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Toxic Assets
A view from inside on all the reasons why the mortgage meltdown occurred. Caroline worked in the mortgage industry for twenty years. This is a fictional literary story from the eyes of an independant heroine.
344 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2010
3 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Gerardo
12 books114 followersCaroline Gerardo ( C. G. Barbeau)
lives in California and Wyoming. Caroline's last novel is The Lucky Boy.
Short stories, transgressional fiction, poetry, dark fiction
Member International Thriller Writers
Caroline's poetry and short fiction : Lucent Dreaming;
Olentangy Review; Midwestern Gothic Review, One Stop Poetry;
Sleet Magazine; Scapegoat Review;
Narrative Magazine; Negativesucks Magazine, and two Anthologies.
MFA Claremont Graduate University
BA dual major Art and Literature Scripps College
https://carolinegerardo.blogspot.com/
http://instagram.com/carolinegerardo
http://pinterest.com/CarolineGerardo
http:/twitter.com/cgbarbeau
other blog: https://cgbarbeau.blogspot.com/
lives in California and Wyoming. Caroline's last novel is The Lucky Boy.
Short stories, transgressional fiction, poetry, dark fiction
Member International Thriller Writers
Caroline's poetry and short fiction : Lucent Dreaming;
Olentangy Review; Midwestern Gothic Review, One Stop Poetry;
Sleet Magazine; Scapegoat Review;
Narrative Magazine; Negativesucks Magazine, and two Anthologies.
MFA Claremont Graduate University
BA dual major Art and Literature Scripps College
https://carolinegerardo.blogspot.com/
http://instagram.com/carolinegerardo
http://pinterest.com/CarolineGerardo
http:/twitter.com/cgbarbeau
other blog: https://cgbarbeau.blogspot.com/
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 7, 2016
This financial thriller by Caroline Gerardo proved to be prophetic of the cataclysm which would arise from the excesses of an under-regulated mortgage sector originating in the Bush-Cheney era. Patient readers will be rewarded after exposition which sets the stage well and rounds out characters to add realism to the narrative. There is a point when the storyline ignites and after which there is no putting down this novel. The heroine is a beautiful, loving widow who is trying to balance a senior executive workload with caring for two sons. She works for people in high places whose drive for material wealth vastly exceeds their humanity. Miraculously, she is able to maintain her ethical center in the midst of dangerous corruption. Katherine embodies the highest nobility of the devoted single mother seeking to provide for her family and offer them the highest quality of life of which she is capable. There is virtually no ethical length to which she would go to protect them and no heavy load too burdensome for her to bear on behalf of them. In large part this is a story about working motherhood in our time. I was impressed by the author's deep grasp of the many technical nuances of the complexities of the mortgage banking business. "Toxic Assets" delivers a compelling and credible financial thriller by bringing together in the narrative a world-class heroine striving to provide for her family in a toxic business ultimately nearly devastated by its own excesses and its abandonment of the ethical principles necessary to sustain its profitability. In this microcosm we are able to pull-back to a wider vision of the economy during a most severe downturn which has annihilated the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans by the sheer force of greed on an epic scale.
April 12, 2011
This book by Caroline Gerardo has every emotion that a great story teller should be able to bring forth. The story is one of love, fear and confusion, and bravery. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope for more!
March 22, 2011
Katherine is a beautiful touch cookie who has to deal with some dirty dogs at her job at the bank. Fun read great writing
September 22, 2011
The author of Toxic Assets understands the most vital rule of writing in any format or genre. Start your story off with a bang! This novel opens up mid-action with a riveting scene that transports the reader directly into the story.
Toxic Assets is a story about high finance and banking. It is about greed and murder. It is about the slick and shady characters who operate in the world of white collar crime...and scheme to get away with it. It is Wall Street meets Newport Beach. It is Too Big to Fail meets the dark side of Dynasty channeled through the literary voice of dramatic modern angst. It is the story of a woman who has the courage to navigate and compete in this high stakes universe of paper profits and smoke and mirror shanangans.
All of the supporting characters are well defined but the standout is the egomaniacal and manipulative Blake. He is the Gordon Gekko of the mortgage business. Instead of Gekko's catch phrase "greed is good", Blake prefers the equally as sinister mantra of "net worth equals human worth". This is a brilliantly drawn character, and a frighteningly realistic one, as our all of the profit obsessed banking executives in this novel. Trust me, these people do exist and have more power than you can possibly imagine.
What I loved most about this book is the insiders perspective on the how the real estate 2008 bubble was created. Of course this is fiction and the dramatic story always takes center stage. But the details on how these morgage securities were packed together, mislabled, and greedily hyped are very accurate. If you want to know why the economy is still stuggling and why it will never be the same again, this is a book you want to read.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I worked in a related industry to the world presented in this book. Although that does make everything in the novel more accessible, it also means everything has to ring true for the book to work for me. I can tell you that the depictions of both the industry and the characters who populate this world are spot on. This feels like it written by someone who knows the business and has fought more than a few battles amid the scheming thuggery that is the world of corporate high finance.
There is this wonderful paragraph that opens Chapter 4 about "Office life has its own set of rules...". The author's ability to capture the atmosphere of the workplace really helps bring the character of Catherine and her journey to vividly to life. Another thing that works in this book is the style and tone. Toxic Assets takes a moderistic, present tense, almost Chuck Palahniuk like approach to the story telling. It is a perfect fit for both the material, and the fierce lead character. The staccota like prose and descriptions of Newport Beach reminded me of Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters, one of my favorite books. The author also does a great job building up the dramatic suspense during a "Presidents Circle" corporate sales retreat at an island resort as this financial thriller races into the final act where the novel takes on an epic scope.
It does not matter if you never have watched a lick of CNBC and don't know CDO's from CD-R's, or preferred stock from livestock. Toxic Assets is a stylish, thrilling story and a relevant, page turning read.
Toxic Assets is a story about high finance and banking. It is about greed and murder. It is about the slick and shady characters who operate in the world of white collar crime...and scheme to get away with it. It is Wall Street meets Newport Beach. It is Too Big to Fail meets the dark side of Dynasty channeled through the literary voice of dramatic modern angst. It is the story of a woman who has the courage to navigate and compete in this high stakes universe of paper profits and smoke and mirror shanangans.
All of the supporting characters are well defined but the standout is the egomaniacal and manipulative Blake. He is the Gordon Gekko of the mortgage business. Instead of Gekko's catch phrase "greed is good", Blake prefers the equally as sinister mantra of "net worth equals human worth". This is a brilliantly drawn character, and a frighteningly realistic one, as our all of the profit obsessed banking executives in this novel. Trust me, these people do exist and have more power than you can possibly imagine.
What I loved most about this book is the insiders perspective on the how the real estate 2008 bubble was created. Of course this is fiction and the dramatic story always takes center stage. But the details on how these morgage securities were packed together, mislabled, and greedily hyped are very accurate. If you want to know why the economy is still stuggling and why it will never be the same again, this is a book you want to read.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I worked in a related industry to the world presented in this book. Although that does make everything in the novel more accessible, it also means everything has to ring true for the book to work for me. I can tell you that the depictions of both the industry and the characters who populate this world are spot on. This feels like it written by someone who knows the business and has fought more than a few battles amid the scheming thuggery that is the world of corporate high finance.
There is this wonderful paragraph that opens Chapter 4 about "Office life has its own set of rules...". The author's ability to capture the atmosphere of the workplace really helps bring the character of Catherine and her journey to vividly to life. Another thing that works in this book is the style and tone. Toxic Assets takes a moderistic, present tense, almost Chuck Palahniuk like approach to the story telling. It is a perfect fit for both the material, and the fierce lead character. The staccota like prose and descriptions of Newport Beach reminded me of Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters, one of my favorite books. The author also does a great job building up the dramatic suspense during a "Presidents Circle" corporate sales retreat at an island resort as this financial thriller races into the final act where the novel takes on an epic scope.
It does not matter if you never have watched a lick of CNBC and don't know CDO's from CD-R's, or preferred stock from livestock. Toxic Assets is a stylish, thrilling story and a relevant, page turning read.
March 22, 2011
Katherine is a beauty who must survive the epic journey from the betrayal of her husband and Wall Street to the new job as President of Nationwide Bank. There are some dirty players in her career. Women are not welcome and she becomes the "patsy" or fall guy for the murders of the Board Members.
The writing grabs you into a world of gambling, lavish Rave parties, juxtaposed against the tenderness for her children. Is it a thriller? Is it contemprary literature? Is it a murder mystery? Yes and more it's the Great Gatsby of our time
The writing grabs you into a world of gambling, lavish Rave parties, juxtaposed against the tenderness for her children. Is it a thriller? Is it contemprary literature? Is it a murder mystery? Yes and more it's the Great Gatsby of our time
October 31, 2011
Nicely conceived story line by Caroline.
Funny how it now mirrors real life.
Though this story is fictional in nature, the realization that this could really happen is not out of the realm of possibility.
A very nice read. Highly recommend.
Funny how it now mirrors real life.
Though this story is fictional in nature, the realization that this could really happen is not out of the realm of possibility.
A very nice read. Highly recommend.
August 16, 2017
Just not my kind of book. Way to in depth about stock and the financial world.
January 19, 2021
Just another grumpy lefty... putting 1 star reviews on other authors, so im here to return the favor
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews