Like most other young business school graduates, John Rolfe and Peter Troob thought that life in a major investment banking firm would make their wildest dreams come true -- it would be fast-paced, intellectually challenging, glamorous, and, best of all, lucrative. Animal House meets Liar's Poker in this hysterically funny, often unbelievable, and absolutely, positively true account of life at DLJ, one of the hottest investment banks on Wall Street.

The book did peter out in little in the end and became more of the more of the same. You can only read about stupid people and their bad life choices so much before questioning you own value. They have been rivals who fought until the bitter end and lovers who know every sensual inch of each other’s bodies. Now sports agents Cassidy Whalen and Shaw Matthews are about to become the one thing they never expected to be: parents. But this new dynamic to their relationship threatens to fizzle the sizzling desire that once held them in thrall to each other. If salvation is only a forbidden fantasy away, then Shaw and the woman he loves must embark on the adventure of their lives.They were in for a surprise. For behind the walls of Wall Street's firms lies a stratum of stunted, overworked, abused, and in the end, very well-compensated, but very frustrated men and women. Monkey Business takes readers behind the scenes at Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette (DLJ), one of Wall Street's hottest firms of the 90s, from the interview process to the courting of clients to bonus time. It's a glimpse of a side of the business the financial periodicals don't talk about -- 20-hour work days, trips across the country where associates do nothing except carry the pitch book, strip clubs at night, inflated salaries, and high-powered, unforgettable personalities. This book did a great job of describing what beginning I-bankers do. Unfortunately, the clear bias that they didn't like their jobs is too strong. Nothing good was said about any Managing Directors. Now surely, we could find some social, redeeming value in a person you worked for when you worked for so many? Or maybe controversy and criticism sells better. The unrelenting, nearly 24X7 donkey work that junior level investment bankers are supposed to immerse themselves in with nary a care for food or sleep is enough to send the sanest to the madhouse. While once may already have read enough accounts of how I-banking looks and feels like, the vivid and gory details in the book are enough to fill one with absolute horror. In the end, while the authors find their salvation by jumping to the buy-side, not everyone is able and/or willing to do it.

El libro es entretenido, y el lector se siente muy identificado con los protagonistas. No está mal escrito y acaba uno creyendo al menos que sabe más sobre el funcionamiento de los bancos de inversión. Al principio del libro hay una cita que me encantó (y que pongo porque se le puede aplicar a CPI, aunque, obviamente, estemos en desacuerdo con ella): Members and Benefactors go free– find out more about becoming a member or supporting the Horniman as a Benefactor. Loaded with wit and snark, great characters, and lots of hot, steamy, naughty sex, Playing Dirty is sure to satisfy.”—New York Times bestselling author J. Kenner Smokin’ hot, toe-curling, yummilicious! Yup . . . just a few words to describe this hot, hot read.”—The Reading Cafe

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What is a specific real world application that you will be able to make from what you learned in this book? The most amazing thing about the banking life, though, is not the hours. It's how useless most of those hours are. From what I gathered, the associates and analysts do maybe 4-8 hours a day of real, productive work. The rest of the hours are spent making mindless changes for MD's, only for the MD's and Vice Presidents to change their mind and throw out a lot of that work. Associates spent a lot more time in meetings and travel than I expected, typically just to bring pitch books and give a formidable presence for the bank. The finance world has changed since the writing of this but a lot of the behaviours persist. I hope that it was changed for the better but I am not holding my breath. As a result, despite the jocular tone of the memoirs, I am not sure I would call this book funny - brutal and a little depressing, especially in hindsight. Coming Cleanprovides a realistic, sometimes heartbreaking glimpse at the simultaneous frailty and strength in a relationship.”—Heroes and Heartbreakers