Bad Business

The first work of fiction by former options trader Goldstone ( Trading Up: Surviving Success as a Woman Trader on Wall Street ) is a brittle satire of big money, Washington politics and Madison Avenue machinations. Goldstone's insider's perspective gives extra bite to her attack on high-stakes power games, but her dialogue has no more snap, crackle and pop than a run-of-the-mill TV sitcom. The star of the spoof is Julie Wilson, an early medieval English lit major suddenly promoted to a top-flight position in an advertising firm when her boss is fired. Eager to prove herself, Julie comes up with a unique idea--the creation of an ad campaign to enhance the U.S. Treasury Department's image. This farfetched concept actually flies when Julie heads to D.C. to meet the Treasury secretary and gets romantically sidetracked by his assistant. Julie's timing is ripe: the Treasury Department is in an uproar over the proposed Nolan Amendment, which would ban all cars imported from Japan. Julie's TV campaign deflates the amendment but swells her head, until personal events bring her down to earth in this amusing but superficial farce. BOMC featured alternate. (Apr.)