside of plausible.
And so after listening for about 8 hours of story, I was ready to bag Amber and TLMP. And so of course this is where the story turned. And Daphne becomes the narrator. Telling us all about the terrible marriage she has to Mr. Jackson Parrish. You see, he's a sadistic sociopath who is horrible to his wife and children. Through mental and physical abuse, he controls Daphne - who she talks to, where she goes. He threatens her through her children. He even had her committed to a mental institution after the birth of their first daughter so she would know just what the consequences would be if she ever tried to expose him or leave him. Apparently the only thing Daphne couldn't give him was a son. So when the Daphne section started with their meeting and dating I thought, oh no I don't have the stomach for ten years of marriage about this.
And thankfully the authors seemed to be aware. But then it became apparent that Daphne started orchestrating Amber's affair with Jackson and oh, the revenge, I was so here for it because I hated Amber so much. But in the end, I'm a little deflated that the "revenge" I was so hyped for ended up being the domestic abuse and serial rape of Amber by the husband she was so keen for. Not to mention their poor child who has two morally depraved parents. I was kind of thinking it would end in a murder/suicide in which Daphne, as the closest relative would get custody of Amber's son and then everyone innocent will be saved, but no. Or that Amber and Daphne would team up against Jackson, but also no. And the revenge kept coming. In spiral after spiral of take-down by Daphne. It ended up being a little too wrapped up, a little too perfect
So this was a big miss for me. The revenge portion left me feeling icky and the entirely too long front portion of the book wasn't worth the pay off.
2/5 Stars.
The Plumb family has a problem and it's not the problem that initially appears in the pages. The four siblings, Leo, Beatrice, Jack and Melody are all middle-aged and impatiently awaiting the birthday of Melody, the youngest sibling, as that will usher in payments from a trust their father set up many years ago to provide them with a small estate gift. (The Nest - as they all annoyingly refer to it). However, oldest sibling Leo is a selfish a-hole who nearly kills a waitress in a car accident necessitating the almost liquidation of the nest in order to reach a settlement with the family.
Leo, a charismatic, early success has become a used up former addict with none of the shine left on his apple. So as the siblings squabble with him and amongst themselves for their lack of funds, we are also shown the startlingly flawed characters of the other siblings, who have made serious financial mistakes.
D'Aprix does a fantastic job weaving together the various plot points. While some of the dialogue seems a bit too contrived, overall the story and the characters work well together to produce a readable and entertaining story with just a little bit of heart. In the end, the siblings become actual humans instead of caricatures of themselves and grow more likeable as the story develops.
3.75/5 Stars.
