The Contrarians: A Novel

by Gary Sernovitz

Chris Kelch is one of the rising stars at the downtown firm of Freshler Feld. At only twenty-eight, he's a top-rated equity research analyst; last year, he pulled down nearly half a million dollars. His girlfriend also happens to be lovely and supportive. Kelch's smalltown, single-parent, Midwestern roots seem far behind, until a thinly veiled profile of Kelch runs in a prominent magazine and things begin to fall apart. Not only does the piece reveal company secrets and cast Freshler Feld in a bad light, it also makes Kelch feel like a naif, for it reveals far more about his conflicted feelings about his past and his job than he has admitted even to himself. With suspense and style, The Contrarians not only creates one of the most memorable "ordinary guys" in recent American fiction, it also examines, as no novel has done before, the rise--and the seeds of the fall--of late-nineties Wall Street.

Genres: Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2002

About the author

Gary Sernovitz has spent the last quarter-century working in and observing how money works, from Goldman Sachs to nearly twenty years at a private equity firm where he is now a managing director. He has also brought his keen writer's eye to America and business through two previous published novels, a non-fiction book, and numerous essays and reviews in The New York Times, The New Yorker online, n+1, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.

A native of Milwaukee and longtime resident of New York, Gary now lives in New Orleans with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who wants to read about a young Wall Street research analyst who makes 500K a year? Fortunately, Gary Sernovitz isn't trying to make the reader love the protagonist, his girlfriend, the gotcha interviewer, or anyone else in this short novel. The premise is simple; Chris Kelch spills his guts to an interviewer, who publishes the thinly veiled hatchet job at about the same time that Kelch's prized stock takes a dip. The longest and meatiest part of the book cut back and forth from the interview itself and the article's final form, of which only choice bits and pieces were implied before.
It quickly becomes apparent that the interviewer's bile is almost irrelevant. Why did Kelch offer the man his throat? That is the question that is (somewhat) addressed in the final pages.

Watch for: Kelch's most loquacious friend.

[bookreader · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you think no one would ever want to read a novel about a sell-side equity research analyst, this book proves you right.