Overview
The Predators combines in one novel the finest attributes of A Stone for Danny Fisher and The Carpetbaggers. It will take you 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 the Second World War, his friends, his lovers, his life in organized crime, and his entrance into the world of high-powered international business. The Predators is the defining work of Harold Robbins's spectacular career.
Synopsis
The Predators combines in one novel the finest attributes of A Stone for Danny Fisher and The Carpetbaggers. It will take you 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 the Second World War, his friends, his lovers, his life in organized crime, and his entrance into the world of high-powered international business. The Predators is the defining work of Harold Robbins's spectacular career.
People - Francine Prose
. . .[K]eeps up [a] breathless pace. . . .Robbins doesn't waste time on niceties of style or subtleties of characterization. . .There's something quaintly old-fashioned about this no-frills potboiler . . .
Editorials
Francine Prose
. . .[K]eeps up [a] breathless pace. . . .Robbins doesn't waste time on niceties of style or subtleties of characterization. . .There's something quaintly old-fashioned about this no-frills potboiler . . .— People
Francine Prose
. . .[K]eeps up [a] breathless pace. . . .Robbins doesn't waste time on niceties of style or subtleties of characterization. . .There's something quaintly old-fashioned about this no-frills potboiler . . . -- PeopleKirkus 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 Mafia and, 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.