Almost a hundred
years ago, in an impoverished Alabama mining town, a young woman was severely
burned when a stove exploded. As she lay wasting away in a hospital bed, her
doctor pleaded for anyone to donate a skin graft that might save her life. Days
went by and no one stepped forward. Finally, a stranger in town, an ex-convict
with dreams of bringing water and electricity to the town, heard of the woman's
plight and offered his own skin. He risked his life but saved hers—and was
permanently disfigured on his back and legs where his skin was removed. His name
was Charles Ponzi. Unfortunately, he is remembered today, not for this act of
heroism, but for the financial fraud he foisted on the people of Boston a few
year later.
Ponzi was a man of
contradictions: a bold, ambitious, lazy, kindhearted, charismatic spendthrift
with schemes for becoming rich—but a man too impractical to implement any of
them. This meticulously researched biography traces Ponzi's life, with special
focus on that Summer in Boston, when the masses brought him their savings in
hopes that he would make them all rich. Author Zuckoff immerses the reader in
the times—prohibition, the women's suffrage movement, corrupt politicians,
immigrants flooding the streets of Boston, crooked bankers and newspaper men
scrambling to scoop one another. Amidst it all is Ponzi's long-suffering wife
Rose, who never looses faith in him. The story is more fantastic than fiction.
Part history and part suspense-thriller, it is spectacular, tragic, poignant and comic all at the same time.
Zuckoff is an
accomplished story teller. His writing is engrossing, and he keeps the narrative
moving at a rapid clip. Don't start this book if you lack the time. I couldn't
put it down, and neither will you. [12/1/05]
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