The Carpetbaggers

Rating:
Summary: It may be classic trash . . .
Review: . . . but it's still trash. I would have enjoyed the book more, because I have to admit, Robbins is a great story teller, but it seemed to be the same thing over and over again--business deal, gratuitous sex scene, business deal, gratuitous sex scene. The Max Sand/Nevada Smith story line, at least, was different, but westerns aren't my genre. It's a good enough book for what it sets out to do (on that score, I'd give it four stars), but in the end, it was all just too repetitive. Guess I'm getting a little more highbrow in my old age!

Rating:
Summary: 100,000,000 People Can't Be Wrong
Review: Forty years later and this novel is still a MUST READ! However. I wish that Harold had taken this book and split it into two. Although Hollywood failed to capture the magic when they separated the tales, the books could've been sequels--- going from Max Sands' boyhood story to Jonas Cord Jr.'s boyhood story and then the sequel would pick up when Jonas Sr. dies and we're off to the skies of Hollywood. But great literature always leaves you wanting more. The characters are veiled reproductions to be sure . . . Howard Hughes, Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe . . . but unlike in Carter Beats the Devil--- that does the same thing by re-writing Houdini--- Robbins makes his characters and plot interesting enough that you forgive him for copy catting. This is a fascinating story told by a master storyteller who's own life story would certainly make a great book. If you're ready for a fresh perspective on Hollywood of old---filled with the scintilating erotica that Harold Robbins got us hooked on--- check out Olde Hollywood by Thorne Peters who not only picks up where Robbins leaves off, but keeps on going to find his own tawdry realm.

Rating:
Summary: The Zenith Of A "Writing Machine" Author's Career.
Review: Harold Robbins has written numerous books, almost too many to count. If one follows his career cronologically, beginning with a Stone For Danny Fischer and ending with the posthumously 'subsititute author' written Sin City, one can almost trace Robbins' improving talent/success leading to his increasingly heavy drug use and finally see the work suffer as he cranked out bools faster and faster to keep up on his income tax back-payments. The Carpetbaggers was written at the point in the man's life just after he hit his true stride as an author and just before his cocaine madness sabotaged his work.

If you've never read a Harold Robbins book, do yourself a favor and read The Carpetbaggers first. Even though the racey passages seem campy now, the story is just as good as it was in the early 1960's when the book was first released.

Rating:
Summary: The Zenith Of A "Writing Machine" Author's Career.
Review: Harold Robbins has written numerous books, almost too many to count. If one follows his career cronologically, beginning with a Stone For Danny Fischer and ending with the posthumously 'subsititute author' written Sin City, one can almost trace Robbins' improving talent/success leading to his increasingly heavy drug use and finally see the work suffer as he cranked out bools faster and faster to keep up on his income tax back-payments. The Carpetbaggers was written at the point in the man's life just after he hit his true stride as an author and just before his cocaine madness sabotaged his work.

If you've never read a Harold Robbins book, do yourself a favor and read The Carpetbaggers first. Even though the racey passages seem campy now, the story is just as good as it was in the early 1960's when the book was first released.

Rating:
Summary: Robbins at his best
Review: Harold Robbins, love him or hate him you cannot deny that he was a master storyteller. While The Carpetbaggers may not be great literature it is a great read. This book along with Puzo's The Godfather are great examples of the American power story.

The book gives us a twenty year glimpse into the life of Jonas Cord. Cord turns everything he touches into money while his own life is falling apart. The interesting thing about this novel is not really the story it tells but the way in which the story is told.

Told through the lives of the people Cord comes into contact with, Robbins gives us enough material for five novels let alone one. Here we have the history of the early twentieth century through the lives of a ex-gunfighter, a Hollywood actress, a movie company executive, and the proverbial prostitute with the heart of gold.

Robbins research into his time period was exhaustive and his storytelling ability is flawless. If there is a problem with the novel it is that it tends to go a little too deep for a little too long. No one character can be so much a part of the times that he is involved in so many historical events.

Part of the fun of any novel of this type is discovering who the major characters were based on. Cord is a clear pictue of Howard Hughes while Rina Marlow seems to be loosely based on Jean Harlow.

The reader needs to become immersed in this novel. One does not so much as read it but lives the lives of these characters if only for a little while. You let this one take you away and you embark on one hell of a ride.

Pop fiction like this is like candy. It does not stimulate great or exciting thought but it sure is fun. Isn't that the reason for reading in the first place?

Rating:
Summary: Not my typical brand of trash, but I liked it
Review: I first saw the movie The Carpetbaggers on late-late-night TV about 20 years ago. It obviously had some sort of effect on my youthful yet demented brain 'cause I've always remembered the movie as being "pretty good", but I was never able to remember its title. I certainly had no idea at the time that it was based on a Harold Robbins novel.

I recently managed to find the movie again, and it was as good as I remembered. Figuring the book must be OK (despite its being written by someone infamous in "literaruary circles" for writing trash) I gave it a shot.

The movie's better. A lot of the setups in the book are simply obvious excuses for hinting at trashy sex scenes (we are fortunate enough to be spared explicit descriptions in most cases...); I also wasn't real thrilled with periodically jumping into the other character's lives, tho I found the story of Jonas Cord fascinating. A lot of the scenes were probably pretty racy for the time (hints at a lesbian relationship, for example) but it's rather wimpy stuff these days.

Given that it definitely doesn't fall into the usual genre of books I read, it's surprisingly good. (I'm usually into either obscure French impressionist novelists of the late 19th century or books with lines like "Bart, don't use the touch of death on your sister." ) Robbins is a very good storyteller, and it comes through clearly.

If you can make it through the sadly desperate attempts to work sex into what is otherwise a good story, it's a good read. I'm even tempted to try some other Robbins' books in the off-chance they're more readable than I've been led to believe all these years...

Rating:
Summary: The best of Robbins's books.
Review: If you're not a Robbins reader this would be a great place to start. It's pure entertainment, with a page-flipping pace and an excellent story. This was a monster bestseller in the early 1960s and you'll see why after Robbins hooks you on page one. Tremendous fun in the vein of Sheldon's "Master of the Game" or Archer's "Kane and Abel," but there's a lot more sex, violence and language in this one. Guaranteed to please.

Rating:
Summary: an evergreen rhapsody
Review: No doubt, one of the greatest books writen in this century. Every man and woman in this world have a Jonas Cord and a Rina Marlowe somewhere in them. Jonas Cord, a legend in pulp-fiction, has become an epitome of ruthlessness, shrewdness and extreme romaticism. The other characters like Nevada Smith and Jenny Denton reflect the various perspectives in the life of every man and woman. From the gripping beginning to the extraordinary ending Mr.Robbins has made and attempt to touch the souls of all the readers across the globe Mr.Robbins you will be remembered forever for giving us Jonas Cord

Rating:
Summary: The classics get better with age
Review: Until I read Hollywoodland Kingpin, I thought this was the most profane book of them all and my favorite. The Jonas Cord/ Howard Hughes character is one we grudgingly respect because their accomplishments are so vast. The multi-stories that merge weave an exciting tapestry and must have been difficult to put together even for the talented Mr. Robbins--- Hollywood Babylon meets Zane Gray. It is too bad that none of the several movies that have been extrapolated from this book have ever captured the glory that was written. This is a book that sooner or later everyone should read. It represents the change in the literary paradigm that has given the paperback world its direction for the last 40 years.