The Contrarian review - inside the strange world of PayPal founder Peter Thiel

Max Chafkin's thorough study of the tech titan reveals a man with his eye on the main chance, rather than a visionary

This is a book about the aphrodisiac effect of wealth and in particular about the reality distortion field that surrounds people who possess it. Peter Thiel is such a person and the strength of the field that surrounds him is so intense that it is difficult to believe anything that anyone writes about him.

So you approach journalist Max Chafkin's book with a degree of scepticism. Has he succeeded in penetrating the hype of the Thielverse" and drilled down to the heart of the riddle wrapped around an enigma that is Thiel? The answer is: perhaps. And if he has succeeded, then the conclusion is that Thiel is nothing like as interesting as the media (and the political world) seem to think. He's just a very rich and very strange human being.