The Contrarians: A Novel

Chris Kelch is one of the rising stars at the downtown firm of Freshler Feld. At only twenty-eight hes a top-rated equity research analyst; last year he pulled down nearly half a million dollars. His girlfriend also happens to be lovely and supportive. Kelchs smalltown single-parent Midwestern roots seem far behind until a thinly veiled profile of Kelch runs in a prominent magazine and things begin to fall apart. Not only does the piece reveal company secrets and cast Freshler Feld in a bad light it also makes Kelch feel like a naif for it reveals far more about his conflicted feelings about his past and his job than he has admitted even to himself. With suspense and style The Contrarians not only creates one of the most memorable ordinary guys in recent American fiction it also examines as no novel has done before the rise--and the seeds of the fall--of late-nineties Wall Street.