????不同于敘述加評論的雜志特稿風格，盧斯更加偏重于描述事實——“這就是現實，女士”。有時候，這種風格可能會令人失望。書中寫道，當切爾西得知自己被分配到美國銀行(Bank of America)公共財政部門之后，她“強忍著幾乎奪眶而出的淚水，”原因是，“她將要從事一件她自己幾乎一無所知的工作。她隨后約了幾位朋友去酒吧，一醉方休。”讀到這里，我們渴望作者提供一些分析：是不是所有的華爾街新人都會遭遇這種事情——他們最初一點也不了解自己正在從事的業務，都是邊干邊學嗎？但盧斯并沒有進一步闡述。相反，在引用了切爾西的話之后，他眼睛一眨，寫了一句你完全能夠想象到的句子：“三天后，情況稍微有點明朗。一個醉意朦朧的公司實習日絕對算不上最糟糕的履新方式。”

????就算是吧。當你看到切爾西在美銀美林(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)一年一度的實習日與她的老板們把酒言歡——這些活動通常“在新澤西州一家豪華的鄉村俱樂部舉行，每個活動站都備有一桶啤酒，”你就會很難對她產生同情心。盧斯從未非常明顯地憐憫或嘲笑過他的主人公們。閱讀這部著作時，你基本上感受不到他的存在，盧斯可不是歡蹦亂跳的邁克爾?劉易斯【劉易斯的代表作包括《說謊者的撲克牌》(Liar's Poker)一書——譯注】。這種風格可能是正面的，也可能是負面的，這取決于你對非虛構文學的理解。

????一個值得注意的例外情況恰好也是這本書最精彩的場景。在一場驚心動魄的臥底行動中，盧斯偷偷溜進了一個光怪陸離的閉門活動，也就是華爾街Kappa Beta Phi社團的年度晚宴現場。【《紐約》雜志(New York)非常明智地選擇了這段經歷作為本書的摘錄，還給它加了一個噱頭十足的標題——“揭秘華爾街秘密社團”，收獲了不少點擊量。它還配有好幾段不容錯過的音頻文件。】

????這次活動的高潮部分荒誕不經，以至于盧斯最終只是簡單地列舉了一下：一位男子頭戴印有南部聯盟旗幟的帽子，演唱了一首關于金錢的歌曲；一個拿希拉里?克林頓開涮的笑話（她“長著胡子，臭不可聞”）；一個團體表演一首源自《摩門經》(The Book of Mormon )，但歌詞經過改寫的歌曲（“我相信，是上帝創造了華爾街”）。不可避免的是，盧斯最終還是被人盯上了：億萬富豪投資者邁克爾?諾沃格拉茨要求盧斯表明身份，接著還要沒收他的手機。“他的眼睛布滿血絲，臉紅脖子粗，”我們認識到，本書最栩栩如生的描述終于出現，這或許是因為這件事碰巧是作者本人的真實經歷。隨后，我們這位無畏的向導勉強逃到了大廳。在那里，這個團體的兩位成員試圖讓他相信，“我剛才看到的景象其實不是一群極富權勢的金融家在講同性戀的笑話，嘲笑窮人，吹噓自己的商業成就。”

????盡管讀起來令人愉快，但這個場景似乎與本書主題不太搭調，因為這些頑皮的狂歡者都是有頭有臉的大人物：他們是正在財富之海游弋的華爾街保守派。盧斯關注的則是最新一代的華爾街奮斗者。但你會產生一種不祥之感：他筆下那些天真無邪、精力旺盛的年輕人都懷抱著一顆加入Kappa Beta Phi社團的野心。一旦他們熬到五十多歲，最終躋身億萬富豪的行列，他們在最底層打拼的艱難歲月就將變成遙遠的記憶。于是，華爾街這樣的輪回還會繼續下去。（財富中文網）

????譯者：葉寒

????Roose's style is more "just the facts, ma'am" than the magazine feature formula of quote plus commentary. At times, that can be disappointing. When we learn that Bank of America (BAC) recruit Chelsea "fought back tears" after learning she'd be placed in public finance ("she would be doing something she barely understood yet again ... she went out to a bar with friends and drank until the world blurred"), we crave some analysis from our guide: Is this the case with all Wall Street recruits -- they have no clue what they're doing at first, and pick it up as they go? But Roose doesn't pursue it. Instead, he follows her quote up with a line that you could imagine is written with a wink: "Three days later, things were looking a little brighter. A boozy corporate field day was hardly the worst way to start a job."

????Well, yes. Watch Chelsea play flip-cup with her bosses at the annual Bank of America Merrill Lynch field day, "held at a posh New Jersey country club" with "a keg of beer at each activity station," and you'll have trouble sympathizing with her. Roose never overtly pities nor mocks his subjects. He is mostly absent from the narrative -- a Michael Lewis romp, this is not -- which can be a positive or negative, depending on how you like your nonfiction.

????One notable exception is the book's finest scene, a thrilling undercover operation in which Roose sneaks into a bizarre, closed-door affair: the annual dinner of Wall Street society Kappa Beta Phi. (New York magazine wisely chose this as its excerpt of the book, headlining it "What I saw when I crashed a Wall Street secret society," and has reaped the resulting clicks. There is also some must-hear audio.)

????The highlights of the event are so ludicrous that Roose finally just rattles them off as bullet points: a man singing about money while clad in a Confederate flag hat; a joke about Hillary Clinton (she "has whiskers and stinks"); a group performing a song from The Book of Mormon with the lyrics rewritten ("I believe that the Lord God created Wall Street"). Inevitably, someone picks up on Roose's presence: Billionaire investor Michael Novogratz asks Roose to identify himself, then demands his cell phone. "His eyes were bloodshot, and his neck veins were bulging," we learn -- some of the most vivid writing in the book, at last, perhaps because it happened to the author himself. Our fearless guide narrowly escapes to the lobby, where two of the group's members try to convince him "that what I'd just seen wasn't really a group of wealthy and powerful financiers making homophobic jokes, mocking poor people, and bragging about their business conquests."

????The scene feels a bit out of place, delightful though it is, because the naughty KBP revelers are top dogs: They are the old guard, now swimming in money. The focus of Roose's book is the newest generation of Wall Street strivers. But you get the sinking feeling that many of the naive young bucks he focuses on are the aspiring KBP members of tomorrow -- that once they're billionaires in their fifties, their days on the bottom will be distant memories, and the cycle will continue.