My first reaction after reading this book was that I really can’t imagine how damaged this man’s liver is. Surely the amount of drugs he did didn’t help his health. And probably could kill (or at least, get very sick) an adult elephant.

It’s a very interesting book, however. I’ve never been particularly interested in economics and how Wall Street works (I’m still not sure about it, but I have a better idea now), but I was really into this book (and the film, which I watched when I was halfway through). Despite being a nasty human being, Jordan Belfort is a fascinating character and a compelling narrator. Maybe because I have a thing for cynical and unreliable narrators (and Belfort certainly qualifies for both), so I was immediately hooked by his charisma. It was really hard for me to even begin to picture how much money he wasted. He spent more in a party than a lot of developing countries’ yearly budget.

But the thing here is that it works. The book is meant to represent Belfort’s account of living in the height of Wall Street craze. It’s so exuberant and crazy that it’s hard to believe. I mean… I know people who own yachts and stuff like that, but they don’t keep a staff there just for when they want to sail (they navigate their boats themselves). And Belfort’s matter-of-fact tone and how ironic he can be at points, completely sell this. It’s actually very fun to read, even if at point the money waste was outraging (there’s still people starving in Africa, you know). It gives you a glimpse of a world which most of us can’t even imagine, and shows how deeply messed up it really is.

Having said that, it is true that Belfort lead a very amusing life, and he seems to be a decent writer (or his ghost writer is so). He began a company that moved quite a lot of money back then, threw insane parties, and met all kinds of interesting people. That was, actually, one of the things I enjoyed mostly about this book. The people he describes are almost literary characters. Belfort seems to be a keen observer, because he describes them using very distinctly and unique physical features, which help you to picture them more vividly.

And there was something in the memoir that was almost missing from the film: Belfort’s human side. Whenever he wrote about his children, I got the feeling he truly cared about them, and loved the kids a lot. Especially when he’s discussing his son’s health problems, which were lots when he was born. The same happened when he talked about his wife, but to a lesser extent. At some points he seemed to despise her, and at others, to love her deeply. Anyways, the relation didn’t sound truly healthy to me, but I’m not here to judge anyone’s life. Just how he wrote it.

Overall, interesting and fun to read. If you liked the film, give it a chance, because it gives you better context and a different perspective from Scorsese’s (which is brilliant, by the way).