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The Ronald Reagan years changed the United States forever. It's when the moral dam against financial greed finally broke and transformed the socio-political landscape of the country *. Wall-Street culture became a cultural phenomenon under Reagan. The cut-throat world of investment banking became the place to be for young, ambitious self-made men. Author Mike Offit spent three decades on Wall-Street, working as a trader. His debut novel NOTHING PERSONAL is a swan dive into Wall-Street culture from 1984 to 1992, arguably the peak of its significance for non-initiates. It's a competent thriller and an atmospheric era piece, but none of its elements stood out. The alchemy of writing is about tearing down invisible walls and I felt NOTHING PERSONAL was more about building a house inside those, metaphorically speaking.
Warren Hament is a young, ambitious man who wanders into a career on Wall-Street in the eighties. He quickly becomes extremely successful and is thrown into a new world like Alice through the looking glass. The people of Wall-Street are a bold, beautiful and mysterious bunch and Warren wants to belong. Life is a beautiful thing for him until his mentor is found dead. Someone is taking out people around Warren and soon, he finds himself mixed up in murder investigations. He discovers a dark side to Wall-Street that he's not ready for, professionally and emotionally. The life of a young overachiever is about to take a dramatic turn into the unknow. Warren will only be able to rely on himself to survive this ordeal.
So, NOTHING PERSONAL is not a thriller in the contemporary sense of the term. Its approach is very classical. Its long, detailed descriptions and noncommital narration will remind several readers of 19th century literature. NOTHING PERSONAL is, first and foremost, a zeitgeist novel. A coming-of-age story of self-made success and Wall-Street culture. It's kind of anachronistic to read, because investment bankers have become the 21st century equivalent of scheming politicians and faceless corporations, the entities middle class people call evil when they are discussing the future of mankind. As a middle/working class product myself, I felt unconcerned by Warren's discovery of a world of privilege. I don't think as Wall-Street as a world I want to belong to, so parts of NOTHING PERSONAL felt to me like a story a friend would tell that you nod through because you have no interest in it whatsoever. I don't doubt there is a crowd for this kind of urban fairy tale, it's just not me.
That said, I found the thriller aspect of NOTHING PERSONAL to be quite satisfying. It is seemlessly integrated to the narrative, in a way that doesn't entirely take over the narrative. I appreciated how Mike Offit cleverly weaves bits and pieces of intrigue into the story as he uses it to expose another side of Wall-Street culture. NOTHING PERSONAL is layered and despite having a forgettable lead character, the way Mike Offit steers him into a dark corner makes him kind of interesting. Warren Hament has to keep going to work while the world is slowly crumbling around him. The shift of Warren's perception on his own life is what made NOTHING PERSONAL interesting to me. Mike Offit used the thriller has a way to further and complete his zeigeist novel. Sometimes, mixing genre and literary fiction works.
Even if my moral issues with NOTHING PERSONAL jarred me out of reading a couple times, I have to admit it's a novel that is committed to its themes and draws a thorough portrait of its era. I would've probably liked it more if it wasn't about greedy investment bankers getting filthy rich. I'll give Mike Offit some slack though, first novels are rarely perfect and NOTHING PERSONAL managed not to leave many loose ends. It was not an unpleasant read, I thought the narrative was clever and fun at times, but I can't say with a clear conscience that it was a fulfillling read. There is no romance to Wall-Street for the working class. It's boring to make such political criticism to a novel, but this case calls for it. If you're fascinated by Wall-Street already, you're going to like NOTHING PERSONAL's passionate, detailed-oriented approach. If you're not, you're not going to fall in love.
* According to people who know WAY more than me about the subject, the Reagan years were not the only factor, but they were the major one.
