The Informant: A True Story | Kurt Eichenwald | Difficult to turn away from this train wreck

The Informant: A True Story | Kurt Eichenwald | Wow!

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The Informant: A T...

	The Informant: A True Story Kurt Eichenwald Broadway, 2000 - 624 pages average customer review:based on 97 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Difficult to turn away from this train wreck

Eichenwald creates a fantastic caper. The story risks being crippled by the complexity of its cast, however, the author's way of creating memorable pictures of the characters holds the plot together. Once I was halfway through I had difficulty putting this book down.

I will not summarize the plot since others have done it. I gave this book five stars because it very capably held my interest and because Eichenwald managed to avoid either lapsing into sermons on the evils of capitalism or lachrymose transformations of perps into victims. He deals with businessmen, lawyers and law enforcement making stupid decisions motivated by greed and egotism in a manner that is sympathetic without being moralistic. Of course, the book is also great because it is always fun reading about the dirty laundry of big companies (like ADM) that strive to put a squeaky clean, socially responsible, we-promote-ourselves-on-NPR, sort of image. I highly recommend this book.

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Wow!

This book sat on my shelf for a few years until I decided to pick it up earlier this week. Wow! It was a page-turner from start to finish. Even though it is long, you'll stay glued to the pages for hours. I managed to read it into the early morning hours over a period of three nights and am very glad I decided to give this book a look. The story offers an amazing view into the real-life experiences of all the folks involved in the price-fixing case of ADM, allowing one to understand the complex interrelationships of the people involved and the incredible impact that was felt by so many individual lives during this period of time.

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Couldn't put it down!!

Wow! The adage truth is stranger than fiction is certainly appropriate for the story of a price-fixing scandal at one of America's largest companies.

Every once in a while, a reader encounters a book worth staying up all night to read. This definitely falls into that category.

Never, Never Be an Informant for the FBI!

I would change my review to 5 stars, if allowed.

The minute Mark Whiteacre, of ADM, lost his nerve and talked to the FBI he was going to prison. Granted the guy was due some serious shrink time but unlike "Prince of the City," he was no cop. He was outside of the brotherhood and should have known better. This book is an inditement of the criminal justice system where prosecutors win points by winning convictions instead of searching for the truth, investigators extract every bit of information from their informants and then feed them to the dogs. This book also describes the unbelieveable influence these companies wield in the houses of power. The utter arrogance of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and their foreign competitors was shocking. ADM steals a microbe from the Japanese, suspects they're being sabotaged by them and calls the CIA who defers to the FBI --- that's how this got started.

But the boldness of the collusion between competitors, their guile in manipulating the price of chemicals was shocking. As ADM believed then, as now, and as Mark Whiteacre relayed to the FBI, they believe, "Our customers are our enemies and our competitors are our friends."

As it all turned out, Mark Whitacre got the longest sentence. The president of ADM only got a few years --- and the family still runs the company! How's that for arrogance? Now, with the "Go Yellow" campaign, they are grasping for more of your hard-earned dollars to build more ethanol plants. Wow!

You've got to read this book!

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Quite Impressive

I gave this book 4 out 5 stars because it seemed to breakdown into neat sections of 20 percents. The first 40 is gripping. Eichenwald reveals many things that most people think are going on behind the scenes but never get real evidence about. Each time I thought, "Can this be real?" I reminded myself that it was based on a true story and actual FBI transcripts. The 40-60 really delve into the main character's thought processes. It made me wonder how someone in such a powerful position could be so fickle and unblanced. The 60-80 is where I felt like I was struggling to get through a marathon. Eichenwald went a little too deep into useless FBI happenings for my taste. It seemed to veer off the story. The 80-100 finished strong explaining what happened, in real life, to all the characters in the book.

This book reads like a Grisham novel. He even mentions two of them. The obvious one being "The Firm" that one detecitve is able to parallel to the main character's plot. This is the first book I read by this author and is worth picking up. It is quite impressive how he translates mundane material, such as transcripts, into a page turning story.

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