Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff

Erin Arvedlund

This is a book I highly recommend, but with certain reservations. Those whom I consider to be reliable sources tell me this is the best book out there about Madoff and his Ponzi Scheme. I think most people would find the whole thing quite fascinating. I certainly did.

My reservations are simply that the book is not extremely well written. It is repetitive in places, and has the feel of something written to meet a deadline or to be rushed to publication because the story was hot and competition was out there.

Nevertheless, I was fascinated by the story and it contains wondeful tidbits about Madoff and other famous people that I would guess everyone would be interested in. Moreover, there are some brilliant points made about human nature and about the SEC and government regulation that I consider "must be understood by all".

The author wrote a column in Barron’s in 2001 exposing Madoff as a potential fraud, and therefore she gets high grades for having been there, on the story, early. Moreover, she has done an excellent job of research, and since this is clearly the biggest theft of all time I think it has more than passing interest to almost all of us..

Review by Len Oppenheim

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