Barbarians at the Gate
The fall of RJR Nabisco, told hour by hour: Ross Johnson's gilded mismanagement, the 1988 bidding war that swallowed Wall Street, and the $25 billion leveraged buyout that defined an era's greed. Two Wall Street Journal reporters turned deal coverage into narrative art. Every business thriller since gets measured against it.
A cast of dozens, bankers, lawyers, executives, blurs together fast: more than one reader admits losing track of who was who and stalling around page 200. Readers who do finish still complain it runs too long for its payoff, citing “too many characters flitting in and out of pages” and a story that “languishes in personality and background descriptions.” One detailed critical review goes further, calling it “An absolutely untrustworthy book, unreferenced and unknowable details,” objecting that private pillow talk and unnamed inner thoughts get presented as reported fact rather than flagged as reconstruction. A long detour into R.J. Reynolds’ corporate history tests patience before the deal even starts. Read decades later, the deal that shocked Wall Street in 1988 reads almost quaint against the buyouts that followed, proof the greed just changed shape rather than shrinking.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
