Rating: 
Summary: john
Review: "Junk" is a fast and fun read, a great blend of colorful characters and bizzare circumstances. Michael Goodwin's tongue-in-cheek wall street satire creates a fine balance in the reader's mind...a balance between laughing at the absurd schemes of the comical junk bond salesmen, and the page-turning curiosity of needing to know what happens next. Best of all is the near reality of it all - that no matter how zany the scheming salesmen may be, almost everything they do has been done before, and will be done again, by someone on wall street.
Rating: 
Summary: Schemes of salesmen
Review: If you want a quick read with wit and intrigue, sarcasm and mystery all rolled into one, this is the book for you. The schemes and plans of the bond salesmen lead to a mysterious plot to sell a deal. Wall Streeters will relate to the characters involved. The author uses his own sarcastic humor to the max describing the wheelings and dealings of the characters. You'll laugh out loud and turn the pages seeking the next preposterous event. Take this book on your next road trip and your flight will whiz by as you uncover the details of the "deal"....
Rating:
Summary: Junk: We Can Only Wish That We Had More of It
Review: Michael Goodwin's "Junk" is a brilliant novel. It should have been picked up by a major publishing house; perhaps it soon may be. It would make a very good movie.
"Junk" is the best novel about Wall Street, sex, international espionage, murder, Harlem hoodlums, and the tom-foolery of institutional junk bond trading and mysterious hedge fund operators since Thomas Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities."
Most important, the book is fun. Often funny. Frequently outlandish. The plot is surprising when it needs to be. Of course the book's characters are more charactures than real people, and the entire project may be regarded as an extended cliche, but it is a cliche that works. And the book works because Goodwin himself is a fresh, original thinker. You are dealing here with a first rate mind. His overachieving Jewish sales woman, his red-necked, Southern bond-daddy, his bad, black drug dealers, and the middle-class black hero of the book all speak to us in a distinctive language that we recognize as real. The action scenes move quickly, the sexy scenes are tantalizingly slow. The final show-down is as preposterously spectacular as anything you've seen from Indiana Jones, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, or California's new governor. Happily, at the end of the book we get the conclusion we were all hoping for.
If Esquire's editors were paying attention, they would have picked up chapters of this book; Goodwin is what the old Esquire used to be: no nonsense writing from the likes of Mailer, Talese, Vidal, Salinger, and even Hemingway.
This is a wonderful piece of fiction; hopefully stores will be stocking it soon.
Rating:
Summary: Several plot lines make a good book.
Review: This book has professional deceit, corporate greed, hints of racism, international espionage, familial loyalty and personal redemption. Martin Stallworth is a black man who is employed by an investment bank (Whorman Skeller & Company) on Wall Street. He is a member of an internal group that sells high yield or "junk" bonds. The story begins with a satellite communications company (Lodestar) attempting to raise $500 million by selling "junk" bonds and Martin's group is tasked with selling the bonds to investors. While the group doesn't really believe in the issue, they are given a "sell-or-else" ultimatum, so they start hitting up their major clients. They use charm, sex, kickbacks, and lies to sell the issue. Given that Goodwin worked on Wall Street for several years selling "junk" bonds and the many recent revelations of investment officers telling clients to buy while dumping their holdings, his descriptions of the group's actions are probably very accurate.
The Defense Department is financing a significant portion of the project, so when the sales lag, one of the team members approaches a Chinese-American investor (Hu) and tries to sell him part (approximately half) of the deal. To his surprise, Hu agrees, but the initial joy is tempered by Hu's insistence that the classified documents describing the Defense Department involvement be delivered. Hu is in fact a front for a major spy ring run by the P.R.C. military. This leads to murder and accusations of murder and Martin is forced to flee from the police and Hu's enforcers.
He finally turns to his younger brother, a drug dealer who has the organizational muscle to take on the enforcers. After a showdown and shoot-out that ends with the FBI arriving in the nick of time, all charges are dropped and Martin and his brother form a legitimate company. This resolves their familial conflicts that have been simmering for years over the drug dealing.
The action moves along fairly well, the events in the investment bank are probably accurate. All of the plot lines are successfully managed, although some of the situations are overplayed. The FBI is depicted as incompetent, almost missing the climactic confrontation because they were caught in a traffic jam. While this book is certainly not in the category of the masters of the thrillers, it is a respectable contribution to the area and the investment banker angle is very plausible. The pun in the title of the investment bank was very clever.
Rating:
Summary: Several plot lines make a good book.
Review: This book has professional deceit, corporate greed, hints of racism, international espionage, familial loyalty and personal redemption. Martin Stallworth is a black man who is employed by an investment bank (Whorman Skeller & Company) on Wall Street. He is a member of an internal group that sells high yield or "junk" bonds. The story begins with a satellite communications company (Lodestar) attempting to raise $500 million by selling "junk" bonds and Martin's group is tasked with selling the bonds to investors. While the group doesn't really believe in the issue, they are given a "sell-or-else" ultimatum, so they start hitting up their major clients. They use charm, sex, kickbacks, and lies to sell the issue. Given that Goodwin worked on Wall Street for several years selling "junk" bonds and the many recent revelations of investment officers telling clients to buy while dumping their holdings, his descriptions of the group's actions are probably very accurate.
The Defense Department is financing a significant portion of the project, so when the sales lag, one of the team members approaches a Chinese-American investor (Hu) and tries to sell him part (approximately half) of the deal. To his surprise, Hu agrees, but the initial joy is tempered by Hu's insistence that the classified documents describing the Defense Department involvement be delivered. Hu is in fact a front for a major spy ring run by the P.R.C. military. This leads to murder and accusations of murder and Martin is forced to flee from the police and Hu's enforcers.
He finally turns to his younger brother, a drug dealer who has the organizational muscle to take on the enforcers. After a showdown and shoot-out that ends with the FBI arriving in the nick of time, all charges are dropped and Martin and his brother form a legitimate company. This resolves their familial conflicts that have been simmering for years over the drug dealing.
The action moves along fairly well, the events in the investment bank are probably accurate. All of the plot lines are successfully managed, although some of the situations are overplayed. The FBI is depicted as incompetent, almost missing the climactic confrontation because they were caught in a traffic jam. While this book is certainly not in the category of the masters of the thrillers, it is a respectable contribution to the area and the investment banker angle is very plausible. The pun in the title of the investment bank was very clever.
Rating:
Summary: A Knockout Book
Review: truly a winning book from start to finish that brings alot of Humor to alot of serious Matter going down.the Movie Wallstreet ain't even covering as many bases as this Book does&that Movie is tight to me.this Book deals with various themes&they all work together as one.you can't stop tripping out at the many views that are brought up.a must read.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit more polish and this guy could go places
Review: While I usually try to avoid self-published books, I accepted the opportunity to read Michael Goodwin's "Junk." We all know that print on demand publishing potentially hides a host of horrors. Occasionally you do find a gem in the rough, but more often a trip through the pages of one of these books reveals shoddy editing, mismatched typeface, and just plain bad writing. If you can't get a book published through traditional channels, is the book really worth putting out in the public sphere? Hundreds of would be authors answer that question with an enthusiastic yes. Heck, I would probably do it too just to see my name on the cover of a glossy, professional looking tome. Besides, who knows what could happen if your book garners enough attention. You just might end up with a real publishing deal. From what I read in "Junk," Goodwin isn't ready for the big leagues just yet. He is, however, batting solid numbers in the minors. One or two more good games and he may get a wink and a nod from the higher ups soon. Goodwin's book focuses on Martin Stallworth, a young black bond salesman with a good education, a job on Wall Street, and a salary in the six figures. As the story opens, Goodwin introduces us to a typical day at the firm of Worman Skeller & Company. He also wins points for dropping a reference to the song "I Don't Like Mondays" from the Boomtown Rats on the first page. Anyway, the protagonist feels the pressures of his job as soon as he walks through the door on a Monday morning. We meet several of Stallworth's co-workers, almost all of them hard charging personalities in desperate need of a straight jacket and a three-month stay at the funny farm. We also learn that Martin and his cronies need to sell a half billion dollars of Lodestar satellite bonds or they'll all be out of a job. Stallworth scores a coup when he unloads twenty five million in Lodestar to a decidedly unfriendly chap in New Jersey not known as a big spender. The book then follows Martin's co-workers as they lie, cheat, and steal in an effort to get anyone they know to buy the bonds. These early chapters essentially develop the characters and describe the setting of the story. The book veers off on a tangent when one of Stallworth's fellow salesmen, Hap, decides to approach the Chinese consulate in the hopes that they will buy some bonds. Is this an unintelligent thing to do? You bet, but Hap's desperate to sell anything so he can keep his job. Besides, his immediate boss just got the axe in a scene illustrating how humiliating a firing at the company can be. Hap gamely gives the hard sell to the Chinese government and is delighted when the officials there put him in touch with a high roller named Jo Hu. Hu offers to buy the outstanding number of bonds, roughly three hundred million dollars worth, which turns Hap into the hero at Worman Skeller & Company. As often happens when something to good to be true occurs, Hap finds himself in hot water when Hu threatens to back out of the deal. Why? You'll have to read the book to find out, but it is safe to say that the unfolding tragedies soon ensnare Martin Stallworth, who must reconnect with his alienated brother to come up with a plan to save his life. The book concludes with a series of situations so far from how the story starts that it's amazing to think it all happened in a mere 180 pages. While I liked certain segments of "Junk," I found many of the situations difficult to swallow. What's good is worth mentioning. The characters, for instance, are largely likeable in a strange sort of way. Even the head honcho at Worman Skeller, a scoundrel named Moore, is fun to follow because he reminded me of the guy Alec Baldwin played in "Glengarry Glen Ross." Martin Stallworth is an intriguing character as well, and Goodwin adequately expresses the dual personality of his protagonist as he struggles to reconcile his feelings about being the only black man at his firm with his love for literature and his brother's links to gang life. Martin, in the midst of serious troubles, soon learns that his skills as a big shot salesman do translate into fulfilling other goals and desires. What doesn't work as well is worth mentioning, too. Despite the extensive character development of the early chapters, important figures remain elusive. Mihra, for example, is a Pakistani woman who catches Martin's eye early in the story. She plays an important part later on but receives only superficial attention. Moreover, the story veers too wildly into strange worlds. I kept thinking as I read the book that Goodwin should have fleshed the story out a bit more. While I was amazed at how far the story went in the short number of pages, I thought the book would have been better with a few more chapters. Finally, "Junk" really, really needed a good proofreading. Errors abound on nearly every page of the story. I'm not comfortable criticizing someone for this problem since I am a lazy editor myself, but you need to either do it yourself or find someone to do it for you if you're going to publish a book. Lots of mistakes tend to distract a reader, drawing his or her attention away from the story by disrupting the flow of the narrative. Despite these issues, I'm still happy to have read the book. "Junk" is an unusual story that entertains, amuses, and makes you think all at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: A bit more polish and this guy could go places
Review: While I usually try to avoid self-published books, I accepted the opportunity to read Michael Goodwin's "Junk." We all know that print on demand publishing potentially hides a host of horrors. Occasionally you do find a gem in the rough, but more often a trip through the pages of one of these books reveals shoddy editing, mismatched typeface, and just plain bad writing. If you can't get a book published through traditional channels, is the book really worth putting out in the public sphere? Hundreds of would be authors answer that question with an enthusiastic yes. Heck, I would probably do it too just to see my name on the cover of a glossy, professional looking tome. Besides, who knows what could happen if your book garners enough attention. You just might end up with a real publishing deal. From what I read in "Junk," Goodwin isn't ready for the big leagues just yet. He is, however, batting solid numbers in the minors. One or two more good games and he may get a wink and a nod from the higher ups soon. Goodwin's book focuses on Martin Stallworth, a young black bond salesman with a good education, a job on Wall Street, and a salary in the six figures. As the story opens, Goodwin introduces us to a typical day at the firm of Worman Skeller & Company. He also wins points for dropping a reference to the song "I Don't Like Mondays" from the Boomtown Rats on the first page. Anyway, the protagonist feels the pressures of his job as soon as he walks through the door on a Monday morning. We meet several of Stallworth's co-workers, almost all of them hard charging personalities in desperate need of a straight jacket and a three-month stay at the funny farm. We also learn that Martin and his cronies need to sell a half billion dollars of Lodestar satellite bonds or they'll all be out of a job. Stallworth scores a coup when he unloads twenty five million in Lodestar to a decidedly unfriendly chap in New Jersey not known as a big spender. The book then follows Martin's co-workers as they lie, cheat, and steal in an effort to get anyone they know to buy the bonds. These early chapters essentially develop the characters and describe the setting of the story. The book veers off on a tangent when one of Stallworth's fellow salesmen, Hap, decides to approach the Chinese consulate in the hopes that they will buy some bonds. Is this an unintelligent thing to do? You bet, but Hap's desperate to sell anything so he can keep his job. Besides, his immediate boss just got the axe in a scene illustrating how humiliating a firing at the company can be. Hap gamely gives the hard sell to the Chinese government and is delighted when the officials there put him in touch with a high roller named Jo Hu. Hu offers to buy the outstanding number of bonds, roughly three hundred million dollars worth, which turns Hap into the hero at Worman Skeller & Company. As often happens when something to good to be true occurs, Hap finds himself in hot water when Hu threatens to back out of the deal. Why? You'll have to read the book to find out, but it is safe to say that the unfolding tragedies soon ensnare Martin Stallworth, who must reconnect with his alienated brother to come up with a plan to save his life. The book concludes with a series of situations so far from how the story starts that it's amazing to think it all happened in a mere 180 pages. While I liked certain segments of "Junk," I found many of the situations difficult to swallow. What's good is worth mentioning. The characters, for instance, are largely likeable in a strange sort of way. Even the head honcho at Worman Skeller, a scoundrel named Moore, is fun to follow because he reminded me of the guy Alec Baldwin played in "Glengarry Glen Ross." Martin Stallworth is an intriguing character as well, and Goodwin adequately expresses the dual personality of his protagonist as he struggles to reconcile his feelings about being the only black man at his firm with his love for literature and his brother's links to gang life. Martin, in the midst of serious troubles, soon learns that his skills as a big shot salesman do translate into fulfilling other goals and desires. What doesn't work as well is worth mentioning, too. Despite the extensive character development of the early chapters, important figures remain elusive. Mihra, for example, is a Pakistani woman who catches Martin's eye early in the story. She plays an important part later on but receives only superficial attention. Moreover, the story veers too wildly into strange worlds. I kept thinking as I read the book that Goodwin should have fleshed the story out a bit more. While I was amazed at how far the story went in the short number of pages, I thought the book would have been better with a few more chapters. Finally, "Junk" really, really needed a good proofreading. Errors abound on nearly every page of the story. I'm not comfortable criticizing someone for this problem since I am a lazy editor myself, but you need to either do it yourself or find someone to do it for you if you're going to publish a book. Lots of mistakes tend to distract a reader, drawing his or her attention away from the story by disrupting the flow of the narrative. Despite these issues, I'm still happy to have read the book. "Junk" is an unusual story that entertains, amuses, and makes you think all at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of action, but I feel like I missed the point of it all
Review: While the story is certainly fast-paced and exciting, I could never really get into this novel. Part of the problem was the fact that I never knew how seriously I should be taking anything I read. The author, Michael Goodwin, has twelve years' experience on Wall Street and, like the book's protagonist, has been a junk bond salesman himself, so I kept wondering where satire left off and realism began as I studied the key characters of the novel. Goodwin often goes over-the-top in his descriptions of people and events, yet I am sure that some unsavory Wall Street brokers served as the models for certain characters. In my own mind, all of the story's characters are stereotypes, and cliché and satire rule the day, but I often found myself unsure whether Goodwin was shining the harsh light of truth on Wall Street, making serious statements about racism and life, or just trying to be funny. The book revolves around Martin Stallworth, a black man trying to prove himself in a white world - specifically, the world of a major investment bank. The company has just struck a major (yet visibly weak) deal with an upstart company called Lodestar, and the high yield sales team has two weeks to secure enough buyers to pull the deal off. In this high-stakes corporate world, failure means exactly that. We watch as Martin's stereotypical co-workers (including, among others, a Jewish woman, a good old Southern boy, and a braggadocios playboy in a three-buttoned pinstripe suit) work their magic, making unremitting use of unsavory and unethical business practices - kickbacks, bedroom favors, rigged "spontaneous bets," and of course, good old-fashioned lying. The smoothest operator in the company pulls himself out of a slump by taking his circus to representatives of the Chinese government, playing up the fact that the Defense Department is very interested in Lodestar's budding technology. This is where the trouble starts, as a Chinese trader works to get his hands on the highly classified defense contract with Lodestar. Martin soon finds himself the prime suspect in a murder, and this quickly turns out to be the least of his problems. Racism has an influence on every page of the story. Martin looks at everything in racial terms, and this is perfectly understandable to a degree. He is the only black salesman at the firm, he wonders how his color will influence the new clients he needs to exploit in a hurry, etc. It all seemed to go too far for me, though, even for satire. When Martin allows himself to talk about his feelings, he often resorts to using 19th century slave idiom, and he imparts racist feelings on to just about everyone, whether it is there in that person or not. When some unsavory characters crop up later in the story, they all seem to speak in a stereotypical slang style themselves, and this applies to men and women of several cultures. Eventually, the whole thing seemed to go well beyond serving a certain purpose. I don't have a problem with this particular writing style, I just have to say that it all seemed excessive to me and kept me from truly understanding whatever point the author probably had firmly in mind. A few plot elements also seemed to lean too far toward excess, as well. I saw a few things here that I considered rather ridiculous - but maybe that was the point, I don't know (Goodwin did actually title one chapter Deux Ex Machina). The ending was also tied up in a much too fancy bow, further disconnecting me from the novel. On the positive side, though, the book was oftentimes quite funny, the action was fast and furious, and the author did succeed, at least to a certain extent, in making a statement about both the ways of Wall Street and the manner in which race and culture oftentimes influence our views of one another both consciously and unconsciously.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of action, but I feel like I missed the point of it all
Review: While the story is certainly fast-paced and exciting, I could never really get into this novel. Part of the problem was the fact that I never knew how seriously I should be taking anything I read. The author, Michael Goodwin, has twelve years' experience on Wall Street and, like the book's protagonist, has been a junk bond salesman himself, so I kept wondering where satire left off and realism began as I studied the key characters of the novel. Goodwin often goes over-the-top in his descriptions of people and events, yet I am sure that some unsavory Wall Street brokers served as the models for certain characters. In my own mind, all of the story's characters are stereotypes, and cliché and satire rule the day, but I often found myself unsure whether Goodwin was shining the harsh light of truth on Wall Street, making serious statements about racism and life, or just trying to be funny. The book revolves around Martin Stallworth, a black man trying to prove himself in a white world - specifically, the world of a major investment bank. The company has just struck a major (yet visibly weak) deal with an upstart company called Lodestar, and the high yield sales team has two weeks to secure enough buyers to pull the deal off. In this high-stakes corporate world, failure means exactly that. We watch as Martin's stereotypical co-workers (including, among others, a Jewish woman, a good old Southern boy, and a braggadocios playboy in a three-buttoned pinstripe suit) work their magic, making unremitting use of unsavory and unethical business practices - kickbacks, bedroom favors, rigged "spontaneous bets," and of course, good old-fashioned lying. The smoothest operator in the company pulls himself out of a slump by taking his circus to representatives of the Chinese government, playing up the fact that the Defense Department is very interested in Lodestar's budding technology. This is where the trouble starts, as a Chinese trader works to get his hands on the highly classified defense contract with Lodestar. Martin soon finds himself the prime suspect in a murder, and this quickly turns out to be the least of his problems. Racism has an influence on every page of the story. Martin looks at everything in racial terms, and this is perfectly understandable to a degree. He is the only black salesman at the firm, he wonders how his color will influence the new clients he needs to exploit in a hurry, etc. It all seemed to go too far for me, though, even for satire. When Martin allows himself to talk about his feelings, he often resorts to using 19th century slave idiom, and he imparts racist feelings on to just about everyone, whether it is there in that person or not. When some unsavory characters crop up later in the story, they all seem to speak in a stereotypical slang style themselves, and this applies to men and women of several cultures. Eventually, the whole thing seemed to go well beyond serving a certain purpose. I don't have a problem with this particular writing style, I just have to say that it all seemed excessive to me and kept me from truly understanding whatever point the author probably had firmly in mind. A few plot elements also seemed to lean too far toward excess, as well. I saw a few things here that I considered rather ridiculous - but maybe that was the point, I don't know (Goodwin did actually title one chapter Deux Ex Machina). The ending was also tied up in a much too fancy bow, further disconnecting me from the novel. On the positive side, though, the book was oftentimes quite funny, the action was fast and furious, and the author did succeed, at least to a certain extent, in making a statement about both the ways of Wall Street and the manner in which race and culture oftentimes influence our views of one another both consciously and unconsciously.
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