Brian Cruver was a first-hand witness to the disturbing, surreal and hilarious moments of Enron's long dance with death. When he first entered Enron's office complex, 'the Death Star', he was the epitome of the classic Enron employee: young, brash, obscenely overpaid and sporting a brand-new MBA. From his first day, however, when he was told that some colleagues hadn't really wanted to see him hired, he found himself in the middle of a venal greed machine whose story unfolded with Kafka-esque absurdity and frustration. Anatomy of Greed examines the accounting tricks, the insider stock trades - and in a special section, how the grossly lucrative fraudulent partnerships were structured and funded - as well as everyday life as an Enronian.

Working at Enron meant cocky wheeling and dealing, parties on the trade floor, casual conversations at the shredder and the insidious group- think that made Enron employees unquestioningly accept propaganda spoon-fed to them by Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. A portrait of the author as a young Enronian, Anatomy of Greed reveals the sting of reality, humility and pain felt by a man whose idols turned out to be fools and scoundrels and who learned that there is more to life than stock options.

Young, brash, sporting a shiny new MBA, and obscenely overpaid, Brian Cruver epitomized the Enron employee when he first entered the company's Houston office; and from day one he found himself a cog in the wheel of a venal greed machine. For the next nine months, he would witness firsthand the now-infamous corporate tragedy that he relates in these ruthlessly honest, often hilarious, and frequently disturbing pages. Here are the accounting tricks, insider stock trades, grossly lucrative fraudulent partnerships, and death dance to bankruptcy. Equally revealing, though, are Cruver's descriptions of everyday life at Enron: the cocky wheeling and dealing, intraoffice relationships, casual conversations at the shredder, and the insidious group-think that committed Enronians to the propaganda of flawed executives like Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Andy Fastow. Out of their wreckage, Cruver has fashioned an arresting and cautionary morality tale for our time. Anatomy of Greed was the basis for the CBS-TV movie The Crooked E: a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the last days in the strange life of one of the world's richest, riskiest, and most corrupt corporations. Eight pages of telling photographs are included.