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Autor |
Michael Korda
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Tytuł |
WORLDLY GOODS
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Rok wydania |
1983
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Wydawnictwo |
Random House
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Oprawa |
Twarda
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Stan |
Bardzo dobry-
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Liczba stron |
353
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The editor-author of Success! does indeed succeed, efficiency if not brilliantly, at whatever he tries - whether it's a family memoir (Charmed Lives), self-helpers, or this solid, readable, unexciting blend of three reliable bestseller ingredients: glossy wheeler dealing, family-dynasty feuding, and Nazi war-crime secrets. Korda's hero is N.Y.'s Paul Foster, who, circa 1978, is a reclusive, elegant, 50-ish multimillionaire. But Foster has a mysteriously blurred past (he first appeared as a refugee in postwar London) - and a mysterious antipathy for business rivals Matthew and Nicholas Greenwood, billionaire father-and-son conglomerateurs. So, when Foster hears that foul, boozy, Mailer-ish writer Irving Kane is working on a Greenwood-empire expose, he's very much interested: he cultivates Nicholas' longtime, ill-treated mistress Diana (love soon blooms); he tries to buy Kane's publishing house; and - with briskly independent Diana now along for the supremely posh ride - he's off to Europe to keep up with Kane's dangerous inquiries into the Greenwood past. Why all this interest? Well, as is soon made clear in well-orchestrated flashbacks, Foster is (unbeknownst to virtually everyone) old Matthew Greenwood's supposedly-dead nephew; back in 1930s Hungary, they were all well-bred Grunwalds - part-Jewish, boar-hunting Catholic converts with blueblooded in-laws. And when Eichmann's increasing vigor in rounding up Hungarian Jews threatened even the cozy Grunwald relationship with Goring (they supplied the Reich with uranium for A-bomb plans), Uncle Matthew betrayed brother/partner Steven, tried to seduce aristocratic sister-in-law Betsy, escaped to Switzerland with son Nicholas and the family fortune .
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