More fiction, less biography

A gifted writer gets a front-row seat toa controversial life, but ends up seeing nothing

- SHYAMAL MAJUMDAR

MICHAEL LEWIS IS a master storyteller, and Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of A New Tycoon is an important evidence of that talent. That is only to be expected from the author of Liar's Poker, The Big Short and Flash Boys - books that showcased his uncanny gift for finding human tales in the opaque machinations of the world's money markets.

No doubt, Lewis had a difficult job of chronicling the life of the founder of a chaotic organisation who spent half his time locked in a dirty office playing games and half his time flying around the world without bothering to tell his staff where he was going. The rich details of Sam Bankman-Fried's (SBF) personal life, told with a tinge of humour, are an enjoyable read.

For example, the book suggests SBF's downfall could be partly traced to a secretive affair with a young woman called Caroline Ellison, the CEO of the investment wing of his empire - Alameda Research. It is alleged he used billions of dollars from FTX to repay loans owed by Alameda. Lewis got hold of the love letters exchanged between them - weird bullet-point confessionals of anguish and cost-benefit analysis.

Also, sample this. Lewis ends his story by describing how SBF's parents were so fearful for their security that they purchased a German shepherd named Sandor, who had been trained to kill on command when given the correct instructions in German. The parents had learned the commands, but SBF had not."So when SBF was in a room with the dog, it always felt as if some accident was waiting to happen," Lewis writes."It would have been very SBF to have been eaten by his own guard dog."