“LOLZ Flesh, why are you reviewing a non-finance book?” I’ll tell you why, young monkey.
It’s all too easy to get stuck inside our finance comfort zone/bubble, to become addicted to being surrounded by people who all share your general beliefs and values. Even if your business school is part of a wider, bigger campus, oftentimes we’re fine with being relatively ignorant of “those other liberal arts majors out there.”
This is precisely the attitude that the author of “The Unlikely Disciple,” Kevin Roose, sought to break. His book details the adventures he has when he decides to transfer from far-left Brown University to Liberty University (the conservative evangelical college founded by Jerry Falwell) for a semester. Rules on Liberty’s campus include: no kissing, no R-rated movies, and no alcohol. Mr. Roose does this not just for shits and giggles, but—gasp!—he’s genuinely curious about this (oftentimes stereotyped and dismissed) culture and wants to experience it for himself.
What will probably encourage some of you (especially the participants in WSO’s never-ending religious flare-ups) is that Roose doesn’t actually end up converting or “going native.” A self-admitted liberal Deist, he is nevertheless as fair as an outsider could possibly be expected to be (I can see you rolling your eyes, ANT, but it’s really true). His experiences range from the mind-bending (taking the full student course load, including a course on Creationism), to the romantic (falling hard for an evangelical chick—worth reading just for that alone), to the historic (he has the last print interview with the late Jerry Falwell, which occurred while he was there).
Especially relevant for those monkeys in business school, this is great inspiration for those who seek perspective and understanding of the world outside of our student lounges and offices.
Monkeys, take that non-finance elective course. Join that club that you think looks interesting and run for leadership. Go on that service trip you see the flyer for outside your dorm. Approach that cute girl with a totally different background from you and see what she says.“The Unlikely Disciple” has all of these things.
Kevin Roose seeks—and gains—perspective, and…well, you’ll judge for yourselves if he has gained anything more than that. Knock, and the door will be opened, indeed.
Read up, monkeys!
Monkey’s Review 1: Barbarians At the Gate
Monkey’s Review 2: The Financier
Monkey’s Review 3: Decision Points
Monkey’s Review 4: Debunkery
Monkey’s Review 5: When Genius Failed
Monkey’s Review 6: Monkey Business
Monkey’s Review 7: Death Of The Banker
Monkey’s Review 8: A Journey
Monkey’s Review 9: Damn It Feels Good To Be A Banker
Monkey’s Review 10: The Quants
Monkey’s Review 11: All About Hedge Funds
Monkey’s Review 12: The Unlikely Disciple
Monkey’s Review 13: Adventure Capitalist
Monkey’s Review 14: The Hedge Fund Book
Monkey’s Review 15: Investing In Hedge Fund of Funds
Monkey’s Review 16: Hilarity Ensues
Monkey’s Review 17: The Prince
Monkey’s Review 18: Markets Never Forget (But People Do)
Monkey’s Review 19: The Money Culture
Thanks Flesh! Did you get to meet Kevin at the WSO happy hour last summer?
He was there? I remember I missed only one of them...
yeah, I sent him this review and he loved it :-)
Kevin's a great writer, so I'm looking forward to reading this.
Matt Taibbi did the same thing once, and it was pretty hysterical. I imagine Kevin's account is a bit more respectful, but Taibbi's is definitely worth a read as well.
Flesh, he said to tell you thanks for the review
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