Boomerang Part 2

            Michael Lewis’s Boomerang is a non-fiction text about the global financial collapse of the 2000’s.  As stated in the previous post about this book, the text examines the crisis starting with the extreme depreciation of the American real estate market, and then delves into the result that crash had on the global financial community.  After reading the book in its entirety, it is clear that the purpose of the book is to not only describe the nature of the financial collapse that sent the world into a global recession, but also to examine the nature of society today that caused this collapse.  The first post stated that Lewis used humor early on when commenting on cultures such as in Iceland to describe the people there.  As the novel explores Greece, Ireland, Germany, and eventually the United States, social commentary remains a common sight.  However, it becomes apparent that this commentary serves a greater purpose: to make a statement on the selfish nature of society that shot itself in the foot, leading to the largest global recession since the Great Depression.

            The end of this novel takes a break from examining the financial side of the crisis and moves on to show the social effects that the recession had in a town in California.  Lewis uses this as a snapshot of America because of its drastic devastation due to the recession.  Through this, Lewis states that humans are programmed to hoard as much of scarce resources they can (in this case money).  In doing so, people only consider the instant gratification of their actions instead of considering the long-term effects.  In the recession, people bought and sold over-valued mortgages and other securities that did not hold true to their value.  However, using the rebound of the fire station in that small town in California, Lewis leaves the reader with a positive spin, stating that people can be optimistic and successfully work towards rebounding and coming back from devastation.

            A repeated metaphor throughout the story is comparing something to a symptom of a disease.  In the first parts of the book, symptoms are just used to describe the effects of the financial crisis and the toll that it was taking on countries around the world.  At the end, just like the topic of the book, the financial crisis as a whole becomes a symptom of the behavior of society.  Also, the book does a good job of breaking down the whole (financial crisis) into its parts (effects on different places and countries).  This helps the reader understand the vast impact that it had and also the different results in countries around the world.  Ultimately, the book was very creatively and well-written, making the author effective at communicating his purpose by the end of the novel.