Geoffrey Cain’s “Samsung Rising” reads like a dynastic thriller, rolling through three generations of family intrigue, embezzlement, bribery, corruption, prostitution and other bad behavior that seems to pass for standard operating procedure in the Korean business world. More than half of the country’s 10 largest corporate groups, Mr. Cain tells us, are led by convicted criminals, although all of them have received presidential pardons, and several of them, including Samsung’s current chairman, Lee Kun-hee, have been pardoned twice.
