Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile: Amazon.co.uk: Geraint Anderson: Books

43 Reviews

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
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3.6 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews)

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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cityboy Belatedly Finds His Conscience. Yawn., 2 Jan 2009

By	ThreeOranges - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile (Hardcover)

As a commuter in London I was one of thousands who, on Mondays, caught up with the exploits of anonymous columnist "Cityboy" in the free hand-out "The London Paper". Purporting to lift the lid on the sordid existence of the average city banker, Cityboy's column continued for about two years until his unfortunate motrocycle accident, which led his premature retirement. In June 2008 Cityboy "came out" to the world as Geraint Anderson, an MP's son, and announced his intention to break into the world of novel-writing.

On the whole, "Cityboy"'s columns weren't bad and his work tended to be amusing, in a blokey and obnoxious kind of way. It was more or less what we expected from a financial analyst: "My life is utterly amoral but since I earn shiploads of money (my last bonus was five times - no, make that twenty-five times - your annual salary), I REALLY DON'T CARE." Of course the column appealed to the worst side of human nature - that was the whole point of the exercise - but it was often quite funny in small doses.

Now, however, Mr Anderson has revealed himself to the world as a person with - gasp! - a conscience. He feels VERY BAD about his previous incarnation as a banker, and so his novel (a thinly-disguised autobiography which also draws heavily on his columns) is intended as a kind of morality tale, warning us that we, too, might well have behaved in a similar manner had we too been faced with the kind of atmsophere and temptations brought to bear upon a newcomer to this gaudy world.

Problem Number One: what was amusing in small doses is irritating in a sustained extract. Anderson's principal method of humour is the unlikely comparison (example: "it was about as likely as Ann Widdecombe winning Rear Of The Year") and boy, does he milk these contrived and lengthy comparisons long past the point of unfunniness. Two or three on virtually every single page?! By the end of Chapter Three I was about as amused as Queen Victoria at a wet T-shirt contest.

Problem Number Two: Anderson's claim of being "a good boy now" isn't all that convincing. It's pretty clear that he'd love to carry on his openly-rude devil-may-care "Cityboy" persona, but both his concern for his reputation and events in the international financial sector have necessitated a display of public contrition. Anderson's narrative thus asks us to buy into the inconsiderate blokiness whilst simultaneously asking us to believe that the narrator doesn't REALLY believe in all that any more. It just doesn't work.

Case in point: our narrator "Steve Jones" tells us that, at one point, he and his gambling-minded friends were so desperate to have something to bet on that they even took a flutter on "the bra-size of some poor salad-dodger standing at the bar." Ah, how perfectly Cityboy! How staggeringly rude! And yet, notice the word that doesn't belong there: the word "poor". Doubtless we're supposed to believe that the narrator now is sorry for having caused distress to the woman in question... Yet, if he were that sorry, why use the term "salad-dodger" to describe her in the first place? Here, as elsewhere, you get the sense of Cityboy hastily covering his rudery with a tiny fig-leaf of consideration, and all it does is make the reader feel thoroughly uneasy. Are we supposed to be laughing heartlessly at this or not?

Ultimately, I'm giving it a couple of stars for exposing the macho "boy's culture" of the City. If it does its part to bring the culture of obscene bonuses to an end, good for it. But as a piece of humour I wasn't impressed.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars For the easily impressed.More like "Cheeky Boy", 30 Mar 2009

By	Truth Seeker (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Cityboy": Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile (Paperback)

There are so many giveaways in the text that I feel very foolish indeed for reading this book to the bitter end. The author claims to have been a Cambridge graduate and a financial analyst. I find that difficult to take in given the poor writing style and the obvious ploy that he was able to justify his achievements in the city by getting a talented colleague to do his job for him.
I suspect that the book was simply a marketing idea designed to appeal to an impressionable audience. If he has worked in the city it seems to me more likely that he was a lot further down the food chain than we are led to believe. The humour is witless and has more in common with the adolescent, puerile level of Jonathan Ross and his ilk than any of the more literate writers of social observation. As for his attempt at educating the masses to financial markets and the practices of the city, there are plenty of highly readable contemporary non fiction works on the bookshelves that offer genuine insight on the subject.
Sadly this book is past its sell-buy date. The aspirational culture of greed is now discredited and appeals only to the moronic few. I can think of one saving grace for this writer - he is street wise and therefore could be capable of writing a simple to read analysis of how greedy opportunists used creatively complex financial products to get rich quick and exploit the naivety of politicians, regulators, commentators, etc. The problem with this effort stems from Geraint Anderson's adaptation of a complex subject, with serious implications for millions of people, into a dumbed down fictional format

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28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not really that clever, 22 Jul 2008

By	David Sealey "Hobbyist Day Trader" (Doncaster, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile (Hardcover)

Upon opening the book I was disappointed to read the disclaimer that it was purely a work of fiction based on his city experience. I was expecting a whistle blower's account but instead got a jaded hippy's story of what life might have been like.

Throughout the book I find myself taking a dislike to the greedy, selfish, drug addicted, hypocrite that is Steve the would-be anti-hero. The book isn't well written either with frequent bad language and crude saying taking the place of good sentences.

Disappointment and dislike aside I made it through the whole book and found the author's discussion on stock market crashes and bubbles over the last decade particularly interesting and insightful. For this reason the book is worth a read and I give it an honest 3/5.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious
This book was hilarious. I wish I had read it earlier. I worked with several stockbrokers myself but I can't say I came across any characters like Geraint. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Vazza

1.0 out of 5 stars pointless read
Unfortunately the more you read of this book, the more you start to question the good natured claims by the author throughout. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Mr. M. Oconnor

4.0 out of 5 stars Go on - read it and have some fun.
There are so many negative reviews of this book I felt the need to offer a different perspective. This book is very entertaining to read. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Gary B

3.0 out of 5 stars Quite a lot of loathing...
I have not read any of the columns. The book is easy to read and inspires disgust, envy (of the salary only though, not the hideous lifestyle and utter contempt for fellow humans... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Cadeyes

4.0 out of 5 stars Insight into the City
He is writing about what he knows, which makes the book worth reading.It gives a vivid insight into the horrid but fascinating life of the City. Read more

Published 3 months ago by bookhead

1.0 out of 5 stars juvenile and inaccurate
What a load of rubbish. Smacks of a hastily and poorly written effort to cash in on the stock market crash. Read more

Published 3 months ago by avidreader

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting read to pass the time - Not ground breaking
If you liked the newspaper column then you will like the book just as much, Not any more though. It's written in the same quipping style which doesn't necessarily cross over to a... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Jonathon Bell

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of drinking, not much thinking
I'd recommend this book to anyone who is curious as to what *really* goes on in the more outrageous City offices. It's pretty close to the mark. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Alexandra B

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story but badly written
I bought this book not knowing about the "Cityboy" columns and just chose it based on the blurb...and it IS an interesting story but Geraint Anderson is NOT a good writer. Read more

Published 5 months ago by C. Hutchinson

3.0 out of 5 stars Great insight, ok read
Having a job close to but not exactly a City job, I always have an interest to read books that is based in life working in the City. Read more

Published 5 months ago by O. Cheng

› See all 43 customer reviews...

	84% buy the item featured on this page: Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile 3.6 out of 5 stars (43)
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Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile (Paperback)

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