Nothing but a Circus: Misadventures among the Powerful Hardcover – 26 Jan. 2017

I liked this book but gave it three stars because having worked in similar initiatives as the author I wasn't surprised by the idiotic situations and people he encounters I wonder if those without experience in this realm can appreciate the absurdities the author documents. I was surprised at the patience and indulgence he demonstrates to the chuckle-heads he encounters. His idealism continually drives him, but I would also have liked to hear about the successes of the model he alludes to, as there seemed to be a high degree of interest at top levels in various countries. Surely there are shining examples of success but perhaps the author feels these are not as lively in recounting. The reconstructed dialogue is polished and adds considerably to what would otherwise be highly entertaining drinking stories. I'm sure Levin has a few of those, too, as I can't imagine he's exhausted his subject. An amusing light read, with a novelist's deft touch in letting the characters, good and bad, speak for themselves.

It was a great adventure to read a very different books from a real "Insider". The reader gets to know a different side with regards to diplomats and political leaders. The book is a real "page turner" and a source of Information of the real deals behind the secene. The author is a truly unique real life character and presents his experience is a sourounding which is in most cases a no-go-area for "normal" people. In short, the authort provides the reader with a peek into negotiations tables of usually hidden back rooms.

This is a rather strange book. The author, a US lawyer, seems to have had involvement in privatisation programmes in various developing economies, and specialises in developing financial skills for such countries. He relates stories of some of his experiences over an unspecified number of years which he uses to demonstrate the venal, untrustworthy, sometimes stupid, sometimes incompetent, usually self-serving mentalities of those he comes across, whether senior politicians, civil servants, aid agency staff or businessmen.Some of the stories are amusing - the American presenting at a conference in Angola talking about systemic risk in the payments process which concentrates on risks that are irrelevant to a cash-based economy like that in Angola, and which is delivered in English, without a translator to a largely Portuguese-speaking audience says much about the failure to really understand the differences between nations & the needs of the developing world and displays a cultural condescension that is disturbing. The story of the Chinese officials demanding that the finance minster of an African country should miss a regular World Bank/IMF meeting in favour of meeting a Chinese commercial delegation is hilarious in its details, if not for what it demonstrates. Perhaps more worrying were the US officials whose knowledge of the world outside US shores is so poor that they think China might help them out in something of no benefit to China without some quid pro quo from the US in an area of Chinese interest. One US official even intimates that the State Department will help out US companies with commercial strategies and that the 'fee' might be a sizeable donation to a favoured charity or the US Secretary's own family foundation.The problem for me, was that none of this was at all surprising - that there are incompetent US politicians and officials who only view world affairs through the prism of US domestic life and experience; that international institutions are often corrupt, incompetent or self-serving or all three; that corruption happens in many ways all across the world; that 'players' are often out for themselves; that narcissism, megalomania & duplicity are commonplace in business and politics. The greatest surprise to me was that a well-educated lawyer like the author should not have seen some of this coming - his gullibility and seeming inability to ask questions first is astonishing. In his acknowledgements he mentions that his family have doubts that publishing the book will be good for his career - I know what they mean: on the basis of the book I wouldn't engage him to advise on politics & international affairs! His naiveté is shocking even if some of the events he narrates took place some time ago and I hope he learned from the experiences (I have my doubts, though).Overall then, the book does not live up to the claim on the front cover that it is a "brilliant observation on the anthropology of power". What we are left with is just a string of anecdotes which are unsurprising given the world in which the author plies his trade and which say as much about him as about the people/events he is describing.I received a free digital copy for review via NetGalley.

Very satisfied

I sometimes move in the circles described in this book and was looking forward to seeing their multiple idiocies effectively skewered, as promised by the reviews. Sadly this hope was not fulfilled. This is a bad book that probably would not have got published, had the author not had powerful friends in publishing. It is poorly written, not just in a "first book" sort of way but in a "avoiding cliches and forming interesting sentences" sort of way.The stories told are badly told and humourless: the only value they could have, which would be journalistic, is undercut by (so far as I can tell with a bit of online research) every single name being changed. So any potential interest in discovering the bad behaviour of specific figures in Washington, Beijing etc is removed by the made up characters, who, to add to the problem, are poorly characterised. As a result the text reads like the clumsy first draft of a novel by someone who does not know how to write, tell a story, structure a narrative or hold interest from paragraph to paragraph.Although very short the book is hard to read. I see others could not finish it, I only went on to the end in the hope it would eventually either get better or pay off, neither of which happened.All in all, I am surprised that none of the other people on here who didn't like it marked it as low as I do: I suppose that as Amazon does not provide the option for a zero rating, one might reserve one star for actually malign and destructive books (there is one such among the books I have reviewed) and give two stars for the fact that, although pointless, the book is in paragraphs and not actually offensive. I feel a need to save people like me from being fooled into wasting their time/money so one star it is.

Daniel Levin prefaced the book with a warning that all the stories are true. It verges on truly shocking and disbelief that the events as described could be an actually true. His writing is excellent and really draws one into the story.Can't recommend his book enough. My personal hook centered on Levin's ability to describe the hypocrisy of the human condition by a flawlessly putting the reader in his own shoes. It feels like you're actually there with him.

It was interesting to read but a rather short book. If it was longer, it would have been a book worth a high five!

After reading this very entertaining and thought-provoking work in one day, the question that comes to mind is not why there are people who think they can get away with "it," rather why do their futile efforts to convince a "good" person to go along with their "scheme" not result in a "thanks for waking me up" when Daniel relates how he confronted these idiots. Having worked for some of the organizations whose functioning Daniel describes so eloquently, "Nothing but a Circus" answers practically every question I have had since those days.His writing style gave me the distinct impression I was right there with him at every meeting and encounter, thinking with him about his every move and response to the umpteenth ridiculous proposition. Equally so, it is utterly refreshing to read that there are others out there who have everything in the right place, who care about outcomes, process and people. His account of the market in Angola and the locals' solution to the corruption that short selling introduces into the marketplace is striking and worth the read many times over.I have found myself in a few situations like Daniel describes thinking why did I fall for this? How did I not see this coming? It's hard not to think about the emotional toll that feeling like a fool can have on a person but it's happened to myself so I know what he is referring to. These kinds of experiences must be there for a reason if only because otherwise we wouldn't know to which lengths conmen will go. One of his comments says it all when he ponders how much fleeting entertainment value he expects to get out of a seemingly pointless meeting.Very insightful and highly recommended. I can't wait for a sequel.

It is rare to find non-fiction that compulsively drives a reader to turn each successive page. The stories recounted in Mr. Levin’s book are fascinating and often cringe worthy. They tell of the twin dangers of power and entitlement and how these can corrupt and sully even the strongest of principles and even more importantly, the tightest of personal bonds. For me, this is the true lesson of Mr. Levin’s book; the idea that character matters. Integrity and personal responsibility become the only bulwark against the myriad temptations that pile up as individuals ascend into more rarified circles.While Mr. Levin’s book reads like a rogue’s gallery of the distasteful, it is his humility when encountering truly impressive people that struck me as noteworthy. Any cynical commentator can attack the powerful, but it takes a wiser eye to find the quality among the swine. Even then, the author understands that there are rarely true heroes or villains and anyone who navigates the halls of power must accept compromises of many sorts. This is the reality of trying to effect change within complex systems populated by actors with different motivations, goals and time frames. Perhaps for this reason alone is why I have great regard for Mr. Levin. Unlike all the armchair pundits, Internet trolls and Facebook activists, he has actually gotten involved, taken risks and tried to make a difference.I encourage everyone to read his book and hopefully it will take some of the shine off the rich, the powerful, and the self-important who seem to receive an oversized allocation of esteem and attention. It may even encourage a few readers to take the time to learn about the complex issues highlighted in Mr. Levin’s book. A more informed public may not lead to more informed leaders and better policy, but it’s certainly a good start.

This book reminds me of private detective serials on TV. In every episode the detective does something for someone he knows, or someone related to someone he knows. None of these clients are ever able to pay him. One wonders how is firm actually makes money. Mr. Levin is a lawyer and in his own (with partners) successful firm whose business has something to do with educating political and economic elites, perhaps helping to draft legislation, and consulting about finance at the corporate or national level. The reader is never quite told for what Mr. Levin has actually been paid. But then this is not the author's purpose. Rather it is to tell tales of those adventures for which he was never paid, those adventures in which he has been stiffed by the elite (or those who work directly for them) of the world's nations and companies.The book is a series of vignettes beginning with a few outright cons, and then settling into various forms of economic and political corruption to which the author connected, usually by friends, on misleading pretenses, ending up with nothing to show for it but lost time and what must be considerable expense having traveled to exotic locations all over the world, stayed four-star hotels, and often stiffed for meals and drinks by the very people who asked that he travel (on his own dime) to those very places! Not only does the inanity of the self-serving and self-entitled elite get an airing, but sadly the behavior of friends who are quick to turn around and betray friendship when they realize he is not going to do what they want!Mr. Levin writes well. The stories are a sad testament to the human condition but they are told well, humorously, and do not get bogged down in details. I applaud Mr. Levin for telling these tales and for that matter having them to tell, but there was not one real surprise in there for me (likely why I am a cynic). What has happened in every case to the author has happened to me at one stage or another of my life, though in my case at a vastly smaller economic scale. Mr. Levin traveled to a lot of interesting places, ate some fine food, and drank some fine wine. Yes it was mostly at his expense, but that he had this money to spend says something about the clients who did pay him!

I thoroughly enjoyed this brave and thought provoking look into the darker side of several of the world's most influential players. I applaud the writer's ability to convey these encounters with relatable clarity and insight.His misadventures with Russia gave me pause, especially in light of the current political climate in the US. The writer's firsthand account of the Russian government's behavior and mindset should be a filter in which we should use when digesting any information about their global intentions and influence.Highly recommend!

No question, this book is well written, often humorous, and, I confess, appeals to my cynical side. It also raises a whole series of questions about the author that remain unanswered. The first and perhaps most important: How is it possible for the author to be such a bad judge of people? He has a wide variety of business associates from various nations, some of whom he has known for many years, who either set up meetings for him with highly dubious people or who, over time, proved highly dubious themselves. Then there is the question of dialog. Did the author secretly record conversations? Take notes on them? Remember them to the best of his recollection? He never says. Finally, it would have been useful to have some sense of exactly what services the author performed as an international lawyer and in which nations he did his business. He says he had a great interest in helping African nations, but evidently he had a reputation as an expert on China. The book mentions one educational scheme, initially aimed at Africa, that he tried (and failed) to implement. It would have been helpful to learn at least something about a success or two.

Levin’s book was an amazing interesting read, but he seems to be exceptionally trusting in strangers. Who takes a trip to meet Dubai’s ruler without doing due diligence on the people who invited you and the people you expect to meet?

one wonders where the "powerful" were...mostly a story about low level grifters and con men

Enjoyed reading this book. It made me angry at the level of ignorance and self serving people in the halls of power????? and laughing at the same thing at just how idiotic they can be.

This book was a very interesting light read. I don't know that I would pay for it,but it was ok

The author was so focused on NOT giving away identities or places that I found the book vague and unsatisfying. Listened to an interview of the author but book did not meet the hype.

Entertaining, unpredictable, true....

This book has been used before

Most interesting and entertaining reading.