Boomerang

Travels in the New Third World

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Big Short, Liar’s Poker and The Blind Side!

The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge.

The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a pinata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish.

The trademark of Michael Lewis’s best sellers is to tell an important and complex story through characters so outsized and outrageously weird that you’d think they have to be invented. (You’d be wrong.) In Boomerang, we meet a brilliant monk who has figured out how to game Greek capitalism to save his failing monastery; a cod fisherman who, with three days’ training, becomes a currency trader for an Icelandic bank; and an Irish real estate developer so outraged by the collapse of his business that he drives across the country to attack the Irish Parliament with his earth-moving equipment.

Lewis’s investigation of bubbles beyond our shores is so brilliantly, sadly hilarious that it leads the American listener to a comfortable complacency: Oh, those foolish foreigners. But when Lewis turns a merciless eye on California and Washington DC, we see that the narrative is a trap baited with humor, and we understand the reckoning that awaits the greatest and greediest of debtor nations.

©2011 Michael Lewis (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

“No one writes with more narrative panache about money and finance than Lewis.” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)

Simply Fascinating.

As always Michael Lewis has some interesting observations about societies. Entertaining read. This book, I feel, is definately worth the cost.

It was great listening!

If you could sum up Boomerang in three words, what would they be?

Give me more

Who was your favorite character and why?

the whole book was good, taking a complex subject and making it entertaining and educational.

Have you listened to any of Dylan Baker’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

nope, but will look into them.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

Any additional comments?

very good book and narrator was excellent

very entertaining

very entertaining overview of the global financial crisis. well researched and presented. I would recommend to anyone interested in the subject.

Better than the Big Short

Very interesting comparisons of how the cultures of these countries all contributed to their economic downfalls.

very good read

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely a recommended listen. Lewis writes a narrative so well that you almost forget there are underlying lessons in the tales.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The fire fighter (I forget his name, apologies) is the all american type character than shows what is wrong with some of our labor structure and what faces anyone who has responsibilities. There couldn't have been a better chosen character.

What about Dylan Baker’s performance did you like?

Very well narrated, great voice and emphasis.

Boomerang Provides Warning for The World

Where does Boomerang rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Boomerang is the only audiobook that I listened to again as soon as I finished it the first time. If you only listen to one book, this should be it.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the way Michael Lewis does he research and tells the story in a funny and informative manner.

Have you listened to any of Dylan Baker’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

N/A

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Any additional comments?

By the time the movie gets made, the story will advance. Lewis should start working on Boomerang II now.

Good but not his best

If you could sum up Boomerang in three words, what would they be?

Revelatory, sarcastic, meandering

Any additional comments?

Liked the book but the scorn/sarcasm towards its subjects kind of got to me, even though it is well deserved. I was disappointed, though, that he didn't wrap things up by telling us what happened to the guy he discusses in the opening chapter...

Another Michael Lewis classic

I can't say enough how much I enjoy the writing of Michael Lewis. The way that he takes gigantic subjects and hones them down into digestible pieces that are easy to understand and that provide a necessary lesson for personal use. I give it a 9.6/10.

Super funny and Intelligent

Very readable and give a unique insight into why the world went as wacky as it did.

Great story

I've greatly enjoyed everything I've read (or listened to) by Michael Lewis, including this fascinating look at the effects of (ongoing) global financial crisis on five different nations. The material is often humorous and sarcastic, and the narrator really performs it accordingly, but sometimes I felt he was a little *too* sardonic. Even so, the performance was very enjoyable.