The New York Times reporter Eichenwald traces the epic fall of the Enron Corporation in this detailed book, which has drawn comparisons to Barbarians At The Gate.
Critic Reviews
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Favorable
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Booklist Vanessa Bush
This book compares with Liar's Poker and Barbarians at the Gate in its breadth and depth of coverage of esoteric corporate culture and financial practices, recognizing the compelling human drama beneath the scandal. [1 Jan 2005, p.782]
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Favorable
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Kirkus Reviews
There's a certain guilty, craning-to-see-the-accident pleasure in these pages, which could have benefited from a careful trimming. [15 Dec 2004, p.1178]
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Favorable
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Library Journal Richard Drezen
Eichenwald's account will rightly be judged the definitive book to date [on Enron]. [15 Feb 2005, p.146]
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
As an unadorned attempt to get into the heads of some major manipulators, this book can hardly be bettered. [10 Jan 2005, p.47]
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Favorable
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Slate Henry Blodget
The painstakingly researched book is written in the popular (and gripping) fly-on-the-wall style, with recreated dialogue, actions, and scenes. For me, this style sets off warning bells... but Eichenwald's admirable lack of editorializing leaves the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.
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Favorable
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The Economist
A gripping account... that feels authentically insiderish and alive with dramatic tension throughout its 768 pages.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Charles R. Morris
The writing is crisp and clear, and as the stories take on their separate lives, the march toward catastrophe builds inexorably from tentative little steps to determined strides, and finally to a wide-eyed, wild-haired, all-out sprint to the cliff. The overall effect is riveting.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Steve Fraser
A prodigious feat of reporting.
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Favorable
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The Onion A.V. Club Scott Tobias
Eichenwald has a gift for turning spreadsheets, contracts, and dense financial jargon into the stuff of high drama.
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Favorable
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Washington Post Barbara Ley Toffler
Conspiracy of Fools is a rollercoaster of a read whose style mirrors the wild ride of the Enron debacle it chronicles.
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Favorable
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Houston Chronicle Steve Weinberg
Although the book is more micro-history than macro-history, more reportage than theory, Eichenwald shares valuable, sweeping conclusions on a few of the many pages.
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Mixed
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Salon Andrew Leonard
Eichenwald's retelling of the story is riveting, but it's a story that has already been told many times. The bigger question -- what does it all mean -- remains unaddressed. It's an opportunity missed.
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Mixed
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Boston Globe Peter J. Howe
It's 750 pages of vividly documented lies, crimes, and coverups with no profound analysis.
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