First and foremost, the worst offense of business school and its offspring, to me, is their relentless, unapologetic abuse of the English language. You cannot make yourself more important by using big words incorrectly, and you do not have a sense of higher purpose just because you say you have one in 7 different poorly-put-together-ways. It makes me want to stab myself in the eye.

Which is the main reason why I liked this book. PDB is a journalist by previous career, and writes like one. With a keen and critical, but also balanced, eye, he reveals a great deal about the inner workings of Harvard Business School and succinctly explains a whole slew of financial and accounting terms to the very very lay person (myself). However, also like the journalist he is, he doesn't reveal much about his own inner torment about being at business school, beyond saying that he got kind of swept up in it, thinking he could be an investment manager or entrepreneur or something like that, even though throughout the book it is evident that he doesn't have the passion (or maybe self-delusion?) to be much good at those things.

At the same time as he essentially indicts capitalism, he is compassionate to his fellow students, respects the skills of many of his teachers, and learns a lot from the experience. The Paul Revere interlude near the end -- the idea of finding a world-class tribe, even within the scope of a few city blocks -- that was truly beautiful, Wizard-of-Oz-y even. We come back to where we started, and can love it more for having left it. Understanding the machinations of the big old capitalist world, for better or worse, outside of that tribe, is a noble goal, and I'm glad he achieved it.

Pretty much recommended, if you think you hate business and capitalism but know you have to live with it, and want your view of them to be a bit more nuanced, while still essentially critical. Or if you're going to business school, I guess? Yeah, sure.

Now onto lesbian mystery!