The Gravy Train (Wall Street)

Lender, David

ISBN 10: 1455871354 ISBN 13: 9781455871353

Publisher: Brilliance Audio, 2012

Synopsis

Finn Keane is a novice investment banker who helps an aging Chairman try to buy his company back, while the ruthless Wall Street sharks who drove it into bankruptcy do all they can to stop them so the Wall Streeters can carve it up for themselves.

About this title

Review

A Q&A With David Lender

Question: The Gravy Train is a story of a novice investment banker, Finn Keane, who tries to help an elderly former company chairman buy back his now bankrupt company. The same group of Wall Street insiders who engineered the deals that ultimately bankrupted the company work to block Finn’s efforts; they want to make more money from selling the company in pieces. For many this may sound reminiscent of the events surrounding and leading up to the financial crisis of 2008. How much of this book is inspired by this time?

David Lender: The Gravy Train wasn’t inspired by the financial crisis, but the personalities that created it are accurately portrayed. So in that respect it paints a picture of the some of the root causes of the financial crisis—obsessive financiers who are blind to the broader implications of their actions, in many cases driven purely by self-interest, and sometimes willing to harm others to achieve their goals. I think that allows the reader to take away a powerful understanding—at a human level instead of a macroeconomic one—of what could cause such a financial train wreck.

Q: The Gravy Train moves from Wall Street to the Delaware Bankruptcy Court with stops in-between. A lot of the subject matter is esoteric and highly nuanced. Can you tell us why you chose the setting you chose and how you made it so accessible to people not familiar with this world?

DL: I wanted to realistically convey the ambiance of Wall Street and the bankruptcy process, the world inhabited by the characters, in a way that resonated with readers. That meant keeping the story from being about the financial machinations, and making it about the characters’ actions and emotions. It was a delicate balance: I needed the guts of the deals business to make the story real, but I had to let the characters drive the book.

Q: I have read that you worked for 25 years on Wall Street, what made you decide to start writing?

DL: I always wanted to be a novelist. I made up my mind to do it about 15 years ago when my investment banking career was in full swing. I just muscled it into my schedule, getting up at 5 a.m., writing for an hour and then going to my day job, like most aspiring writers. I outlined or edited scenes on planes, in cabs or in hotel rooms. I write because I love it, but also because I got to the point where I could no longer ignore the compulsion to do so.

Q: You must draw a lot of inspiration from your time on Wall Street. Where else do you find inspiration?

DL: Sometimes it’s someone in my life. Dani North, the protagonist of Vaccine Nation, was inspired by my fiancé, Manette, and her work as a documentary filmmaker. Elmore Leonard is one of my favorite authors, and reading his stuff frequently gives me ideas. Sometimes it’s just throwing ideas around with friends.

Q: What kind of books do you read, and what authors have influenced you?

DL: Thrillers. What else? Thriller writers who have influenced me are Elmore Leonard, Graham Greene, Frederick Forsyth, John LeCarre, John Grisham (although I don’t think he’s ever gotten close to The Firm again), Robert Ludlum, Ken Follett, and Thomas Harris.

Q: What books do you read over and over again?

DL: I think F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the great American novel. I read it every year or so. Elmore Leonard is the contemporary author I most admire. Out of Sight is his best, with Get Shorty a close second. Nobody does dialog or backstory like him. I’ll also never stop returning to Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Forsythe’s The Day of the Jackal (it may be the best thriller ever written), Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People, and Graham Green’s Our Man in Havana.

From the Author

A Note From David Lender

I wrote The Gravy Train in early 2011 from my impressions of Wall Street as a novice investment banker. I intended it to be a simple story of a young MBA, Finn Keane, who comes to Wall Street from the wrong side of the tracks, aching to make it big.

I wanted Finn to be an underdog in a minnow-against-the-whale story, so I gave him an appropriate background: Finn’s Uncle Bob, who raised him, always said Finn had a “disease of the mind,” that drove the North Carolina native to always want more. Growing up, Finn worked at Uncle Bob’s autobody shop, but it wasn’t enough for him.

I needed to stack Finn up against a suitable antagonist: Jack Shane, at 50 years old, is 6’4”, still slim and athletic, and loves the look of himself reflected in the glass of ABC’s conference rooms in his custom-made clothes, Gucci loafers and braces that match his ties. He slicks his dark brown hair back and carries himself with a devil-may-care attitude. His eyes are always bloodshot.

Finn Keane arrives in New York starry-eyed, and then learns the hard way from Jack Shane what really happens in the hallowed halls of finance. The Gravy Trainunfolds from there. I hope you enjoy it.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1455871354
• ISBN 13: 9781455871353
• Binding: MP3 CD