Itsme
05-08-2006, 03:20 PM
Anyone read this book? Is it worth getting? I am an ebay buyer and seller, wondering if it is worth getting.
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Reviewer: JMC (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
I was skeptical about this book, thinking it might be yet another poorly-written trashy tell-all, but since I remembered the eBay scandal and was curious about it, I decided to give it a chance.
I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. Once I started reading it, I could not put this book down. The story is an emotional rollercoaster ride that traces Walton's eBay selling as it turns from hobby to fraud, and finally results in a felony conviction and an end to his legal career. You watch as his moral compromises accumulate until they ruin his life as he knows it, and then you keep watching as he somehow manages to piece things back together. You'll find yourself laughing, cringing, gasping, and, by the end, rooting for him to dig his way out of the mess he made of his life.
But the book is more than just a story about what Walton did on eBay. It's an insightful commentary on the nature of eBay as a marketplace, with all of its strengths and foibles. It's an engrossing journey through the seedier side of the art world, with all of its wild speculation and downright treachery. It's an expose of the slow-turning gears of the criminal justice system. And it's also an eye-opening, insider's look at what it's like to be stalked by reporters, followed by the FBI, and prosecuted by the federal government.
Walton's narrative voice is strong and consistent, and the book has nuanced, well-developed characters (a novelist would do well to come up with a character as finely wrought as the dastardly Fetterman), realistic dialog, and excellent pacing. You never stumble, you just read. And keep reading. This is a non-fiction book that reads like good fiction, and, along with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and The Glass Castle, is one of the three best memoirs I've read in the last couple of years (and I read a lot).
========================================================
Reviewer: JMC (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
I was skeptical about this book, thinking it might be yet another poorly-written trashy tell-all, but since I remembered the eBay scandal and was curious about it, I decided to give it a chance.
I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. Once I started reading it, I could not put this book down. The story is an emotional rollercoaster ride that traces Walton's eBay selling as it turns from hobby to fraud, and finally results in a felony conviction and an end to his legal career. You watch as his moral compromises accumulate until they ruin his life as he knows it, and then you keep watching as he somehow manages to piece things back together. You'll find yourself laughing, cringing, gasping, and, by the end, rooting for him to dig his way out of the mess he made of his life.
But the book is more than just a story about what Walton did on eBay. It's an insightful commentary on the nature of eBay as a marketplace, with all of its strengths and foibles. It's an engrossing journey through the seedier side of the art world, with all of its wild speculation and downright treachery. It's an expose of the slow-turning gears of the criminal justice system. And it's also an eye-opening, insider's look at what it's like to be stalked by reporters, followed by the FBI, and prosecuted by the federal government.
Walton's narrative voice is strong and consistent, and the book has nuanced, well-developed characters (a novelist would do well to come up with a character as finely wrought as the dastardly Fetterman), realistic dialog, and excellent pacing. You never stumble, you just read. And keep reading. This is a non-fiction book that reads like good fiction, and, along with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and The Glass Castle, is one of the three best memoirs I've read in the last couple of years (and I read a lot).