The Wolf of Wall Street: Volume 1

It's funny how the truth catches up with you. I grew up with Jordy & Robbie Belfort, I knew their awful father, I knew many of the names that Jordy drops, and the stories he tells. Without much trouble, it's easy to say that 95% of what he uses as filler is completely false. My guess is if you read enough dime store novels, you'll believe the stories he's selling. And the corny, hack writing that is used. He's a con man, he says what you want to hear, and is making a good buck at it, even after going to jail. He was a little jerk as a kid, and apparently, became a adult liar. The sad part is that he's making a dime off of any of this. I can knock down most of what his stories relating to Bayside and Bay Terrace. His story and depiction of Todd Garret is hysterical. The stuff made about Todd's parents is amazing!!!!! Todd must be getting a piece of the pie in order to allow this fiction to be written. And laughing too, all the way to the bank, because he must have gotten paid to agree to this tall tale description.Todd working out in his garage, kicking a bag? What garage? He grew up in a townhouse. Tough, HA! I saw Todd after his heart transplant, I assure you, the details that Jordy gives are complete fabrication. And the hack line of Todd's brother dying of a heroin overdose, with a rusty needle in heis arm, is total crap, made for TV junk. NOT TRUE. Fred was 10 years older than Todd, the night of Fred's death, Todd went to a Jethro Tull concert and took LSD for the first time, and came home to find his house filled with people crying about Freddie's death. Fred died from a blood clot, aneurysym, caused by his earlier drug use, not an OD, as Jordy describes. There is no shame when you get paid I guess. It should be a lesson to all, don't believe what you read, especially from a con man. Hey, give me a book deal, and I'll write the truth about Jordy, Robbie and Todd, the only problem will be it's boring.

I got a lot more out of this than the movie but I think the latter did a great job of visualizing the debauchery and charisma of Jordan. What the movie did miss out on was a lot of the back story and explanations of how rampant the corruption is in Wall Street and complicit many institutions are in it. Yeah that would have been a downer to include in the movie, along with Jordan's eventual recovery from addiction and arrest - stuff glossed over and editorialized in the movie.

A book about excess and wealth in a world seldom seen by most. Corruption in finance leads to, and ends with erosion of the mind, sipping Champagne all the way, with little repercussion. This being a frequent non-punishment of modern financial abuse. Jordan is likable if you ignore that he engaged/endorsed illegal activity. Often the frat-like nature of his loyal subjects overshadows the impact of the illegality. It's easy to forget how much money was swindled from his clients. He's no hero.