National Bestseller
In this bracingly honest, page-turning memoir, what begins as a manic money chase (desperate to hang on to his home after his marriage breaks up, David Denby realizes he can buy out his wife's share only if he can first make a killing in the stock market), ultimately becomes an unforgettable encounter with such eternal issues as envy, love, death, sanity, and happiness. American Sucker is a singularly compelling tale of the high-tech bubble related not by a market guru or an investment professional but by a witty, eloquent outsider who observes some of the more significant participants in the bubble, and most centrally, himself. Denby captures the feverish atmosphere in New York at the turn of the millennium when investment euphoria—and then dismay—became popular culture.
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"American Sucker is a wondrous, riveting book that blends a sort of Woody Allen whimsy with the gut-punch honesty of some sensitive relative’s secret diary, unearthed from the bottom drawer.” —Diana B. Henriques, New York Times
“I read American Sucker in one sitting, in one night. Two million people could have written about the circumstances of this book; only one could have written it so eloquently.” —James Cramer on CNBC
“David Denby’s memoir of his foray into the stock market bubble is enthralling, poignant, and at times painful. It is filled with fascinating characters who were swept up in that boom….But the most fascinating of all is Denby himself who records with brutal honesty the personal and financial turmoil he encountered.” —Walter Isaacson
“Denby emerges from the nightmare with this book, this agitation, as if Bellow and DeLillo had seized the sorry day.” —John Leonard, Harper’s
