A Wanted Man

Going Infinite: Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis is a print journalist who works in books rather than newspapers or magazines.

Lewis’ “Moneyball” took a deep dive into the 21st century way of recruiting Major League Baseball players. “The Big Short” delved into the housing market collapse of 2008 and the people who saw it coming. “Flash Boys” exposed a group battling against insider trading on Wall Street. To name only three of Lewis’ books. A few of his bestselling books have been adapted into movies.

“Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon” seeks to explain the phenomenon of Sam Bankman-Fried whom Lewis describes as “crypto’s Gatsby” and a man whom Forbes magazine described as the richest person under 30 … at least that was the description only a couple of years ago before a dramatic reversal of fortune in late 2022.

Bankman-Fried quickly became ridiculously wealthy trading in cryptocurrency – digital currency similar to Bitcoin.

Other than his whirlwind rise from anonymity to incredible wealth and influence to his crushing financial fall, Sam Bankman-Fried is probably best identified as the lumbering, tousle-haired Richie Rich wearing wrinkled T-shirts and cargo shorts.

Lewis works to fill in the blanks.

The author opens with the story of a friend wanting more information on Bankman-Fried before signing off on a deal with him. At the time, as recent as late 2021, Bankman-Fried’s FTX had only been around for a couple of years and Bankman-Fried had accumulated billions upon billions. Lewis met with him as a favor to his friend.

At the end of their conversation, Lewis felt fine telling his friend to move forward with the deal. But the meeting raised a question Lewis could neither answer nor escape: “Who was this guy?”

“Going Infinite” attempts to answer that question.

Lewis gained access to Bankman-Fried, family, FTX records and FTX associates. He dives deep into Bankman-Fried’s childhood, college, etc., his idiosyncratic nature and love of games, as well as the swift rise from a Wall Streeter to the king of crypto.

Lewis researched the beginning, chronicled the manic time at the top then witnessed Bankman-Fried’s fall and its aftermath.

Lewis also looks into the mission behind the push for more and more wealth. Bankman-Fried and several high-level FTX associates are effective altruists, meaning they wanted their wealth to positively affect as many people as possible. Bankman-Fried sought “infinity dollars” – wealth so massive he could apply it to solving existential risks such as war, pandemics and artificial intelligence.

Instead, the money disappeared while Bankman-Fried built a staggering headquarters in the Bahamas.

While Lewis answers many of the facets of who is this guy, readers must draw their own conclusions if Bankman-Fried is a good guy, a bad guy or something in between.

A Wanted Man: Lee Child

Given how many times he’s been pulled into local, state and federal investigations, regular readers might think an extensive Jack Reacher file exists. A file that covers not only his record as an Army military police major but one that covers his work with law-enforcement and military authorities since he walked away from the Army several years earlier.

“A Wanted Man” is author Lee Child’s 17th Jack Reacher novel. Roughly more than half of those books – maybe three quarters of them – feature Reacher either stumbling into, being drafted into service or forcing his way into various criminal cases or situations that involve law enforcement. Authorities don’t always know what he’s doing, or his actions are not included in the official record, and in some cases, he’s likely not included in the record.

Seventeen novels into the series, one would think a simple search of Reacher’s name would quickly light up official searches in Child’s fictional world.

“A Wanted Man” proves again that’s not necessarily the case.

Here, officials not only miss Reacher’s work since leaving the military, they miss out on his Army record as an MP officer. At least for a little longer than one would expect. Even more, Reacher is a suspect in a homicide and a much larger case involving the FBI.

Granted, Reacher lives off the grid. He has no home, no address, no car, no property, no job. He only has the clothes he’s wearing, a folding travel toothbrush, some money in his pocket and access to his military pension via ATMs. He travels across the country either by hitchhiking or buying a bus ticket. He’s not on the run. This is the way he chooses to live and has been doing so since the first Reacher novel, “Killing Floor,” published in the late 1990s.

Here, a car carrying two men and a woman pick up Reacher who’s hitchhiking to Virginia – the ride will hopefully get him to Chicago by morning. The car’s other occupants identify themselves as three business colleagues traveling for work.

Behind them, the FBI is working a homicide involving a stabbing victim.

Of course, the car occupants are not whom they claim to be and Reacher figures that out while the FBI is linking him to the case as a suspect.

Each Reacher book features an entirely new cast of characters. Occasionally, a past supporting character returns or is referred to. But essentially when the cover claims a book is “A Jack Reacher Novel,” Lee Child means it.

In “A Wanted Man,” Child moves the story back and forth from Reacher’s situation to FBI Agent Julia Sorenson’s investigation, at least until they meet about halfway through the story. Anyone new to the Jack Reacher books could easily mistake Sorenson as the main character of “A Wanted Man,” at least early in the book. It’s an element that increases the suspense and shakes up the storyline for regular Reacher readers.

All said, “A Wanted Man” is a satisfying read even if it does raise questions about how Reacher can remain unknown to authorities after more than a decade of saving communities, enforcing national security and occasionally being on the wrong side of the law. It may seem like a reach but it’s simply prime Reacher.