The BOOK/MOVIE Club discussion

Discuss your thoughts on "The Big Short" with us here!

I’m pretty curious to see if this book has any relevancy for non-American readers… Though the Great Recession of 2008 was certainly a global economic issue, this story only looks at the causes as they relate to the U.S. and only examines the perspectives of key American players. “The Big Short” is a highly specific, detail-oriented examination of the American financial system and the mortgage lending space in particular. If any non-American members of this group have actually read this thing, we’d love to hear your thoughts!

I completely understand why most people in this group would not find this interesting. Nonfiction is not the preferred genre for most members of Goodreads, it seems, and this book is pretty inaccessible even by nonfiction standards. As much effort as the author takes to translate the bureaucratic jargon of the industry into something that is comprehensible, this book can still be hard to follow if you’re not paying careful attention (and maybe even taking notes).

I do want to give credit to the author’s writing style, though, because he turned one of the most dry, boring subjects ever conceived into a compelling story with well-developed characters. The subject of buying credit default swaps on the lowest tranches of subprime mortgage bonds is not an easy one to make interesting, or remotely understandable. But Michael Lewis really pulls it off, as well as anyone possibly could. He injects personal commentary, wit, and colorful metaphors throughout to make the reading experience as pleasurable as possible. He also reiterates the headiest concepts many times to ensure that you, the reader, are not confused or falling behind.

As is the case for many people, I think, I only found out about this book because of the film adaptation. “The Big Short” film made a splash when it released in theaters a couple of years ago, being nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and managing to be a fast-paced, witty, and stylish retelling of the events of the book. It had a “Wolf of Wall Street” feel to it, and even became one of my favorite movies of that year. The book enhanced the story of the movie, and filled in a lot of the missing puzzle pieces that were keeping me from really “getting” the concepts being explained.

Ultimately, this book gets 9 out of 10 stars from me. I feel as though I learned a TON about the finance industry, and about how this global recession really started (and no, it wasn’t because of poor people or immigrants). Better still, I was also entertained by the story, and enjoyed the emotional core that Michael Lewis managed to find and realize in his writing. If you’re trying to get into the nonfiction genre, you could do a lot worse.

Many families were hit by the housing bubble in the early 2000's, I have memories of the affect it had on my family, my neighborhood, my school, and the news. While I was still too young to feel the impact personally, I knew something was wrong- I could feel it in my gut. That feeling stuck with me throughout highschool and college until my family left the house we bought in 2006.

I saw the movie first, which is excellent and you should watch if you want a funnier and condensed version of the book. However, reading the book gave me a deeper understanding of what happened to cause so much grief to millions of people's lives.

While this book is based on the US crisis, the entire world economy was affected. The US is one of the largest consumer of goods and when it's people failed to generate sufficient income and defaulted on their loans, the impact was felt everywhere.

As a business major, this book gave me a kick because it's not often that a book on subprime loans has characters this colorful and the information so well laid out - even for the non-business savvy person.

I am looking forward to reading MORE from Michael Lewis. He is an excellent writer.
Overall, I give this book a 9/10.