A student of mine called another of North Carolina author David Payne's  David Payne books his favorite of all time, so I had to read his work. I researched this author and found he'd written five books to-date, so I ordered all five and am savoring my way through them as we speak.

I began with a used edition of Confessions of a Taoist of Wall Street (get it Tao of the Dow?) and found it to be a laugh-out-loud-alone-in-the-middle-of-the-night funny book. While this is a first work and about 100 pages longer than it needs to be, it was a fantastic book, and well worth the effort of finding out-of-print from a used bookseller.

Best of all, Payne has improved with time, and each of his books is full of wonderful, colorful, and sometimes gritty language that cuts-to-the-chase and puts you right in the place he wants you.

I love this author and can't wait for him to write more and more. He is a gem destined for literary greatness.

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“Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street” fits squarely into the category of a sweeping epic. It follows Sun I on his journey from a remote Taoist monastery in China, landward across Asia, through a wandering ocean journey as a sailor and finally to his destination at the Stock Exchange in New York. All in a quest to find the “delta” of Tao and the Dow.

I won’t dance around it. This is a very long book and not an easy read. David Payne is my favourite author so I hung in there with it. “Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street” was his first novel – an ambitious work that won a major literary award and established his reputation as a preeminent novelist. Quite honestly, however, I think his later works are better because he learned to reign in his tremendous gift with language and dole it out in digestible bits.

That being said, it is worth staying with “Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street” – for the incredible arc his hero traverses, for the moments when he makes language dazzle and for the pointed social commentary.

If you like to really sink your teeth into a novel, “Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street” is worth the challenge. It’s out of print now but you can buy second hand copies as I did.

This is probably one of the most long-winded novels I've ever read, and could have been about 200 pages shorter. Still, I found myself wrapped up in the story of Sun I's journey from the Tao to the Dow, and Payne twists what would have been a really bad pun into the prominent philosophical ground of this novel, really truly examining the relationship between religion and the marketplace.

At times overwrought in its themes and prose (Payne lays out the symbolism and metaphors himself rather than letting the reader interpret it i.e. the Don Delillo problem), it's still an enjoyable ride through what would be the relatively mundane life of a character. Recommended if you have the time and space to read it.

The title alone is what made me buy this book. Read it years ago. The premise was intriguing -- the relationship between Eastern religion and Wall Street. I found it difficult to plod through the story. In the end the book didn't live up to its promise.

It took me a long time to get through this book. It is a sad book in a way, but beautiful. It's a story about a bastard son of an American soldier in China during the Second World War. He is raised by Taoist monks. When he turns 21 he embarks for the United States in search of his father. This search brings him to the pinacle of the world and then even more swiftly drops him back to his starting point.

Beautifully written philosophical challenge arising from the pun Tao on Dow. A top 10 book, and truly a book to be read before one dies.

A strange and wonderful book. About a seeker of truth who's journey's lead him to study not only the Dow (Jones), but the Tao.

Great book marrying Wall Street and Eastern religion. Ending was a bit bizarre.

I just could not get into this book. It just wasn't that engaging. . . . And I'm both a Taoist and a finance freak.

I read it a long time ago, one of these books you cannot put away and you read the whole day long because you want to know what's next.

Best book I read in 2024. So great for so many reasons, a true masterpiece. I found it in a little free library and I’m so glad I did.

Only note from me is that it got long winded in the Wall Street lingo portions for me. Other than that - this thing is absolute art. It’s a true odyssey.