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REVIEW
Wall Street trader creates havoc and profits, then falls in love
Michael Leone, San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, June 18, 2007
Das Kapital
By Viken Berberian
SIMON & SCHUSTER; 175 Pages; $23
_____
No, this isn't a new translation of Marx's obtuse and history-altering
tome, but a slim, impeccably cool new novel by Viken Berberian, author
of the novel "The Cyclist." In his new novel, Berberian juxtaposes the
cold, profit-driven trading environment of Wall Street, with the lush
antiquated calm of Marseille, France. Wayne, the protagonist, is a
trader on Wall Street. Think of Gordon Gecko, or that prattling
TV-personality doofus Jim Cramer. Obsessed by money and all things
material (he eats quail egg omelets with Petrossian caviar), Wayne,
however, is craftier than either Gecko or Cramer. He scorns the
investment community, considering it naive and presumptuous. A
defeatist, or "pragmatic realist," he prefers "to make money from
disaster."
Following Marx's credo that the capitalist economy is ever on the
brink of extinction, Wayne creates his own market conditions. He hires
a mysterious Corsican terrorist to assassinate world leaders and
create havoc in various world economies and cultures, then bets
against the market by selling short on those investments. Confused?
All you really need to know is: It is ludicrous, highly illegal and
impressively hilarious.
When Wayne isn't trapped in front of his "Gloomberg" terminal, he's
writing surprisingly sappy e-mails to Alix, who lives in Marseille and
who is also involved with the Corsican terrorist. She is everything
Wayne isn't: a spiritual, thoughtful architecture student who takes
yoga classes and makes literary and cultural references, and is so
naive to the endlessly throbbing material world that she professes she
doesn't even know what a BlackBerry is. She reads Kafka and Kundera,
both of whom Wayne dismisses. "[N]either really helps you become a
better trader," Wayne says. "There is absolutely no upside in
literature."
Despite such differences, however, or rather, because of them, Alix
and Wayne find themselves attracted to each other to the point that
they both decide to abandon their electronic cocoon and meet in the
flesh. They do so in New York, and what transpires is a mild and wry
courtship. Wayne says she's "making [him] see the world in a different
way." Are we to believe Wayne? Is there such a thing as a corporate,
post-modern satire with a heart?
As Wayne and Alix find themselves cavorting in New York City, then
Marseille, the mad Corsican, a former tree cutter, struggles to win
Alix's affections, all the while rushing around the world to create
dividend-producing disasters.
Berberian is a writer obsessed with his times. "The Cyclist" captured
the sensibility of a young Middle Eastern terrorist fixated on bombs,
women and food. In "Das Kapital," he probes the global lunacy wrought
by 9/11 and the multifaceted nature of corporate culture. His satire
soars to the levels of Don DeLillo and Chuck Palahniuk.
His prose is appropriately impervious, suggesting the cold contours of
the Gloomberg machine: "He looked into the Bloomberg. Everything
became clear again. There were familiar diagrams on his two
screens. Each plotted point was the expression of a just measure. Each
fraction was a clue to a hidden treasure. Each decimal lent dignity to
a perverse pleasure, until a 24k bloc crossed the tape. The bids were
relentless, growing bigger in size." Berberian, who works at a
financial consultancy in Paris, knows a thing or two about how the
global economy works, or rather, how it doesn't work, and this
knowledge alone makes him a formidable contemporary writer.
As Wayne and Alix become more enamored of each other, the Corsican
terrorist continues Wayne's bidding: "In the month that followed, many
buildings fell. The first was the vaunted Tokyo Stock Exchange. A
week later the Crystal Palace came crashing down. Then a Range Rover
rigged with explosives destroyed a section of the Fabrik
Huttenstrasse." Wayne's profits continue to climb -- as long as the
world continues to implode. But now that he's in love, and his world
has suddenly become a transfigured place, how is he to justify his
ruthless exploitation?
"Das Kapital" is an inventive and oddly disturbing novel. The plot is
oblique, its characters hectic and obsessed with all things, but
mostly with trying to live a decent life in a world driven delirious
with greed. The conclusion is startling and strangely, though
quasi-apocalyptic, funny. How Berberian pulls it off is a mystery,
but like all great novelists, he most certainly does.
Michael Leone is a New York critic.
This article appeared on page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Wall Street trader creates havoc and profits, then falls in love
Michael Leone, San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, June 18, 2007
Das Kapital
By Viken Berberian
SIMON & SCHUSTER; 175 Pages; $23
_____
No, this isn't a new translation of Marx's obtuse and history-altering
tome, but a slim, impeccably cool new novel by Viken Berberian, author
of the novel "The Cyclist." In his new novel, Berberian juxtaposes the
cold, profit-driven trading environment of Wall Street, with the lush
antiquated calm of Marseille, France. Wayne, the protagonist, is a
trader on Wall Street. Think of Gordon Gecko, or that prattling
TV-personality doofus Jim Cramer. Obsessed by money and all things
material (he eats quail egg omelets with Petrossian caviar), Wayne,
however, is craftier than either Gecko or Cramer. He scorns the
investment community, considering it naive and presumptuous. A
defeatist, or "pragmatic realist," he prefers "to make money from
disaster."
Following Marx's credo that the capitalist economy is ever on the
brink of extinction, Wayne creates his own market conditions. He hires
a mysterious Corsican terrorist to assassinate world leaders and
create havoc in various world economies and cultures, then bets
against the market by selling short on those investments. Confused?
All you really need to know is: It is ludicrous, highly illegal and
impressively hilarious.
When Wayne isn't trapped in front of his "Gloomberg" terminal, he's
writing surprisingly sappy e-mails to Alix, who lives in Marseille and
who is also involved with the Corsican terrorist. She is everything
Wayne isn't: a spiritual, thoughtful architecture student who takes
yoga classes and makes literary and cultural references, and is so
naive to the endlessly throbbing material world that she professes she
doesn't even know what a BlackBerry is. She reads Kafka and Kundera,
both of whom Wayne dismisses. "[N]either really helps you become a
better trader," Wayne says. "There is absolutely no upside in
literature."
Despite such differences, however, or rather, because of them, Alix
and Wayne find themselves attracted to each other to the point that
they both decide to abandon their electronic cocoon and meet in the
flesh. They do so in New York, and what transpires is a mild and wry
courtship. Wayne says she's "making [him] see the world in a different
way." Are we to believe Wayne? Is there such a thing as a corporate,
post-modern satire with a heart?
As Wayne and Alix find themselves cavorting in New York City, then
Marseille, the mad Corsican, a former tree cutter, struggles to win
Alix's affections, all the while rushing around the world to create
dividend-producing disasters.
Berberian is a writer obsessed with his times. "The Cyclist" captured
the sensibility of a young Middle Eastern terrorist fixated on bombs,
women and food. In "Das Kapital," he probes the global lunacy wrought
by 9/11 and the multifaceted nature of corporate culture. His satire
soars to the levels of Don DeLillo and Chuck Palahniuk.
His prose is appropriately impervious, suggesting the cold contours of
the Gloomberg machine: "He looked into the Bloomberg. Everything
became clear again. There were familiar diagrams on his two
screens. Each plotted point was the expression of a just measure. Each
fraction was a clue to a hidden treasure. Each decimal lent dignity to
a perverse pleasure, until a 24k bloc crossed the tape. The bids were
relentless, growing bigger in size." Berberian, who works at a
financial consultancy in Paris, knows a thing or two about how the
global economy works, or rather, how it doesn't work, and this
knowledge alone makes him a formidable contemporary writer.
As Wayne and Alix become more enamored of each other, the Corsican
terrorist continues Wayne's bidding: "In the month that followed, many
buildings fell. The first was the vaunted Tokyo Stock Exchange. A
week later the Crystal Palace came crashing down. Then a Range Rover
rigged with explosives destroyed a section of the Fabrik
Huttenstrasse." Wayne's profits continue to climb -- as long as the
world continues to implode. But now that he's in love, and his world
has suddenly become a transfigured place, how is he to justify his
ruthless exploitation?
"Das Kapital" is an inventive and oddly disturbing novel. The plot is
oblique, its characters hectic and obsessed with all things, but
mostly with trying to live a decent life in a world driven delirious
with greed. The conclusion is startling and strangely, though
quasi-apocalyptic, funny. How Berberian pulls it off is a mystery,
but like all great novelists, he most certainly does.
Michael Leone is a New York critic.
This article appeared on page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle