I vote for Noble House
Nick Gillespie at Reason asks folks for their favorite business novels. I vote for Noble House by James Clavell. Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has a great deal of influence on me, but that book is ultimately about government making business impossible, not about the conduct of business per se. Noble House is a sympathetic and hugely entertaining depiction of business people being business people in as close to a libertarian environment as we might find (1960s Hong Kong) in the modern world. Sure its not real business -- too much deal making, not enough productive investment, but it is a novel for god sakes, and not a seminar on the capital asset pricing model.
PS - Is there anyone out there who has read both novels and would rather hang out in a bar with Hank Reardon than Ian Dunross? I didn't think so.
PPS- Personally, I think this business novel is good too.
Doug Murray:
I'm sure I'll get there. Halfway through Tai Pan right now and will probably go on throught the series.
I made both my boys read Atlas Shrugged but they moved to California anyway.
January 26, 2007, 5:28 pmjon spencer:
For me King Rat is the best of his books.
January 27, 2007, 7:12 amTechnomad:
I read all of Clavell's books until _Whirlwind._ I used to adore his work, but since I studied China in considerable depth in college, I can see where he was making things up as he went along. Particularly in _Tai-Pan_ and _Shogun,_ the names he gives his Asian characters mostly aren't correct for the languages they'd be speaking.
That said, I think Ayn Rand would have _loved_ Dirk Struan and Ian Dunross.
January 27, 2007, 1:04 pmTCO:
If you expand the scope to include documentary stories, I would vote for When Genius Failed, Burn Rate, Barbarians at the Gates, and The Smartest Guys in the Room. Burn Rate is particularly good. I remember being appalled at the Firm by all the HBS lemmings, not even thinking, mouthing Lowell Bryant platitudes...
February 10, 2007, 11:20 am