Is it worth throwing away your good reputation to help those in need? 'Ruined City' by Nevil Shute is a fictional story of a rich banker (Henry Warren) who sets out to save the destitute town of Sharples. The book is set in 1930's England during the Great Depression and is a story of finding purpose when all meaning is lost. The themes of the book reflect upon what happens to people when they experience real hardship as well as how reputation can actually be used as a transactional tool.

I summarised the book as follows. "It's an uplifting story about one man becoming a hero. The era it describes is dark, dreary and quite sad, but the narration of the main character is rather unemotional (fitting in with his general disposition). I felt the whole story was a bit bland and was sort of like the fantasy of an unimaginative banker. Overall, I probably won't remember this book in 10 years time as nothing really made it pop."

As always, we hope you have a fantastic day wherever you are in the world. Mere Mortals out!

Timeline:
(0:00) - Introduction
(0:10) - Synopsis
(2:16) - The Great Depression: Real hard times
(4:33) - Reputation: Opinions that are context dependent
(6:48) - Personal Observations
(8:03) - Summary

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