Mergers & Acquisitions

Vachon’s debut novel, the subject of frenzied speculation and assiduous hype, arrives on audiobook at the crest of a wave of excitement. Heyborne reads Vachon’s brand-name, corporate-name–heavy prose with satisfaction, pounding on each punch line and luxury brand with panache. While it is jarring to hear him mispronounce the names of high-profile New York law firms, undercutting Vachon’s brand of masters-of-the-universe realism, Heyborne captures the novel’s mixture of high-stakes capital and comic psychological insight. Heyborne’s voice, soft and often pleading, is the precise opposite of the rapacious hypercapitalists the book drizzles across its pages, but the juxtaposition works for the most part. Vachon documents, rather than celebrates, the world of finance his book inhabits, and Heyborne’s reading further dilutes any sense of romance that might still cling to its Gordon Gekko manqués, chasing after that ever-elusive dollar. Simultaneous release with the Riverhead hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 8). (Apr.)