The
idea to convert Bernard Madoff, the man who had committed the biggest
economic swindle in the history, into a fictional figure in a film or
book is just a matter of time. The guy had cheated thousands of clients
out of 65,000 million dollars making him the most outrageous and daring
thief. He was caught in December 2008 and put under house arrest but, on
the 12th of March he admitted all the charges and was put in jail.
The
surprise being that Woody Allen was the first one to use this material
for entertainment purpose. Not only is he an acclaimed film maker,
script writer, director and actor, he is also an excellent writer of
humorous stories. In an issue of the well known magazine 'The New
Yorker', his literary home since the 60's, Allen published a story in
which the victims of the financial fraud carry out revenge against
Madoff in the most ingenious and unexpected way.
"Abe
Moscowitz died of a heart attack and reincarnated into an lobster' so
begins the story titled 'Tails of Manhattan'. No, it's not my typing
mistake; it's 'Tails', his word-play obviously.
One
such Moscowitz ends up in a fish tank of a seafood restaurant of the
Upper East Side of Manhattan, and there he meets up with Moe Silverman,
an old acquaintance. They had both been swindled by Madoff and both
reincarnated into lobsters.
"At
first he told me there's no room for a new investor. But the more he
refused to take me on, the more I wished to join in." said Silverman,
who killed himself when he discovered that he was one of
the victims of the huge fraud.
One
day Madoff defied the rules of his house arrest and appeared in the
restaurant where the lobsters spend their hours philosophizing. What's
more, he ordered lobsters and chose the two of them. "He cheated me out
of my whole life's savings and now he wants to eat me with butter sauce!
What kind of universe is this?" cried Mos.
The unravelling
is very interesting and could serve to compensate, although it's just
fiction, the victims of Madoff, headman of the Jewish community who, for
years, lied and cheated everybody, including even victims of the
Holocaust.
One
little paragraph really tickled me. Silverman was telling Mos: "When I
knew I was totally ruined, I wanted to kill myself by jumping from the
roof of our Golf Club of Palm Beach (frequented by many victims of the
Fraud). I had to wait half an hour before I could jump as I was number
12 in the queue."
Current Mood: 
Amused
Artistic