From mere trainee to lowly geek, to triumphal Big Swinging Dick: that was Michael Lewis's pell-mell progress through the dealing rooms of Salomon Brothers in New York and London during the heady mid-80s when they were probably the world's most powerful and profitable merchant bank.

Funny, frightening, breathless and heartless, Liar's Poker is the original story of hysterical greed and excessive am...