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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Robbins at his best,
By
This review is from: The CARPETBAGGERS (Mass Market Paperback)
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?
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
an evergreen rhapsody,
By kartik matmari (Hyderabad, India) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The CARPETBAGGERS (Mass Market Paperback)
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
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The classics get better with age,
By Rina Jenkins (Evergreen, CO) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The CARPETBAGGERS (Mass Market Paperback)
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.
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