My City Boy

City Boy (song)

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Of these, only the last is interesting - even while the scenes depicted the investment bankers, including women, who all run into each other at 75 quid a head sex parties are somewhat improbable. But the biggest problem is that Anderson, or his alter ego, Steve, is smashingly tiresome. He can't decide if he's holier than thou or more roguish tha Wanker! He can't decide if he's holier than thou or more roguish than thou - he wants our respect for his moral bravery in telling the shocking, shocking truth that the City is a place where privileged white men make loads of cash, and also our respect for being the biggest baddest lad there is.

Read Liar's Poker instead. Seriously - don't give this guy another undeserved dine. Book really tries to shock you. It feasts with dirty details how money, sex and drugs play huge role in a world full of egoistic individuals of banking. Those seem to contain mainly quite young white men. It shouldn't be no surprise to anyone involved in team sports or being part of other manly activity groups that there are lot of men like this in world. These cityboys in London, just happen to get too much money and respect out of the work they do and that makes them act like this.

The book its Book really tries to shock you. The book itself is a bit longish sometimes when Geraint tells lots and lots details about drinking and partying. Also it requires a bit of an interest towards stock markets and banking to really follow all the curiosities that are being told. Part I enjoyed the most was actually the epilogue, where author confesses that money and working like hell doesn't really matter that much and didn't really make him happy.

Maybe it's just because I'm not in this banking world, and I'm just jealous. But I've really tried to think similarly for sometime already. I do enjoy working, but I still do it only for living and not the other way around. Often there's one sentence that sticks in my mind after reading a book and the one in this book was: If you believe in some pattern of living bad enough, there's no one who can convince you to change the pattern.

The only way is to really see the mistake yourself May 30, Rogier rated it really liked it. This is really a pretty hilarious account of the insanity of the feeding frenzy which is the financial industry, so-called. If an African or Malaysian politician or whoever in the developing world demands cash upfront to allow you to do what you want to do, we call that graft. But in the "square mile" or on "Wall Street" the voodoo is in generating "fees" "commissions" or "bonuses" in the present from advice or "products" of dubious value.

So the "rainmakers" are really better magici Oh what fun! So the "rainmakers" are really better magicians than anybody else In all it is a very honest account, the author doesn't spare himself at all. So he seems to be on a recovery journey from twelve years of insanity as a "Cityboy. May 26, Marc Aafjes rated it liked it Shelves: My first book finished for I started on this few years back, and decided to start the year with this light humorous depending on your point of view book.

Overall a nice read about personal experiences in the investment banking sector, and the issues arising from the participants' incentives and their psychological drivers. It's clear the author has quite a negative recollection of his experiences during his time 'in the city', which -- from my own understanding and experiences -- ring tr My first book finished for It's clear the author has quite a negative recollection of his experiences during his time 'in the city', which -- from my own understanding and experiences -- ring true in more than a few instances.

The writing style is easy and generally fun, however the 'creatives' descriptive analogies get tedious after a while in IMHO. Finally, the book reminds me a lot of 'consulting demons' https: Aug 05, Emilie rated it really liked it. As a recent American transplant in London reading this, I found it to be fairly eye-opening in terms of the so-called "inside track" of life and dealings in the financial sector of the city.

I found it highly entertaining and would have given it more stars, if not for the amateurish style of writing from Anderson, which for me, lessened the experience a few degrees - enough with the similes and metaphors, please! The book opens with a real punch in the gut, but then slows down to a mere crawl fo As a recent American transplant in London reading this, I found it to be fairly eye-opening in terms of the so-called "inside track" of life and dealings in the financial sector of the city. The book opens with a real punch in the gut, but then slows down to a mere crawl for about pages before diving back into the storyline.

You'll find yourself laughing heartily at times and at other times, perhaps gasping at the sums of money spent on lavish excursions, and of course, drugs and alcohol. I couldn't help but feel at the end, however, that Anderson, while living the high and hard life, has made out like a bandit in the end of it all. I'd recommend the book for an interesting and entertaining read, especially if you work in an urban area and find this line of occupation appealing. Much like Michael Lewis tried to do in his brilliant novel "Flash boys", so does Geraint Anderson try to explain the extravagant ways of the financial world in his book "City boys".

Anderson tries really hard to shock the reader with the harsh truth about the financial world, the hard competition, the dirty games, the corrupt Much like Michael Lewis tried to do in his brilliant novel "Flash boys", so does Geraint Anderson try to explain the extravagant ways of the financial world in his book "City boys". Anderson tries really hard to shock the reader with the harsh truth about the financial world, the hard competition, the dirty games, the corruption etc… And while all this is true, Lewis uses interesting financial information and explains certain concepts, while Andersons resorts to… sex, drinks and drugs.

If you really want an introduction to life behind the scenes at investment banks, I highly recommend Lewis' "Flash Boys". Read Andersons "City boys" if you fancy a relaxing read that doesn't require too much thinking. Feb 17, Steven rated it liked it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A light hearted look into the ego's of some the smaller swinging dicks in the square mile.

I think Geraint is still selling out even though no longer in the suare mile but no different to anyone who still has a job there. Its all about making a buck and some of the stories are very funny as are names of banks megashite etc. Also given the current credit crisis this books gives a small insight in to how part of the current mess came about.

Mar 15, Tom Middleton rated it did not like it. This book is just dreadful. Give it a miss at all costs. Jul 22, Kerem rated it liked it. If you're looking for a light read this might be your call. At times interesting and witty, the book gives a good number of anecdotes about this financier's life in the City. The "moral parts" read quite a bit hypocritical and somehow artificial, just like "do what the priest tells you, not what he does" Feb 11, Rhiannon rated it liked it.

This has been on my to-read list for years. Very glad I finally got round to it. Jan 03, Andy Groark rated it really liked it. Feb 24, Kestutis rated it it was amazing. Great humorous review of the stockbroker's life in the City. Aug 15, Avishek Halder rated it liked it. Cityboy is a sometimes cruel story of how a self proclaimed left wing hippy in need of a job turns into a corporate monster thanks to Europe's biggest money market, the Square Mile. Steve in desperate need of a job secures a position as a market analyst and slowly but surely turns into everything he hates.

The character bluffs his way to success and makes sums of money which can only be described as ostentatious. With money comes all the other negatives that are associated with it drugs, obscen Cityboy is a sometimes cruel story of how a self proclaimed left wing hippy in need of a job turns into a corporate monster thanks to Europe's biggest money market, the Square Mile.

With money comes all the other negatives that are associated with it drugs, obscene amounts of alcohol, insecurity, greed and it's bedfellow materialism , till he reaches his tipping point and can't recognize himself anymore. I wouldn't suggest this book for anyone who might consider themselves to be a layman when it comes to all things related to the stock market and it's workings.

Quite a lot of the terminology had me Googling simultaneously as I read the book. It definitely is a book which requires a lot of patience as there is no real story. It isn't badly written nor is the context poorly structured. It is simply not that riveting. Having said that, the book is interesting in parts and it can be quite entertaining for those who are in the Square Mile or Wall Street or any other stock market related business.

It's a decent book with fairly interesting anecdotes and many good one liners. I would say read it if you have good understanding of the world of finance, or simply if you want to learn more about it. Personally I enjoy books with a little more thrill, which this book lacks, and it really is very difficult to associate with the character at any point in the story.

Je dirais que ce livre est un peu la suite de liar poker. Jul 01, Ankur Rastogi rated it liked it. City Boy is supposed to be an insider account of the filthy money and life lived by so called investment bankers. Written in a witty and sarcastic tone, the book does provide an interesting account.

Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile

I have read some other books on investment banker's life and almost all say the same thing. That investment bankers make a hell lot of money for doing almost nothing. True they spend almost hrs week but the justification for earning City Boy is supposed to be an insider account of the filthy money and life lived by so called investment bankers.

True they spend almost hrs week but the justification for earning money is meaningless. Also considering the fact that most economic crisis arise from banks , yet they are the ones who are rarely impacted adds to the concerns. However, I must also add that the book comes across as an exaggeration. Obviously having never worked as an investment analyst or a trader, I can't truly state that the book is true or false. But still many sections do come across as "over the top".

I guess the author wanted to shock the audience which it does sometimes but in most cases, the reader ends up just getting amused as it gets hard to believe. All banks are being used as nicknames like Scheisebank or megashite which could be Deutsch Bank or Citibanks of this world. The book can be read.

It may make poor souls like me who work in other industries tremendously jealous but still it's an entertaining read. Jul 24, James Perkins rated it really liked it. An unsurprising yet unsettling expose on the behaviour of London stockbrokers - but probably symptomatic of the "profession" - if it could be called that - worldwide.

The writing style is very chatty, as if the narrator is telling a yarn down the pub, and what a yarn it is! Hard to say how much is fiction and how much is fact; I suspect much An unsurprising yet unsettling expose on the behaviour of London stockbrokers - but probably symptomatic of the "profession" - if it could be called that - worldwide. Hard to say how much is fiction and how much is fact; I suspect much of it is true, although it does reinforce every negative stereotype you've ever had about elite finance: It borrows a lot of credence by detailing the major corporate scandals of the early 21st century, all of which have only fuelled our loathing for this particular breed of distasteful human being.

And as the cover blurb reads, the timing couldn't be better, as the world is still reeling from the latest international financial disaster brought on by unbridled greed. I found the end-of-book epiphany of the narrator a bit saccharine sweet, considering that he had very much profited from the corrupt system before finally condemning it.

Nevertheless, a good, entertaining read - recommended. May 21, Eric rated it did not like it Shelves: The book had potential. The life of a "cityboy" would be interesting and how they reconcile their selfish pursuit of wealth to the detriment of themselves and society would prove a valuable study. However, the author's trite, formulaic writing ruined the book for me.

A few of the more irritating points were the unnecessary, forced vulgarity - not of the subject matter, but in the writing style; the way he ended so many ideas with a comparison eg. New York was a shit hole but that made it affordable. This affordability made it an attractive destination for creative people who wanted a place to be free to explore art, music and writing. It was literally bursting at the seams with creative and interesting people and in addition to causing a great flood of amazing art, music, writing etc.

He mentions a huge list of famous creative people some whom I had heard of and some whom I had not.

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I loved it and highly recommend it to anyone interested in queer history, art, music, and literature. This is about the old glory days of New York when it was cool, fun, weird, affordable, sexy, seedy, smelly there was no one to pick up the garbage One of my best reads of the year Jun 27, Tosh rated it really liked it. Saying that about my eccentricity about his work, White is a superb writer. I am a big fan of memoir writing, and White has that classic quality regarding that genre. New York City was a different type of place as of now. And White captures the gay subculture around that world, yet he ignores certain aspects of "general" or popular pop culture that was taking place i never read his fiction, but pretty much read his non-fiction - and for whatever reason I just haven't picked up any of his novels.

And White captures the gay subculture around that world, yet he ignores certain aspects of "general" or popular pop culture that was taking place at the same time circ. So due to his aesthetic taste there is no mention of the punk scene - which makes perfect sense with respect to his book - yet that was so much part of the scene at the time.

Yet he does touch on the disco plane. The broad strokes are not that interesting, but his little intense profiles on people around him are great. Especially Susan Sontag, Joe Brainard, and others. I also like how he writes about NYC as a physical place. Those who know it now, or never lived it in the 60's or 70's it would be now like visiting a ghostly presence. View all 8 comments. Feb 04, Kerry rated it it was ok. I couldn't finish it. I wanted to read it because I had heard that White was a good writer, and because I thought it would be a documentation of life in NYC in the 60s and 70s.

Bt it was really more a narrative about the author's career start and I wanted more detail about life in NYC during that time period. The thing is, when he finally gave you some overview or detail, it was uninteresting. And his story kept leaping back and forth: I wanted to leave the story with a feeling of "wow, I wish I could have lived there back then" but sadly, it didn't leave me with that feeling at all.

I read up to the halfway point and then just stopped. Sep 15, Casper Hach rated it did not like it. Attitude magazine mentioned this book as a must read classic. I found it to be the most sinfully boring book I have ever opened. I wish I was a quitter and had just skipped reading the rest, but I decided that I could not form an opinion without reading the whole thing, so I pulled myself together and pages at a time, I finished the book in just a year and a half.

If you need something to put you to sleep every night, this book is the perfect choice. Jan 12, Chris rated it really liked it Shelves: It also will be eye-opening for younger gay men who want to know what they missed: In the decades since, there has been of course a tragic r "In the s in New York everyone slept till noon. In the decades since, there has been of course a tragic retrenchment of both due to AIDS and the rise of the religious-right conservative movement.

Only now, some forty-plus years later, is significant progress again being made on both the health and the political fronts. For those two decades all sexually transmitted diseases could be treated with antibiotics, unwanted pregnancies were eliminated through the pill and legalized abortion, and AIDS did not yet exist. Religion seem to be on the wane and promiscuity appeared to be the wave of the future. In page after page we read about the famous people he worked with, and indeed the name dropping becomes burdensome yet beneficial, causing many side trips to Wikipedia to learn who they were, what they created, and what they looked like.

Interleaved between the artistic rambling a is plenty of sex, frankly described. If we can believe White, and I think we can, the ease at which sex could be had, with almost anyone, including celebrities, is astounding. And by no means is it restricted to monogamous couples, same-sex or otherwise.

Much of these antics are fictionally reproduced in his novel Caracole, which if otherwise a failure, quite viscerally animates a whole crowd of sexual "nymphs and satyrs" drawn from White's intimates. Apart from certifying to us "moderns" that sex was so much different then, White does have a message, one which might not be agreeable to all: Love raises great expectations in us that it never satisfies; the hopes based on friendship are milder and in the present, and they exist only because they've already been rewarded.

Love is a script about just a few repeated themes we have a hard time following, though we make every effort to conform to its tone. Whatever your political motivations today, there is no denying what it was like back then, and White describes it well and factually. City Boy also covers a lot of New York ground. White lived there when the city was a dump, was floundering financially, and was a truly dangerous place to live. This is almost entirely unknown today. The garbage piled up and stank during long strikes of the sanitation workers.

A major blackout led to days and days of looting. We gay guys wore whistles around our necks so we could summon help from other gay men when we were attacked on the streets by gangs living in the projects between Greenwich Village and the West Side leather bars. The upside was that the city was inexpensive…" [emphasis added] Wow. Can any of us imagine this as reality today? Maybe someone, but not most. So, it was pretty bad back then in the great City of the East. Thank goodness it's better now But it's not that simple to White.

Art thrives in adversity, political progress is driven by pain and suffering. His conclusion is ambiguous, his outlook undefined. Now at the end of a long fruitful career, how majestic for him to leave the ultimate truth finding to us, if only we can rediscover the source locale.

He does warn us in the quote below that it won't be found any longer in the mythical City of Fog on the West Coast. I'm inclined to agree. So where is it? That was the era of 'coffee shops' as they were defined in New York—cheap restaurants open round the clock where you could eat for less than it would cost to cook at home. That was the era of ripped jeans and dirty T-shirts, when the kind of people who are impressed by material signs of success were not the people you wanted to know.

Feb 21, Blake Fraina rated it it was ok. In Alan Bennett's play The History Boys , when the dimmest of the students is asked to define history, he replies, "It's just one [expletive] thing after another. But also, quite true. And it happens to be the reason I tend to avoid non-fiction At least when one is writing a biography particularly about someone who is already dead or writing about history, the author has enough distance to give the story some shape and ascribe it so In Alan Bennett's play The History Boys , when the dimmest of the students is asked to define history, he replies, "It's just one [expletive] thing after another.

At least when one is writing a biography particularly about someone who is already dead or writing about history, the author has enough distance to give the story some shape and ascribe it some sort of meaning. Autobiography is a bit stickier. Even though the seedy, filthy, dangerous New York of the 's has all but been forgotten, it was fertile ground for many of the most influential artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians of the latter part of the Twentieth Century.

Over the years, books like Edie and Please Kill Me both of which consist of edited and skillfully arranged interviews have fed my interest in this period. I figured if anyone could conjur that time period on the page, it would surely be a skillful and evocative writer like White. Unfortunately I found the book to be dull and almost completely formless. He flits from one episode to another, tepidly dishing the dirt on a lot of hotsy totsy and mostly dead literary luminaries, only about half of whom I've heard of.

While he does spill a fair amount of ink on the squalid living conditions in pre-boom Manhattan, the descriptions are all fairly dry and cliche garbage piling in the streets due to strikes, multiple locks on apartment doors and lack any real flavour of the era. Surprisingly, the rampant sex of that time period is somewhat coyly presented and, in retrospect, primarily only as a set up for the sea change occasioned by the looming AIDS crisis that comes near the book's conclusion.

The most fascinating aspect of the story dealt with the writing of his first novel, Forgetting Elena and his subsequent struggle to get it edited, published, reviewed and recognized. That novel has always been a favourite of mine and, as a writer, the story of how a debut novel goes from idea to publication, was edifying and fascinating.

But that, in and of itself, is not enough for me to wholeheartedly recommend White's book.

For a more lively, colourful version of this period in NY history with a gay perspective , one should really read Wayne County's outrageous memoir, Man Enough to be a Woman. Mar 04, Rod rated it really liked it. His objective observations about self, situations, and politics sometimes challenged my own preconceptions, but were enlightening.

And I came to admire his conclusions. Overall I came to a better understanding of a history and place where I had lived too. At the pool everyone was so old that Gore Vidal reputedly referred to it as Lourdes. Well, I finally managed to wrest time from the holiday schedule to read the last few pages. I tend to like White's writing even when he is fictionalising his own story. Here he is in outright auto-biography mode and his voice is both very personal and unfailingly kind even when he is truthful about people's foibles and flaws.

As Irving says in the blurb, this is a book for anyone interested in the nature of friendship and it is a fabulous glimpse of the New York of the sixeventies and early eigh Well, I finally managed to wrest time from the holiday schedule to read the last few pages. As Irving says in the blurb, this is a book for anyone interested in the nature of friendship and it is a fabulous glimpse of the New York of the sixeventies and early eighties. Of course it is also about a crucial period of modern gay history but, almost more than in any other book of his, the being gay is simply and completely naturally part of the story.

It isn't overstressed or hung out as a campaign banner. It's as much part of the story as the burst of creativity of the era or the social pattern of rich and poor in the rotting and booming big apple. A personal book of a man I would like to know after reading this where before I wanted to simply read him. Oct 12, Nancy rated it did not like it Shelves: I look for a memoir to immerse me in the life of the author so that I can really see things from his point of view.

Admittedly Edmund White's life is very different from mine. He is a gay man who really enjoys city life. I'm a straight woman who has gravitated to a very rural area. Still, there should have been a human hook but there wasn't. I simply could not slog through several hundred pages of picking up tricks, shallow party descriptions and name dropping. I finally gave up at page so i I look for a memoir to immerse me in the life of the author so that I can really see things from his point of view. I finally gave up at page so if it got better after than I didn't notice. Jan 12, Igor S rated it it was amazing.

Loads of very enjoyable name-dropping.

View all 3 comments. Aug 06, Sarah rated it really liked it. Jun 06, Jessica rated it really liked it. I understand that Edmund White has written a series of novels based closely on his own experiences. This book is an outright memoir of his life as a young man in NYC from the early sixties through the early eighties. I enjoyed it quite a lot for several reasons.

White creates a wonderful sense of time, place, and character.

Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile by Geraint Anderson

During the period he describes, NYC was a dirty, violent place that is almost unimaginable now. But it was also home to a fascinating creative class, whom White knew and desc I understand that Edmund White has written a series of novels based closely on his own experiences.

But it was also home to a fascinating creative class, whom White knew and describes. The book could come across as pure name dropping -- Jasper Johns, Susan Sontag, Michele Focault, Nabokov, Peggy Guggenheim -- were it not for the fact that White evokes them all, as well as many "unknowns", vividly and believably. Memoirs are a tricky thing to get right; they can fall so easily into self-aggrandizement, self-pity, or cattiness -- but for me, White struck the right chord.

The text felt casual and intimate without becoming distasteful. Another aspect of the book that I appreciated was the way it chronicled the changes in the gay scene, from furtive, ritualized pick-ups and powder-blue cashmere sweaters to gay pride and body building to the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic. White also explores how, among the gay community of the seventies, the objects of friendship, sex, and love need not be the same person. In the end, White celebrates friendship: Love raises great expectations in us that it never satisfies; the hopes based on friendship are milder and in the present, and they exist only because they have already been rewarded.

Friendship is a permis de sejour that enables us to go anywhere and do anything exactly as our whims dictate. Nov 03, Rachel rated it did not like it Shelves: This book just did not hold my interest at all. I wouldn't have finished it but I received it through the First Reads program so I felt like I had to. I didn't feel any emotion coming out of him. It felt like he was just writing a laundry list account of his activities and so it was hard to connect with him.

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