Jun 202013
 

On the Floor: A Novel

On the Floor: A Novel

“The smartest financial novel since The Bonfire of the Vanities, and the first with a fully drawn female heroine.”—Frank Partnoy, bestselling author of F.I.A.S.C.O.: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader and Wait: The Art and Science of Delay

Longlisted for the Orange Prize

A hard-living investment banker has three days to decide her destiny in this thrilling novel.

It has been 182 days of vodka and insomnia since Geri Molloy got dumped. A twenty-eight-year-old inv

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  2 Responses to “On the Floor: A Novel”

  1. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
    4.0 out of 5 stars
    Author’s experience of working in the City adds authenticity, March 24, 2012
    By 
    Ripple (uk) –

    This review is from: On the Floor (Paperback)

    Geri Molloy, the central character in Aifric Campbell’s “On The Floor” may be earning a six figure salary working at a London investment bank just prior to the outbreak of the 1991 invasion of Kuwait, but she’s seriously messed up. Drinking heavily, sleeping lightly and mourning the end of a relationship, she may be a mathematical genius with a direct line to a mysterious Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager with whom she trades, but her life is increasingly being controlled by other people.

    The City setting of the book potentially sets two challenges. Firstly the workings of the City can be complex and difficult to understand and writers have to steer a path between over-simplification and downright unnecessary confusion. As Campbell has one of her characters recognize, even those involved didn’t necessarily understand what they were doing which leads to the second pitfall which is more difficult: the public’s response to the City post financial crash. At the time that this book is set, we were still in the grip of the “Wall Street” glamour with Gordon Gekko’s mantra of “greed is good” and “lunch is for wimps” ringing in our ears. Today the financial world is seen in a very different light. Both of these challenges are largely dispelled by the fact that Campbell herself spent 13 years working as an investment banker and so knows what she’s talking about. Who better to tell it like it was?

    Campbell doesn’t over-glamorize the life, but neither does she jump on the band-wagon of slating the City. Focussing on a lost individual and making it a personal story, she uses the financial world to give pace to the story while revealing the difficulties of being a female in that macho world. Indeed, while Geri Malloy is clearly not Campbell, she shares some similarities – both are Irish, convent school raised and facing the challenges of a very male world. While the misogyny of the culture is perhaps not surprising, the often cruel banter and nicknames are still shocking as is the sacrifice of individuals to the greater good of the deal.

    At first I thought what we were getting here was a metaphor of the City and personal relationships. Geri’s world is falling apart as she pines for a her ex, and I was thinking that we were getting a story that greed and ambition, like early love is blind to what else is going on. But around two thirds of the way through when the deal that has driven the story to date reaches its conclusion and the story centres back onto Geri’s own challenges.

    The device used to get Geri to reveal more of her past was, I found, a little clunky and strained belief a bit, but as another layer of Geri’s past and psyche is exposed it certainly makes her more of an interesting character. It’s a shame that what it takes to get her to open up this past feels like such an uneven gear change as this doesn’t fit well with what is an otherwise believable story, but once Campbell gets back to Geri, the story again eases into a new direction and is equally enthralling and well written. If the twist in the plot to the first part is a little too clearly signposted, the twists towards the end are beautifully disguised and pleasingly draw dropping.

    Ultimately it’s not so much a story about life in the City. It’s more a personal struggle about who you can trust and the importance of retaining control of your own life and it just happens to be set in the financial world where these issues are pertinent. It’s fast paced as Geri’s once comfortable world comes crashing down around her. If it’s possible to have a coming of age story for a 28 year old protagonist, then that’s what this is.

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  2. 0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
    3.0 out of 5 stars
    Chick lit – pretending to be more, January 7, 2013
    By 

    Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
    This review is from: On the Floor (Kindle Edition)

    Characters not really believeable – and the end was a bit of a disappointment. Some ridiculous scenes in this too.

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