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Sheldon's best work, this depicts five generations of one family from poverty to unbelievable wealth. This is lurid trash but it's enjoyable lurid trash. The book is divided into 3 segments as it spans over a century.
JAMIE
The weakest segment. Jamie a poor young man goes to South Africa to make his fortune only to encounter lies, betrayal and nearly dies a gruesome death. But he lives and uses his rage to make his fortune by stealing it. Jamie is a deeply unpleasant man. He abuses and humiliates the woman who loves him. After the murder of his son, his daughter Kate is the new heir to the fortune. Jamie's long-suffering wife gets tender loving revenge on her husband in the end.
KATE
A slight improvement. Kate has a will of iron and uses it to expand her empire and get the man she loves. She has a son David and manipulates him his whole life. Destroying his dream of being an artist and conniving which woman he'll marry. Eventually she causes the death of her daughter-in-law and David goes mad but Kate can't see what she did wrong. Kate is left to bring up her twin granddaughters.
EVE AND ALEXANDRA
The best part of the novel. The twin heiresses are loved and adored and Kate is deciding which one to leave her empire to (their father is locked up in a loony bin for life). Alexandra is sweet and nice but Eve is a sociopath demonstrated when at the age of 5 she sets Alexandra on fire in a murder attempt. They grow up and Kate disinherits Eve after discovering that Eve is a manipulative liar. The enraged Eve concocts an elaborate deadly plan of revenge only for it to backfire in an utterly horrific manner. Kate now nearly 100 starts manipulating Robert, Alexandra's son.
Lurid stuff written in robot fashion, the characters are cardboard stereotypes but it is certainly readable. The fates of Jamie and Eve are Greek Tragedy like in their nastiness. The first two segments are weak but the last one more than makes up for it.
This is good trash but not quite on the level of such 80's classics as 'Lace', 'Savages', 'Lace 2' or 'Glitterbaby'.
P-Con VI March 27th/28th/29th 2009
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