The Wolf of Wall Street is a memoir written by the wolf, himself, Jordan Belfort. The book is about how Jordan got his start in the stockbroker business, how he made as much as 23 million dollars in one day, how he got wrapped-up into drugs and sex, and how it all came crashing down. A movie with the same title was released in December of 2013 and has garnished some major notoriety, good and bad.
Belfort writes in his introduction that his memoir is “œa true story based on his best recollection of events” that happened in his life and that he used the real names of people in the book, unless indicated otherwise. He also states that some of the events have been compressed for the sake of the narrative and that some dialogue was recreated to best match the exchanges between people in the book. In the prologue, after relaying his meeting with Mark Hanna, the man said to be his mentor, he states that this memoir is a “œsatirical reconstruction of the insanity” that took place. He explains that he primarily hopes that his story will serve as a cautionary tale to the rich and the poor, “œto anyone living with a silver spoon on their nose and a bunch of pills in their stomach sack and to any person who is considering taking a God given gift and misusing it.” Having said all that and knowing that he spent much of his time being high, I have some major doubts about what actually did happen (although I am not sure how relevant that is). Essentially, here is an expert snake oil salesman selling his own story. You do the math.
