The Pit: A Story of Chicago

Rating:
Summary: ooops! I went long
Review: norris thrilled me as a junior in high school with realism. "The Pit" my recent read some 17years after highschool can only be understood by someone that has gone through trading on some level. It wasn't so much greed but lust to trade. go downtown ny or chi right now and watch the faces of the boys/men /women and this novel will transcend time for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: ooops! I went long
Review: norris thrilled me as a junior in high school with realism. "The Pit" my recent read some 17years after highschool can only be understood by someone that has gone through trading on some level. It wasn't so much greed but lust to trade. go downtown ny or chi right now and watch the faces of the boys/men /women and this novel will transcend time for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Historical Novel on Chicago
Review: The Pit is a story about the Chicago Wheat market during the early 1900's. Norris writes a historical / romance book in which Laura Dearborn finds herself in Chicago from Boston. Almost immediately, she is beset by a variety of suitors. However, she is most taken by Curtis Jadwin, a sophisticated businessman who is influential on the Chicago Board of Trade.

After marrying Laura, the conservative speculator, after making a nice profit on the wheat market, becomes obsessive over controlling it. As the story unfolds, his wealth grows in a short period of time and for a while he captures the market. Ultimately, though, the market corrects itself and he must save his fortune as well as his wife, Laura, whose love begins to flee from lack of attention from Jadwin.

I found this book very slow at the beginning. However, once the market traps Jadwin, the book becomes exciting and the pages fly by. Laura is a realistic character, although I didn't have a lot of sympathy for her - she come off rather spoiled and hapless. Norris's point about the addictiveness of speculating on wheat futures and the power that it has over the rest of the world is evident. A solid book and worth reading by those who like that period of time or are interested in Chicago's history.

Rating:
Summary: Historical Novel on Chicago
Review: The Pit is a story about the Chicago Wheat market during the early 1900's. Norris writes a historical / romance book in which Laura Dearborn finds herself in Chicago from Boston. Almost immediately, she is beset by a variety of suitors. However, she is most taken by Curtis Jadwin, a sophisticated businessman who is influential on the Chicago Board of Trade.

After marrying Laura, the conservative speculator, after making a nice profit on the wheat market, becomes obsessive over controlling it. As the story unfolds, his wealth grows in a short period of time and for a while he captures the market. Ultimately, though, the market corrects itself and he must save his fortune as well as his wife, Laura, whose love begins to flee from lack of attention from Jadwin.

I found this book very slow at the beginning. However, once the market traps Jadwin, the book becomes exciting and the pages fly by. Laura is a realistic character, although I didn't have a lot of sympathy for her - she come off rather spoiled and hapless. Norris's point about the addictiveness of speculating on wheat futures and the power that it has over the rest of the world is evident. A solid book and worth reading by those who like that period of time or are interested in Chicago's history.

Rating:
Summary: Anachronistic but topical
Review: The Pit was obviously not written recently. With its dated language and pre-PC attitudes toward sex and gender roles, it portrays a simpler time. However, when it describes trading and the risks of falling in love with a position and believing that the market is "wrong", it is as topical as the internet bubble.

While reading it, I couldn't help but compare it to Arthur Hailey novels like "Wheels" or "Airport", because this is the story of an industry told through the eyes of real people with their own foibles, loves, and idiosyncrasies. Laura Jadwin, nee Dearborn, tells most of the story. Her inner conflict between self-centered materialism and desire for "perfect" love forms the backdrop to the financial saga enmeshing her husband, Curtis. All in all, this is a good read but may move too slowly for some people--except for the climax of Jadwin's corner of the wheat market, which is as fast-paced as a Clancy novel.

Rating:
Summary: Greed, selfishness and love show here at its worst.
Review: This story of the Chicago commodities is quite shocking. The central characters, the Jadwins, let greed and self pity ruin their once happy marriage. The amount of money that these characters waste and then lose is mind blowing. It shows that greed has always been the driving force in our American economy.