Reel and Rout

Rating:
Summary: A Rollicking Good Yarn
Review: "Reel and Rout" is a rollicking good corporate takeover yarn by an author who is both authoritative -- he's been there in real life -- and captivating. The characters are vividly drawn. We understand, sometimes at quite a deep level, why they are driven to do what they do. And while there is sex and money, as you would expect in a book about mergers, acquisitions, and Wall Street bankers, these are realized as integral parts of a rich, fast moving, life-like narrative. Imagine a page-turner about a corporate takeover! This is it.

Rating:
Summary: A Rollicking Good Yarn
Review: "Reel and Rout" is a rollicking good corporate takeover yarn by an author who is both authoritative -- he's been there in real life -- and captivating. The characters are vividly drawn. We understand, sometimes at quite a deep level, why they are driven to do what they do. And while there is sex and money, as you would expect in a book about mergers, acquisitions, and Wall Street bankers, these are realized as integral parts of a rich, fast moving, life-like narrative. Imagine a page-turner about a corporate takeover! This is it.

Rating:
Summary: "Need To Know" meets "Great Read"
Review: "The truth shall set you free," or is at lease required if we are to BE free. Robert A.G. Monks vividly tells us about our increasingly globalized world, with challenges to our freedoms from people in the highest ranks of business, politics, and society. In the engaging novel which is not constrained by the late '90s in which it is set, Mr. Monks shines a very bright light on exceedingly dark places on Wall Street, the mass media, the best government money can buy, and the real world of extreme wealth. Together, they reward Wall Street for victimizing Main Street. All of this from the pen of an Insider's Insider. A great read coupled with much-needed revelations from a highly credible source, the world's most respected (some say feared) "Shareholder Activist." Applause to Mr. Monks for giving us credible grist for the mill of a society wrestling with itself to remain free.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant as novel and social commentary!
Review: Here is an exciting novel of corporate intrique. Did it happen? Probably. But not all at the same time (like Stephen Wright's restaurant that is "open 24 hours" -- but not all at the same time).

I'd love to teach from this book sometime, as it beats even "Barbarians at the Gate" in its detailed discussion of backroom business. Of course, Reel and Route is fiction. Did Barbarians have beautiful women?

Reading Bob Monks' background (banker, director, athlete, investment banker, activist, government executive), I am tempted to think that most of the story must have happened sometime, somewhere. Names changed, of course.

The bright, beautiful and richly influential Molly Munro is head of an agency inside the U.S. Department of Labor, just as Monks was in an earlier period. From that position, they (Molly and also Monks) can do a little to save the U.S. economic/political system as we know it and to encourage employee ownership of U.S. corporations.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant as novel and social commentary!
Review: Part Balzac, part Tom Wolfe, and part tomorrow's headlines about the next Enron, this book is both a delicious skewering of the rich, powerful, and oh-so-deserving and an absorbing, can't-put-it-down story of vital and engaging characters. Well done!

Rating:
Summary: HOSTILE TAKEOVER
Review: REEL AND ROUTTHIS IS A GREAT STORY ABOUT FIVE"HUGELY SUCCESSFUL" participants in the "roaring 90's", specifically in August 1998 when hostile takeover of "An American Icon- an American publishing company" is daringly executed. This book is about credble people who have arrived in positions of power in the financial riot of the end of century New York City; this is an historian's delight- the players all have a past that gives insight into why they do what they are doing.This takeover works as a catalyst for each, no one is the same after it. It turns out that victory has a price and the definition of victory becomes different for individuals who have been seared by this battle- sometimes real victory is achieved only at the pice of one's own fate.What did you always want to know? What to do about newly dyed hair in a rain storm? How to hit a golf ball stymied against a tree? How to use the Brook Club silverware to get the "fixin's" onto the smoked salmon? How to bluff the most famous negotiator in the world with millions of fees at stake? How to buy power in America in 1998? How do Congressional Committees get their way ( and rich)? How lawyers and clients create denability?Should YOU read this book?Yes, you sure should !

Rating:
Summary: THE AMERICAN OBSERVER
Review: Robert A.G. Monks comes to the novel like a creature born to the medium. His lifetime activities as a shareholder's activist in the world of corporate finance and his obvious knowledge of Finance and The Corporate Monster serve him well in writing REEL AND ROUT. As one reader who does not inherently find the milieu of Big Business of much cultural interest these days, I was not immediately attracted to this novel: the subject seemed to border on boring. Well, first impressions can be incorrect. Reading REEL AND ROUT can be not only an educational experience for those uninformed about the corporate world of mergers, takeovers, and greed, it proves to be a fascinating story about the ultimate value of the individual who finds success by means of his own endeavors. One aspect of this novel that makes for interesting reading is the author's use of actual historical events and real people to add credibility to his tale: Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton, William Westmoreland and many others populate this tale and lend insight as to what is news and what isn't. Monks' use of naming chapters by dates and times also adds momentum to this driving obsession with power and greed. Yet the chapters that prove most interesting are those in which he takes a 'stage aside' to give biographical information about his main players. In these chapters he waxes poetic, depends on elegant images and renderings of periods of times past that are the equal of many fine novelists writing today. If the other chapters become mired in unnecessarily redundant abbreviations which are meaningful only to those corporate types about whom he writes or if he bangs the drum of CorporateTalk too loudly to sustain interest, then he is forgiven by his ultimate resolutions that make the story satisfying. Being South African both as an author and as the main character, the subject of the book is the ultimate takeover of the revered magazine The American Observer. And to this reader the subject radiates out into the 'outsider' view of American ways - a belief system for which we should all be made aware. This book is well worth the reading and work it takes to make it through.

Rating:
Summary: A tense, unforgettably sharp and real narrative style
Review: Written by one of the world's leading shareholder activists, Reel And Rout is a novel is a story of shady business dealings, boundless greed, ineptitude, and scandals such as those that have plastered all-too-real daily newspaper headlines in the public consciousness. But in addition to the corruption, abuse of the legal system, sex scandals, and ruthless scheming, there are a few public servants who retain their principles and scruples. Reel And Rout pants a vivid picture of the war between those intoxicated by lust for money and those struggling to uphold standards in a tense, unforgettably sharp and real narrative style.