????如果你住在紐約，你肯定熟悉華爾街青年才俊的標準形象：深色西裝，寬領帶，一絲不茍的發型，一副與娃娃臉極不相稱的生意人派頭。哦，對了，他們正在賺很多很多的錢。

????但事實證明，財富不是天上掉下來的。這份工作就是他們的生活。頂頭上司就是他們的主人。iPhone一響，你的朋友就必須離開電影院，直奔辦公室。

????在凱文?盧斯的最新佳作《華爾街的年輕人》(Young Money)一書中，一位華爾街高級經理人這樣教導一位工作勁頭十足的年輕人：“幫助這個世界固然很了不起，但你需要金錢激勵。”按理說，這番話應該讓我們感到震驚。但在許多了解金融世界真相的人士看來，這只不過證實了他們已有的看法。

????因此，目前還不清楚誰才是《華爾街的年輕人》瞄準的目標受眾。紐約媒體界正在熱議這本書，但對于那個世界（無論是財經記者，銀行家自己，還是任何一位供職于曼哈頓、舊金山或波士頓的商界人士）來說，“年輕的銀行家們過得并不開心”已經算不上什么新聞。盧斯描繪的圖景或許真的會讓許多遠離權力中心的美國人感到震驚，受到啟發，因為他們原本并不了解這一群體，不清楚這份工作并不那么光鮮的日常要求。但他們到底有多關心這檔事？

????然而，《華爾街的年輕人》是一本非常有意思，毫無閱讀障礙的好書，它會讓你開懷大笑，但也有可能讓你嗤之以鼻。切爾西對剛剛領到手的2.5萬美元獎金很不滿意。德里克進入金融界是因為，“我想讓那幫認為我愚蠢到家的高中同學睜開狗眼，好好見識一下我的能耐。”他非常珍惜自己的“交易玩具”（“搞定，絕世大帥哥”是他慶賀大交易的口頭禪），喜歡在睡覺前盯著它們看。J.P.時常播放說唱歌曲《早死快活》(Live Fast, Die Young)，以尋找靈感。但他聽歌時戴著耳機，坐在辦公桌旁，因為他總是獨自一人，疲憊不堪地鼓搗各種數字，一直至深夜。

????如果盧斯有一個使命，那就是告訴美國人，華爾街“往上爬的人們”在熬到某個級別之前其實非常忙碌，沮喪且孤獨，尤其是，累得要死。他們過著一種不健康的生活方式，無論是就身體，還是就情緒而言。盧斯筆下的主人公之一患上了一種殘酷的疾病，這也許與他的工作壓力不無關系。在工作的重壓下，他們的許多關系轟然崩潰；這些年輕人一次又一次地取消與女友共進晚餐的約定。

????對所有這一切，你或許會翻個白眼，“唏噓一番”。你或許會對那位大學畢業第一年就賺到了15萬美元年薪、但過度勞累的22歲年輕人表示憐憫。盧斯承認，這條路是這些年輕人自己選的；在金融圈以外就職的同齡人看來，讓銀行家們倍感失望的年薪額簡直就是天文數字。（“J.P.知道，普羅大眾是不會同情他的，因為在其他行業，一位24歲的年輕人能拿到9萬美元的年薪仍然是一個巨大的成就。”）但他通常不會就此發表評論。

????這本書的亮點之一是一段圍繞德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)風險分析師樸秀珍（盧斯筆下8個主人公中僅有的兩位女性之一）展開的討論。這位樂觀的衛爾斯利女子學院(Wellesley College)畢業生“很快就發現，她就職的風險管理部依然是男人的天下。”在樸秀珍所在的部門，只有她沒有達到行政助理級別。她的經歷給了盧斯一個機會，來討論華爾街女性的處境這個重要的議題。他解釋說，“女性在金融職場的進展一直比表面看起來的情形更加微弱，”隨即列舉了詳實的數據證實自己的這種判斷。

????If you live in New York City, you know the young Wall Street type: dark suit, wide-knot tie, meticulous hair, and an all-business demeanor that contradicts the baby face. Oh, and they're making a ton of money.

????But it turns out that wealth isn't free. The job is their life. The hours are excessive -- and not limited to the workweek. Their superiors own them. One iPhone ping and your friend must leave the movie and head to her office.

????At one point in Young Money, the well-written new book by Kevin Roose, a senior associate at a Wall Street firm lectures a young go-getter: "Helping the world is great and all, but you need to be motivated by money." We're meant to find such a quote shocking. But many who follow the world of finance will see it as confirming what they already thought.

????Thus, it's unclear who the audience really is for Young Money. The New York media world is buzzing about it, but the revelation that young bankers are unhappy does not constitute news for that world -- neither for financial journalists, nor for the bankers themselves, nor for any person working in business in Manhattan, San Francisco, or Boston. The picture Roose paints may indeed shock and enlighten the legions of people in America who live away from the power centers and are thus not already acquainted with young bankers or aware of the less glamorous, day-to-day demands of the job. But how much do they really care?

????Nevertheless, Young Money is a fun and fast read that will make you laugh out loud, or perhaps scoff instead. Chelsea isn't satisfied with her $25,000 bonus. Derrick entered finance because, "I want all those people in high school who thought I was stupid to fucking suck it." He cherishes his "deal toys" ("clear, Lucite hunks" commemorating big deals) and likes to look at them before bed. J.P. plays the rap song "Live Fast, Die Young" for inspiration -- but he's listening on headphones, at his desk, where he's crunching numbers into the night, alone, tired.

????If Roose has a mission, it's to inform America that until they hit a certain job level, Wall Street's ladder-climbers are in fact harried, frustrated, lonely, and, above all, dead tired. They lead an unhealthy lifestyle, physically and emotionally. One of Roose's subjects develops a brutal disease, perhaps not unrelated to his work stress. Many of their relationships collapse under the weight of their work; dinners out with girlfriends are cancelled night after night.

????Your reaction to all of this may be "boo-hoo" and an eye-roll. Pity the poor, overworked 22-year-old making $150,000 in her first year out of college. Roose acknowledges that these people have chosen this path, and that the sums they find disappointing are staggering to most of their non-banking peers. ("J.P. knew he wouldn't find much sympathy on Main Street, where being paid $90,000 as a twenty-four-year-old was still a tremendous accomplishment.") But in general, he resists from commentary.

????One highlight is the discussion around Soo-jin Park, a risk analyst at Deutsche Bank (DB) and one of only two women among Roose's eight subjects. An optimistic Wellesley College grad, Soo-jin "quickly discovered that her risk management group was still a man's world." She is the only female in her division who is not an administrative assistant. Her experience affords Roose the opportunity to discuss the important issue of women on Wall Street. "Women's progress in finance has been somewhat shallower than it appears," he explains, backing it up with numbers.