![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() There is one scene where he persuades a shipping executive to invest by professing fascination with his work, and showing an understanding of the complexity of the world’s supply chains which the man finds gratifying. He is not an obvious showman but appears empathetic to those he draws in. The narrative goes some way to explaining his charisma and the complexities of a man who was deceiving himself as well as all those around him. It begins with two 1990s slackers, Vincent and her half-brother Paul, who are drifting after college and both end up working at the glass hotel of the title, which is owned by Alkaitis. The story is not told in a linear fashion but spins out from Alkaitis drawing on several different characters who are tangentially connected to him – investors, workers, friends, lovers. ![]() (She says in the afterword to the novel that she drew on Madoff’s story for the details of the scheme, but not the character of its creator, Jonathan Alkaitis). The story revolves around a Bernie Madoff-type Ponzi scheme, which robs many investors of their life savings. In The Glass Hotel Mandel takes on the financial crisis of 2008. It was such an intricate and sensitive book it was always going to be a hard act to follow. John Mandel’s Station Elevenimagined a pandemic and its aftermath, asking what could endure and what we would value, if we survived. ![]()
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