Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
101st out of 166 books
—
57 voters
Extravagance
by
Gary Krist
William Tobias Merrick, an energetic young man from the provinces, travels to the big city in a time of great optimism and ferment, hoping to make his mark on a frenzied, money-crazed society obsessed with the promise of new technologies.
The city in question is London in the 1690s; but it is also New York in the 1990s. The new technologies are diving bells, pneumatic winc...more
The city in question is London in the 1690s; but it is also New York in the 1990s. The new technologies are diving bells, pneumatic winc...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
September 9th 2003
by Broadway
(first published 2002)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,422)
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Gary Krist's Extravagance: A Novel had potential. A clever concept drew me to the novel initially, but this conceit alone was not enough to hold my attention.
Extravagance tells the story of William Merrick through two time periods and two countries, London at the beginning of the stock market and New Economy and New York City near the end of the 90s tech bubble. Will wants to make his fortune playing the stocks and takes incredibly risks to do so. Will's lust for money in both eras is put into...more
Extravagance tells the story of William Merrick through two time periods and two countries, London at the beginning of the stock market and New Economy and New York City near the end of the 90s tech bubble. Will wants to make his fortune playing the stocks and takes incredibly risks to do so. Will's lust for money in both eras is put into...more
This is quite a different book. I like how Krist used the same characters in two different times and locations to tell one story. I was confused at first, but I quickly caught on to the shifting times and locations. Amazing concept.
Yes, the premise was clever. The book itself is incredibly dull. It's like having your prospectus read to you by a guy in a wig and cravat.
Not bad, an easy read.
I loved the premise: The story is told as one character and the similarities and differences of his life as lived in the sixteen century and modern times in an alternating pattern. Though the topic of finance itself was a bit droll for me, I found the book charming and clever.
I didn't finish this book. I enjoyed the old England part much more than the modern part, which required more interest in finance than I have.
not a very good book -- the premise is clever but the execution is not that nice. it's boring, the characters are bland and are extremely annoying as well.
A little hard to get into this book, but well-worth a read! It is a very clever premise!
May 24, 2013
Christopher
marked it as to-read
May 23, 2013
Sarah Kennedy
marked it as to-read
May 23, 2013
Judy Kundert
marked it as to-read
May 23, 2013
Chris
marked it as to-read
May 23, 2013
Victoria
marked it as to-read
May 23, 2013
Casey Florea
marked it as to-read
May 22, 2013
Sarah Perez
marked it as to-read
May 22, 2013
Kerry Wilson
marked it as to-read
May 22, 2013
Moustafa Khled
marked it as to-read
May 22, 2013
Brenda Alba
marked it as to-read
May 22, 2013
jane
marked it as to-read
May 22, 2013
Babita Srivastava
marked it as to-read
May 21, 2013
Abigail Bernice
marked it as to-read
May 21, 2013
Brianna
marked it as to-read
May 21, 2013
Leah
marked it as to-read
May 20, 2013
Mirchil27
marked it as to-read
May 20, 2013
Samantha
marked it as to-read
May 20, 2013
Leslie Coakley
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
