In addition to his own briefly told money story, Mr. Koppel interviews a couple dozen people about their attitudes toward and relationship with money. He asks about their earliest memories of money, how it was treated in their families while they were growing up, and about their current attempts to put money in its proper place in their lives. The interview subjects inhabit a wide range of occupations. They are universally intelligent and honest about a subject not often discussed in public. They range from successful financial markets traders to a judge to an office manager to an art historian to a professional gambler.
Some themes emerge from the interviews.
There is a yearning for simpler lives. Most of the interviewees are not young people just starting out, so they have a sense of perspective about money and note that it doesn't have the power for happiness they may have falsely ascribed to it when they were younger. Read separately or together, the interviews and Mr. Koppel's conclusions offer interesting insights into the role of money in people's lives. Yet probably more marriages break up because of disagreements about money than any other reason. The book is kept interesting by the use of case studies, often married couples in different stages of life.