Watching the morning finance reports at the gym these days, I’ve been holding my breath hoping someone will mention the prophetic genius of Das Kapital: A Novel of Love and Money Markets, fearing that I might fall off the tread-climber if they do. This book is an almost literal blueprint for the ugly dance of today’s market. It is the story of falls of economic theories rarely challenged, of stocks hardly imagined volatile, and of people whose spine never twitches in front of a Bloomberg terminal.
Berberian immediately grasps your attention by his oft heavily-footnoted baroque passages building the story's three main characters through whom, in a resilient manner, he penetrates your daily thought - even if you are not a person of finance or terrorism, or prone to longing for international love.
Wayne is a shrewd, sharply-attired, Wall Street brat who takes for granted his overpriced flat’s cutting edge designer lamps, and is viciously addicted to reading Marx while reaching the apex of profitmaking, daily, at a hedge fund. The Corsican, perhaps the last torchbearer of the Situationist movement, vanquished by the market-foulplay-driven downfall of his native Bustaci timber company, and intent on revolutionizing society to nurture its ailing ecology, collaborates with Wayne in terrorizing world money markets to capitalize on falling prices. Alix, a delectable architecture student in loud Marseille, with quirky habits and a stubborn streak, jumps with equal fervor onto rooftops and into the psyche of Wayne and the Corsican, introducing them to what they both mistakenly consider an ephemeral emotion.
If you are interested in a story about the vortex of love and how towers of stability fall in and for it, then this story, refreshingly not with a clear beginning, middle and end, is for you. Berberian will entice you with his borderline obsessive-compulsive description of the environments and conditions surrounding the conception and demise of this love story between Alix and Wayne, and between the Corsican and Alix. Although the novel is episodic at times, you’ll feel sufficiently enraptured to plow through the fall of money markets, to find the story’s flow once again, and experience the romanticism he delicately showcases.
If you are interested in the tragic goings on of today’s money market and how Marx’s dramatically structured thesis can hold true even while pieces of it fall one theory at a time, then this story is clearly for you as well. Marx believed the laws of capitalism were scientific in nature and could be approached objectively. He identified capitalism as the stage in which profit motives rule and the wealth of the wealthy is protected by law. As such, he predicted a revolution by the proletariat if and when society reached the state of poverty amidst the plenty.
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Nice review, very enjoyable, well-written.
2 - Indra Kindler
The markets see their biggest drop in the last three weeks on Tuesday August 28. Great review.
A refreshing novel that provides a rare and honest window into the manic world of hedge funds where the uenxpected is to be expected. Nassim Taleb did it in The Black Swan.
Viken Berberian somehow, and the somehow is highly skilled, muscular writing, captures it in Das Kapital. Nervy prose. I ask myself: is it your review that is prophetic or the novel?
3 - Leela Singh
Berberian's writing is clean, funny and beautiful, and he has a great eye for nuance.
4 - Ian
To respond to Indra's comments and without giving the story away, towards the end of the book Wayne is confused as to why the market is moving higher despite his machinations. The unexpected can work both ways, something that is deftly conveyed in the book. To Berberian's credit (and not Wayne's who sometimes takes a reductionist approach to things like many of the finance people I work with), Berberian respects the unpredictable side of the market -- refreshing to see that he actually knows what he is writing about. Many authentic touches in this wonderful, unpredictable book.
5 - Indra kindler
As I said, there is something prescient about viken berberian's novel. Most people will not make the connection between violence and the markets. Whether or not Berberian does is somehow beyond the point. There are other meanings in the book, but if you want to focus just on the violence aspect, take
a look at Iran. Surely it has had a material impact on a number
of markets, commodities included, so thr plot is not that farfetched.
6 - Ian
You mean Iraq, not Iran, though you are talking about something else. The book looks at non-state actors engaged in violence, not states perpetrating violence, but arguably, yes, there are all types of players in that war and yes it certainly impacts the markets and some of it is
driven by financial imperatives.
7 - Indra Kindler
Let's just agree on the fact that his writing is superlative.
8 - Ian
Prophetic. Talk of an airstirke on Iran and the markets continue to unravel. The S&P has lost 20% from its high, Citigroup and Lehman at $16 a share, the credit crisis intact, one year after the publication of this great book.
9 - midhun menan
das kapital book is to revolution father in russia lennin to change the book its improve our economic to change a mind so plese request read this book
10 - H. Blankstein
Today's bankruptcy announcement by Lehman Brothers made me think of a wonderful line in the opening chapter of Berberian's satiric novel which all of a sudden does not seem that funny anymore after the S&P has slumped to new lows: "This bi-c- is going down faster than a Ukrainian hooker..." says Wayne. Indeed it is. What I want to know is who is this Viken Berberian and is he still short the market? This should be required reading for all MBAs. Berberian is a friend, I admit.
11 - Jay Kie
I have not seen still the book "Das Kapital: A Novel of Love and Money Markets" however I read very deeply "Das Capital" which was written by Marx. Now, I think the book is also on the topic of money and finance after reading your review. I have decided to see once the book. Nice review you have written.
Thanks