House of Cards: Confessions of an Enron Executive

by Lynn Brewer

Book Overview

ESPIONAGE. FRAUD. POLITICS. "This book is one of the most chilling and compelling business stories I've ever read. Lynn Brewer lived the Enron story, and in a deeply personal, yet highly professional... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589392485
• ISBN13: 9781589392489
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

AN Executives Required Reading

What a great book. Despite everything you have read in the newspapers, this book gives the reader an exceptional inside review as to the actions, and inactions at Enron. The author pulled no stops when she offered the truth that many were not looking to share.I found this book to be extremely interesting, somewhat sad as to how management attempted to run such a large organization and how millions of people lost billions of dollars due to greed, poor management and unbelivable business skills.This book was again, extremely interesting and worth the read.Carl RizzutoHobe Sound, Florida

The Story That Only An Insider Could Tell

I have read a few books regarding the Enron scandal. This one is definitely very entertaining.Lynn Brewer was an executive at Enron. Her detailed inside perspective goes well beyond what you will read in other books no matter how many interviews those other authors conducted. Lynn's story is personal, compelling, and shocking. The amount of backstabbing and office politics that went on is astounding. You will be surprised at how awful it was to work there.Imagine having your Enron interview go well but not getting hired afterward. Then a headhunter calls about a week later with a solid offer for another Enron position. After getting hired your manager tells you to get rid of two slacker employees in the department. The attempt goes badly and the manager denies any wrongdoing. You are left holding the bag. And so your career at Enron has begun. Brewer shows the reader how Enron executives fit into one of two categories: those who had no idea how Enron was making its money, and those who knew everything was a scam, a house of cards. It will not take the reader very long before he/she understands that Enron's top leaders knew exactly what they were doing despite their later testimony after the failure of the company.Don't miss this one. It is among the best of the Enron books.

For anyone wanting more than what newscast headlines

Written by former Enron junior executive Lynn Brewer, with the assistance of Matthew Scott Hansen, House Of Cards: Confessions Of An Enron Executive is an insider view of the scandals, secret deals, corruption, and shocking revelations that led to the collapse of the Enron financial empire, and with it, the investment portfolios of countless unaware investors and stockholders. A very personal and insightful story, as well as a parable about the corporate greed that infests the worst side of human nature, House Of Cards is an invaluable expose and highly recommended reading for anyone wanting more than what newscast headlines and speculative television "talking heads" commentators had to say.

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

"House of Cards" reads like the plot outline for a soap opera on steroids. If this story had been brought to a movie studio by the author to "pitch," she would have been told that the movie-going public would find its main characters far too corrupt to be even miniimally believable. The most unlikable and ruthlesss characters in "Glenn Garry, Glenn Ross," "Wall Street," or "Boiler Room" seem like models of ethical business practice when compared to Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay, Andy Fastow and Rebecca "the Shark" Mark. Brewer's account of the seemingly limitless arrogrance and greed of many of the Enron executives in their personal as well as business lives is simply beyond amazing. They believed, it seems, that the top floors of the Enron Building were a newer and better Mt. Olympus from which they could manipulate the lives of "mere mortals" at whim, especially if they could add to their own personal coffers in the process. I was enthralled and appalled by turns as I read. That Lynn Brewer could find any humor at all as this corporate Hindenberg approached the mooring mast carrying her career aboard, attests to her resiliency and sense of perspective. Following her story from initial excitement to be workng for a companty whose mission statement included such phrases as "respect for individuals" and "personal and corporate integrity," to her total disillusionment is fascinating reading. "House of Cards" has the kind of "page-turner" pace usually reserved for Stephen King-type horror fiction. A definite must-read for anyone who owns stock (or is thinking of owning stock) in any company.

Truly fascinating!

I don't normally read books about corporations, but I bought the book after hearing a radio interview with one of the authors. I can honestly say that there is never a dull moment in this book. It was riveting reading about these Enron Executives and the level of delusion they operated at, not to mention the absolute lack of responsibility and accountability they all exhibited. Brewer's account of her harrowing years at Enron was pretty amazing and her self-analysis through the book is funny at times and downright heart wrenching at other times. One can't fault her for wanting to make money like most of us, but her ethics kept her from crossing over the line. Overall a fascinating tale of American greed at its worst!