The Wolf of Wall Street Kindle Edition

Surprisingly well written. I think it is important for you, discerning future reader, to realize that basically all the dialogue in this book is invented. Jordan tells his life story in the form of a novel and takes a lot of liberties in order to get his point across. That being said, it is easily forgiven and should absolutely be filed under non-fiction; it is a wonderfully blunt contribution to the saga of the "American dream."The author does a great job of establishing his frame of mind and his mood in the given situation with his use of language and structure. He does not write things like "that made me angry." His sentences get shorter, his words get harsher, and his venom becomes tangible.Well executed, fun romp through depravity at warp speed. Folks who are upset by the curse words and descriptions of sex, drugs, and excessive spending need to get over themselves. Jordan Belfort will not be censored by your old fashioned notions of etiquette and weak sensibilities.Enjoy, folks. This is Goodfellas on paper, with corporate murders instead of real ones.

After finishing the Wolf of Wall Street, I was left with one overriding thought: I want my money back. Not because it’s a bad book, per se. But because this guy doesn’t deserve any of my money, or any of yours – and that’s what he’s getting when you buy it. A memoir like this can be a beautiful thing if the author is genuine, honest and – hopefully – remorseful. But this guy only pretends to be those things, and you can start seeing right through it about a third of the way through the book. I found myself rolling my eyes every few pages. By the end, I wanted to knock his lights out (to put it mildly).A couple observations about the author himself:a) He is a world-class, egocentric jerk, even to this day. Some of what he did in the past is reprehensible, which I imagine he and almost everyone would agree on (cheating on his wife, kicking his wife, using massive amounts of drugs around his kids, endangering countless people by driving around/flying helicopters/sailing his yacht into a storm while stoned out of his mind, swindling investors, etc.). But how he writes about it in this book is just as bad. He finds a way to justify almost everything – in his mind, even today. Sure, he makes half-hearted attempts to make it seems like he knows what he did was wrong, but he always follows it up with something to explain it away (“yeah, I kicked my wife down the stairs, but I was high on drugs and, see, all these therapists and intervention specialists say that it was the drugs/disease and not me, that I’m a lovable good guy, etc.”)b) He obviously thinks very highly of himself, and therefore is probably very unsure of himself. He has to tell readers 100 times how much people love him despite all his self-centered acts, how everyone thinks he’s the most gifted and talent person in the world, how everyone is so impressed with him, blah blah blah.c) He isn’t genuinely remorseful for any of his behavior, especially screwing over countless investors (many of them likely regular people who had their savings invested in these stocks) who lost millions of dollars by manipulating the entire system. In fact, he only addresses this once – but, true to the style of the rest of the book, a guy who lost $100K because of him simply laughs it off. The two then become best buddies by talking about how to murder someone. Oh, the lovable Jordan! See, even the people he screwed over love him! Give me a break.d) He is still good at making money, as he wrote this book and then sold the rights to a movie, and now once again has adoring fans and people who probably want to be like him. I suppose he’s proud of himself.In terms of the book itself, sure, there are some unbelievable tales – and a bunch of them appear to be true, at their roots. But I can’t help but think 40-50% of the book is made up. Not the base stories, but all the details – conversations, descriptions, the sequence of events. The guy was unbelievably messed up most of the time, and yet we’re supposed to believe his recollection is even remotely accurate? Again, give me a break.This guy has already swindled countless people. Don’t let him swindle you.

I happened to see Wolf of Wall Street in the theater before I read the book, and bought the Kindle copy when it was $1.99 during an Oscar week Gold Box sale. Having enjoyed the film immensely, I was curious as to how the book held up in comparison.Having seen the film before reading the book is a blessing and a curse. Certain expectations may not be met, but preconceived notions can also allow the reader to pay closer attention to detail. In this case, I felt the spirit of Jordan Belfort in both his writing and Terence Winter's screenplay; both portray him appropriately as a sick, depraved individual whose high-roller lifestyle, and criminal activities in running a brokerage firm spiraled out of control in drug-induced decadence. Names have been changed, for example, Belfort's wife, Nadine Caridi, becomes Naomi Lapaglia, but the personalities and appearances remain nearly the same. A lot of the time, I thought to myself, "Oh, I know who that is!"I felt the film told a more cohesive story, in spite of its three-hour length, whereas the book meandered in and out of moments. Many of the events were condensed into the film, such as Belfort's drive home on quaaludes and subsequent events are a composite of different incidents that occur over multiple chapters. What I did not expect, and actually surprised me as the most compelling aspect of the book was Belfort's battle with drug addiction and subsequent antics while in rehab. By his inevitable arrest, I actually pitied him. A weakness of the film is that it glosses over Belfort's upswing during and after rehab.Unlike with the film, the more salacious, criminal, and business aspects of this story were still rather shocking in the book, but after a while, they became tedious. At least with the film, Scorsese took some artistic license to include more humor and take the Strattonites activities to levels of parody, which I enjoyed immensely.So where does my review end up with the book? Well, I thought Belfort's (and his editors, I guess) writing style was enthusiastic enough to hold my interest, I appreciated the more vivid characterizations and insight into his lifestyle, as well as the focus on his battle with drug addiction, but it didn't completely captivate me until the end when he regained at least some redemption by achieving sobriety. Even by the end, the book's denouement is a depressing ordeal.I appreciate it for what the book is - a decent, modern cautionary tale that money can't buy happiness and how drug addiction can ruin lives. However, I feel like I appreciate the film more for it's entertainment value, top notch production, and more effective treatment of the story.

The book is interesting and shocking and sad—a young, bright man lets himself be destroyed by his choices. He’s brilliant in business but terrible in his choices in his personal life.While it was fascinating to read about how really big money is made, learning about the flip side of a life lived with no limits or morality was very depressing. It was hard to read and hard to put down.

If you've seen the film, do yourself a favour and don't put yourself through the trauma of trying to endure Belfort's poorly written celebration of his own debauchery. Yes, visually it works on the screen. Written down, it's just poorly-written narcissism

I was very interested in learning about Jordan Belfort’s frauds and lavish lifestyle after seeing the movie many times (which I loved). But the book felt like a shameless showing off of Belfort’s hooker-filled lifestyle, without going into too much detail about the finance part of his activities with Stratton Oakmont. It was a « fun » read but I definitely wouldn’t read it again as it failed many times to really suck me into the story.

Well written and a fascinating insight into the thought processes of amoral, money-obsessed, self-proclaimed masters of the universe and their, ultimately self-destructive, lifestyles.

The flow of writing was conversational which made it easy to follow and keep picking up.I admire Jordan intelligence, vision and hard work. He had excessive lust for life which I can identify with. But he made a success of himself several times and he helped people up along the way. The good soul was always there but only seen visibly to the bigger world when he got sober.Great love for his kids is nice to hear being talked about and how they were his lighthouse when he was off course.Can't wait to see part 2......

This is such a good book. If you have watched the film you can definitely see the scenes and hear the voices as you read. Very amusing, very detailed, great read.