77 - Reading Riot no. 6

Last week's book was a memoir, of sorts. I read The End of Normal, by Stephanie Madoff Mack.
(By the way... did you know that MLA changed their rules for citing novels? No more underlining... just italics. Weird, right? Anyway...)

As you may guess by one of the names of the author, this book is about how Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme of the century ruined the lives of his family. If you don't already know, Bernie Madoff was a Wall Street tycoon who stole billions of dollars from thousands of investors. Basically, he crashed the stock market in 2008. He's now in prison, sentenced to 125 years. His son, Mark Madoff, committed suicide due to the immense pressure and unhappiness caused by his father's actions, and this book is told from the perspective of Mark's wife.


I personally didn't know much about Bernie Madoff, except that he stole a lot of money. The media portrayed him is the Villain of the century, posting crazy pictures of him everywhere.

Obviously, this is photoshopped. Haha. 

I found this book to be very telling, and very heart-breaking. Mack describes Bernie and Ruth Madoff as being loving grandparents and a happy couple. It was so interesting to learn about the man behind the monster, so to speak. Needless to say, it was shocking for their entire family to learn of Bernie's dark side.

However, that isn't the focus of the story. Mark Madoff and his suicide is the culminating event in all of this. Mack tells such a poignant tale of love and loss, especially when conveying how her children felt after the death of their father. I think it was very brave of her to write this book. I can't even imagine how hard writing it must have been, let alone experiencing it. My heart goes out to her and her family; they are still in the midst of the healing process. Honestly, it's something that they will probably never get over completely.

I can't imagine losing my best friend to suicide. Mark was her best friend, her husband. And he honestly thought that killing himself was the best thing for everyone. I also can't imagine what kind of person does what Bernie Madoff did. Mack describes Bernie as being an excellent compartmentalizer, and he must have been in order to hide his criminal life for so long.

If you're looking for some sobering literature, this book will definitely fulfill that need.

Mack put pictures of her previous life in the book, and that was when it truly sunk in to me that these people are real. Mark Madoff was a real person, and he took his own life just last year. It's easy to get swept away in the story and think that they're just characters. I highly recommend this book.

Mark and Stephanie with their daughter, Audrey 

Bernie Madoff, Ruth Madoff, Mark Madoff

Stephanie and Mark on the night they got engaged

Stephanie and Mark with daughter, Audrey, and son, Nicholas