Maureen Sherry was an investment banker on Wall Street. A very accomplished one. A managing director, in fact. Opening Belle is not a true story, but her description of how women are treated on the trading floor is factual.

That creates a bit of a problem, though. Even though the story is real – not true, but real – it is unrealistic. That is, it’s very hard to believe. I accept that this really is how it is for these women, but as a story, I don’t buy it. See, this is a major difference between fiction and nonfiction. Nonfiction doesn’t have to make sense, it doesn’t have to be believable; it simply is. But a novel does have to be believable.

What is so unbelievable is how much the odds are stacked against women traders and how sexually harassed they are, all the time. It’s horrible and there is absolutely no justification for it, except that not enough banks have been sued for it that they see any reason to change the environment. When bankers sign on with a bank, they often have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so they can’t talk about the conditions they endure. Those that are sued for sexual harassment usually settle out of court, and those multi-million dollar settlements definitely include a non-disclosure clause. This is why this phenomenon is hardly known of outside the industry.

Okay, Belle is a managing director at a major bank. She works 70-hour weeks, meaning she gets very little time with her husband and family, in a stunning bit of role-reversal. She’ll make promises to her husband and have to break them because a last-minute mandatory meeting is called. And then she has to go out of town for two or three days, starting 7am tomorrow morning.

Belle’s salary is $500,000, but she gets bonuses of several million each year, and that goes up every year. So, why is it that if she quit or gets laid off, she’ll be in trouble financially? I have a problem with that. I understand this is not an uncommon belief to people at that level, but I don’t understand why when you’re making millions of dollars a year, you can’t put some of that away. I think there is a perspective problem. And if you’ve got a house in the Hamptons, I don’t think you get to cry poverty.

Belle’s husband spends like crazy, but doesn’t bring any money in. And he’s not quite a stay-at-home dad either, because they still have to hire a full-time nanny. Clearly, we’re setting the stage for marital strife.

But here’s the thing. Relatively early in the book, Belle’s biggest client offers her a job. This is not a bank, the environment would be much different, and she would be working for someone who appreciated her. But she says she’s happy where she is! Why? Why not take that job?

Meanwhile, she eventually learns that her husband is having an affair. But really, is that so surprising? What did she expect? Of course, she is furious and they do separate, but she doesn’t seem to get that she had any responsibility for it.

The book is well written, except for the story line flaws I’ve mentioned. And I think it’s an important book, I think we need to know this is going in at the huge banks. We need to raise the roof about it and get it stopped. But I can’t honestly say I liked the book that much.