My Bags Are Big by Tibor Fischer review how to make it in crypto

"Dan is a sleazy, irreverent raconteur who revels in off-key, sardonic hyperbole, whether exalting the Emirati criminal justice system (What have human rights actually done for you? Lately?) or channelling the can-do rhetoric of self-help (sitting on your backside, waiting for the lobster thermidor to fly into your mouth, doesn't get you very far)."

"His adopted city, he tells us, is a cross between Las Vegas, an airport departure lounge and a pirate bay, and a magnet for low-status westerners looking to reinvent themselves: Ass masseurs at second division football clubs. Taxi drivers. Linen porters. Nail technicians. Dog groomers. Life coaches. They're all through the pearly gates, here in Dubai."

"The bags of the title are a slang term for a cryptocurrency wallet. He's done well for himself though it didn't happen overnight. Get rich quick? It was very much a get slightly comfortable slowly deal."

Tibor Fischer's novel follows Dan, an aging crypto investor living in Dubai who drives a vintage Citroen and wears a 1970s Mickey Mouse watch. Having achieved modest financial success through cryptocurrency, Dan represents the old-school digital currency enthusiast. He describes Dubai as a hybrid of Las Vegas, an airport lounge, and a pirate bay—a destination for reinventing Westerners seeking new identities. Dan's narrative spans his life from Catford to Dubai, including a failed sports management career, a doomed relationship with a quantum physicist, and surreal encounters with David Bowie. The novel features amusing eccentric characters and a thin plot involving expat wheeler-dealers, but the driving force is Dan's irreverent, sardonic narrative voice that employs hyperbolic humor throughout.

Read at www.theguardian.com