If you are familiar with Somerset Maugham, then you'll recognize Razor's Edge as one of his best books. I like his perspective, as he writes this in the first person as himself, which is a very unique style. Read this book, and then get the movie with Bill Murray. Murray doesn't quite capture the character of the person he portrays, but the movie is still very good. The book fills in a lot of the details a movie has to leave out.