The Smartest Guys in the Room

The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

By: Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

The definitive volume on Enron's amazing rise and scandalous fall, from an award-winning team of Fortune investigative reporters.

Critic reviews

“The best book about the Enron debacle to date.”
—BusinessWeek

“The authors write with power and finesse. Their prose is effortless, like a sprinter floating down the track.”
—USA Today

“Well-reported and well-written.”
—Warren Buffett

She Blinded Me With Finance!

Just as I expected. After graduating with honors in Journalism, I took an Accounting 101 course and failed miserably. So I wasn’t expecting to keep up with the anticipated shenanigans in this book.

It was fun, first to last, anyway!

I read audiobooks during activities that do not require my full attention, such as walking on the treadmill. So after things got really interesting in this book, it was more like listening to music for me. Not taxing, but entertaining writing, and excellent narration.

And of course much of the story is about the principals and personalities of Enron, not just the financial chicanery.

Highly recommended. Especially if you’ve already passed Accounting 101. ;-)

Terrific

This is probably the keystone work on Enron’s rise and fall. Adding to that, though, is the excellence of the narration. Dennis Boutsikaris reads with verve, drama, and a sharp-edged, sardonic humor that matches step-for-step the ambience of the story being told. A terrific performance.

Fascinating and frustrating

The book expertly chronicles the "rise" and fall of Enron and the people who brought about both. Although long, it is interesting and moves at a brisk pace. I greatly enjoyed it.

In depth and insightful.

Bethany McLean writes the Enron story extremely well and the narrator is top notch too.

overall, good history lesson on Enron

reconfirmed and added to my understanding of the collapse of the company plus how the executives enriched themselves.