Inside Out

Levine, one-time managing director of Drexel Burnham Lambert and cohort of Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken, spent 17 months in federal prison for inside trading. Arrested in 1986, he was the ``first domino'' whose revelations helped bring down others. How did a ``middle-class boy from Queens'' raised to ethical standards become a crook? ``There is no easy answer,'' writes Levine, who spends 432 pages of this brisk first-person narrative attempting to convince the reader that he is basically a decent guy who was ``blinded by unrelenting ambition, to be sure.'' As for ``smug'' Boesky, Levine, who now heads a financial consulting firm, deems him ``one of the most manipulative and deceptive individuals I ever met.'' Those intrigued by details of Wall Street wheeling and dealing will enjoy this confessional. Coauthor Hoffer also co-wrote Not Without My Daughter. Photos. BOMC and Fortune Book Club alternates; condensation rights to Reader's Digest. (Sept.)