The Predators [Audio Cassette]

Harold Robbins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Combining in one novel the finest attributes of "A Stone for Danny Fisher" and "The Carpetbaggers", Robbins' new novel takes readers on a wild odyssey through the gaudy and reckless life of Jerry Cooper: His struggles to survive in depression-era New York; his years in Europe during World War II; his friends and lovers; his life in organized crime; and his entrance into the world of high-powered international business.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

There's nothing new or surprising in this posthumously published novel by a grand master of sexy pop fiction. Reading like a 13-year-old boy's ultimate fantasy, the novel tells the story of Jerry Cooper, a scrappy Jewish kid who fights his way up and out of his lower-class background and New York's infamous Hell's Kitchen and into the world of super-rich Paris jet-setters. The story follows Jerry as he fends off advances from dozens of women who are mad for him (and can't keep their hands to themselves); uses his tough-guy street smarts to outsmart the Mafia; does a stint in the army, where, of course, he takes up with a sex-starved stripper; and has affairs with sundry beautiful nymphomaniacs. This is a fast, easy read bursting with sex, greed, and a dizzying array of terms for male genitalia--a million-dollar formula. Kathleen Hughes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Farewell tour of predatory American business practices by the late Robbins. This differs not a whit in spiritual vacancy from Robbins's earlier works, except that now his sheer storytelling clout rises above dismal bad taste. Opening in the '30s in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, the story circles back to the lower-middle-class settings of Robbins's earliest novels, Never Love a Stranger and A Stone for Danny Fisher (which was set in '30s Chicago), then goes on with a plot that reprises several of his sagas, with many familiar Robbins milieus crammed into one. When high-school senior Jerry Cooper (once Kupferman) is orphaned at 17, his Uncle Harry robs him blind, as does Jerry's 19-year-old lover Kitty, who winds up marrying Uncle Harry while carrying Jerry's child. Uncle Harry, a numbers man who owns a busy soda fountain, hires Jerry to pull sodas after school, which gets him into the carbonated water business (which Uncle Harry also steals from him). Come WWII, Jerry is shipped to France, where he works his way up to master sergeant repairing damaged Jeeps near Paris. He gets into selling them on the black market and also meets Jean Pierre Plescassier, whose family sells Plescassier water (read: Perrier). At war's end, Jerry's knowledge of carbonated water sales in New York leads Jean Pierre to hire him for the introduction of Plescassier water to the States. Then Jerry runs up against the Mafiaand, again, Uncle Harry, who has become a good business friend of Mafia boss Frank Costello. Pages drip with sex, and every story-starved cell gets fed. Goodbye, Harold, and may billions of new readers raise a joyful shout wherever you are. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audio Literature (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078711734X
• ISBN-13: 978-0787117344
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.1 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,366,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This was just awful..., April 21, 1999

By 

Steve ([e-mail]) (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Predators (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read other books by Robbins and the Predators was just awful! Not only was this book pointless, but the ending was SO DISAPPOINTING that I couldn't believe that it got published in the 1st place!!!! The only reason I gave this even 1 star was that the beginning of the book was interesting. Which is why I was so disappointed in the final product...

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books by missed author Harold Robbins, February 5, 2000

By 

Marco Aurelio - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Predators (Hardcover)

When I discovered the books by Harold Robbins I joined a world unlike any other I've seen till then. The world of bussiness, fame, fortune, losing everything, the dealing with the defeat, sex, sex, sex. At first sight, I was mesmerized and shocked with such books. Reading them I learned things I'd never even imagined. And when I started reading THE PREDATORS, I knew the real Harold Robbins. It's a book full of emotions, feelings and the odds of these things. Of course, with more sex than in any other of his books. If you like that kind of books, read this one. THE PREDATORS is the kind of book you should read on a Sunday afternoon, when you have time to enjoy yourself and have nothing much else to do except have fun. Nothing's perfect, and this book is not, 'cause the end lacks a little in criativity. But who cares when all your main reason to read these books is have fun?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Crude Stew of Sex & Money, November 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Predators (Hardcover)

Within the first few pages of Harold Robbins's latest and final novel -- completed shortly before his death -- his hero, Jerry Cooper, has lost both parents in a car wreck and has had a steamy sexual encounter with a girl downstairs.

The Predators keeps up this breathless pace, tracking Cooper from Manhattan, where he works for his uncle, a small-time crook, to Paris during World War II. There, Cooper gets involved with a Corsican gangster who traffics in smuggled cars. Robbins doesn't waste time on niceties of style or subtleties of characterization as he follows Cooper's rise to power and respect-ability.

There's something quaintly old-fashioned about this no-frills potboiler and something distasteful in its tired, one-dimensional takes on homosexuals, African-Americans and endlessly compliant women.