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Grady Harp is an Amazon Top 10 Reviewer
The title of this first novel by Aseem K. Giri, IMPOSTERS AT THE GATE: A NOVEL ABOUT PRIVATE EQUITY, can be daunting to readers who are not comfortable with the vocabulary and workings of high finance. Being one of those uninformed money market folks, this reader had a tough time getting into this novel.
Not that the style of writing is stilted or obscure - it actually flows well and the author has a great flair for written conversation and character painting - but the topic is like a foreign language, something that takes some work to follow.
Very thoughtfully the author fairly early on recognizes the reader may not be as informed as need be to get the most from this story and he inserts the following ‘definition’ passage: ‘Ash had fantasized about private equity for so long. Private equity was the top of the totem pole for the financial services industry. A group of Partners would raise money from investors. They would use that money to buy businesses, grow them, try to increase their value, and then sell the companies after three to five years, churning a profit. This excited Ash tremendously.’ And after this bow to our lack of sophistication, Giri creates a story that revolves around Ash (who happens to be Indian like the author) and takes us on a whirlwind journey through the rise of a brilliant and wise young man climbing the steps up the ladder of success, encountering the pitfalls of misplaced judgment in people and misalliances that threaten to prevent his dream. Adding a well developed love interest along the way, Giri allows us to see the inside of the mysterious world of finance and by the end of his novel he has provided the reader with a painless education as well as a story that is stimulating and entertaining.
Giri writes with the skill and insight of a man who has been involved in the Wall Street world. Yet he already shows signs of a style that should serve him well when he steps into another venue of plot. He seems to have what it takes to be more than a ‘one song’ man.
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