This 'Wolf' still shows his fangs
— -- There's nothing like a tell-all book from the wrongfully accused. How we love to read about the triumph of the individual over a corrupt and morally reprehensible system.
But will readers be interested in the opposite: a sick and twisted memoir that barely pauses for any words of remorse by a morally reprehensible author?
That's the gamble that Bantam, an imprint of Random House, is taking on The Wolf of Wall Street, a book by Jordan Belfort, the infamous founder of investment firm Stratton Oakmont.
The Wolf of Wall Street opens as Belfort flies his helicopter to his home in the early morning hours — under the influence of who-knows-what drugs, after a late-night encounter with one of his "blue chip" prostitutes.
The book continues through Belfort's illicit methods of turning a profit, such as "pumping and dumping" stocks through his investment firm. Having an illegal stake in a new company, Stratton Oakmont associates would create a market for a stock during its initial public offering, pumping up the price before unloading it on unsuspecting investors, who would end up with an overpriced or worthless stock.
It's hard to find something to like about Belfort. His company bilked investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the meantime, Belfort was consuming elephantine doses of drugs and alcohol, manipulating everyone around him (while demanding loyalty in return), and treating the women in his life (including his wife) as brainless sex-vending machines.
The surprise is not that Belfort recalls these things — there is no shortage of stories about the dark and hedonistic side of the business world — but the way in which he writes about his experience.
There are only brief moments of remorse, which the reader must assume is transitory. For most of the story, Belfort sends a clear message: What I did was wrong and disgusting … but look how great it all was, and how brilliant and clever I am.
It would be illustrative to provide more than a few examples, but unfortunately, so much of what Belfort has to say cannot be printed on this page.
His propensity to refer to numerous Jews in his story (Belfort himself is Jewish) as "a savage Jew," and a business associate as a "Chinaman" is enough to rankle any reader.
It gets worse when he describes a prostitute who is sent to his room in Switzerland: "It was a black hooker straight from Ethiopia, who could only say hello and good-bye! My favorite!"
Of course, Belfort doesn't explain how he knows that she is from Ethiopia ("An Ethiopian, by the looks of her") or why he refers to her as "it."
The problem is that underneath all the disgusting gloss, the story of Stratton Oakmont is a compelling one. This book had all the potential to be an inside view of a place such as Enron or WorldCom or any of the less reputable subprime lenders. The story is more pertinent today than ever.
Unfortunately, Belfort makes this book just one more con job in a lifetime of trickery. What's more, the film has been optioned by Warner Bros. (with rumors of a Scorsese-DiCaprio connection).
Belfort even has the gall to end with a pitch for the sequel.
"Ironically, it would be more than five years from the time I was indicted until I actually went to jail — serving twenty-two months in a federal prison camp. What I would have never guessed, though — not in a million years, in fact — was that those last five years would be as insane as the ones before them."