Money Changers

Author: Arthur Hailey
Genre: Ekdum jhakas fiction

After all that deep India-ness I thought thoda mainstream mangta. This book comes recommended by the Linus. The story is set around banking (no that does not equal boring!).

The book is set in the 1970s and is a full-to pot boiler. Good guys, bad guys, middle class, rich people (that was all Hindi movie style), now Hollywood style there is the mafia , prison, the fixation of prison and homosexuality (In those days it was “losing manhood” and “could be cured!”) , embezzlement, all in all good reading.

As in all Arthur Hailey novels there is some basic insight into the industry, but in this book it to a lesser degree than in say Hotel or Airport. There is some talk about credit cards and ATMs, which were probably just beginning to emerge at that time, so they are described with a degree of ‘coolness’ as probably our generations’ Mission Impossible and ‘This message will self destruct in 5 seconds’ type stuff.

The best part of the book is how gripping it is, the kind that you want to know what comes next, so you end up reading when you eat, in the auto, when you are supposed to study for an upcoming exam, well you know what I mean. And when it is over you have the energy to want to go punch someone or something (like when you watch Die Hard).

Good fun.