The Bernie Madoff scandal is still being felt by his victims. The End of Normal is Stephanie Mack’s take on what happened behind those walls. It is also a glimpse into her personal life and her perspective on the family.
Stephanie Madoff Mack was married to one of Bernie Madoff’s sons, Mark. Mark Madoff worked with his father and had some of his own investments in the company. While his wife does deny that Mark had any knowledge of his father’s scheme, critics do find that defense a little hard to believe. Unfortunately, the pressures of the scandal and dealing with family took their toll and he committed suicide.
For Stephanie, that meant a huge change in her life. She had two kids to take care of and no more unlimited credit cards. It meant making major changes that including changing her last name to distance herself and her children from the stigma of Bernie Madoff and going through the grief of losing a loved one basically on her own.
My biggest issue with this book is that it comes off as a bit selfish. In a sense, it is hard to sympathize with someone who reaped the rewards of a perpetrated fraud. While the fact that she didn’t know about the scheme remains plausible, there is still an element of “she got what she deserved” with the loss of the fortune.
However, one can feel her pain at the events surrounding her husband’s suicide. That part of the book is certainly something that can be related to. At this point in the book, her actions are mostly understandable — with the exception of refusing to allow Ruth, Mark’s mother, to attend the funeral. It is here that you get the idea she is trying to regain some sort of control.
This book is a sad reminder that one person’s actions can affect the entire family. However, the book does tend to reveal actions that could easily be called selfish and a little arrogant. It is these tones that tend to turn readers off.
If you are interested in finding out a family member’s point of view before, during and after the scandal, then this book definitely offers some insight. Pick this book up at the library or borrow it. It is not likely something you will want to keep long term on the shelves, or waste valuable memory space on.
