Freaks I've Met by Donald Jans

This was actually far more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be - about 20 pages in I was wondering if this was going to be for me but Jack's voice has just the right amount of snark and self-awareness that I found myself sucked in.  Jack is naive and after graduating college thinks he is on to a sure thing in El Aye with the odious Alain, he couldn't be more wrong - and as the reader we know this well before he does.  Watching Jack find out has it's moments but he at least comes out of it slightly more streetwise and has somewhere else to run to - goodness forbid he goes back home with his tail between his legs and prove Mrs Pohlkiss right.

The Freaks he meets aren't really freaks.  They are normal people just trying to get by in the same way he is.  Unfortunately we all have our idiosyncracies and quirks (Jack too if he would but admit it) and to Jack it is this things that make us individuals that makes these people he meets Freaks.  There is a great deal of humour in his attitude though, he makes snap judgements like all of us and has a turn of phrase that makes you snort.

When he lands his first "real" job in a bond trading house things look to be on the up, but the freak quotient rises inexorably and I kept expecting things to go full Jordan Belfort for a while.  It almost does but only for The Producers and not for Jack.  I will admit to a shiver of panic at the mention of the sub-prime mortgage market and those heralding worlds of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but they seemed to serve Jack well at his second job.

As you can tell, Jack comes across as a real person and I am sure there is something of the author's own experience in there - it feels far too real (and surreal) for there not to be.  It is a short book and makes for an entertaining afternoon's reading.  There is even a moral to the story; actually there are several.  Luckily the moral(s) don't club you over the head so you can ignore them if you want.