A MAN OF PROPERTY

by Davidyne Saxon Mayleas ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 1983

Overheated dynasty doings: a vast gridlock of hot-air vendettas, clanking characters, and kiddy-car incident. In 1940, William Carson, Chairman of the Board of Carson Company (pharmaceuticals and medical supplies), stages a bare-knuckle prizefight between his massive sons Henry and Francis--who hate one another. (It all started when Francis, who prefers homosexuality, long ago tried to initiate Henry into new thrills.) Henry wins the bloody fight, thereby succeeding William as Chairman and entering a dynastic marriage with poor little Selma Wilkenson, heiress to the company that has a patent on a breakthrough tranquilizer. But William, before getting assassinated, also lures amibitious, intelligent, beautiful secretary Maggie Rhodes into supplying Henry with the sex-life he'll be missing with bride Selma--and, in a wedding-night snit, Maggie (in real love with Henry) sleeps with William's counsel, John Maynard. Voilà! Pregnancies for both Maggie and Selma--with Maggie telling a suspicious Henry that her baby is his. The two babies, then--baby Will and baby Mary--will arrive the same night; Selma dies; and Henry will later spirit the babes away, leaving Selma's mum Evelyn screaming in a rage. . . while Maggie, who's given up Will to be raised as a Carson, sadly wanders to California. What's doing with Francis all this time? Well, after WW II pilot heroism, he gets into drugs and orgies in Rome, eventually coming to California, where Maggie has married politician Tony and is making a killing in real estate. Back in New York Henry weds Caterina, a Maggie look-alike who corrupts stepdaughter Mary (never mind why). And, later, Francis becomes a congressman, attacks Carson Co., and might even become VP--as the usual parentage/ scandal secrets brew and stew. Dumb and dank, even by TV-soap-melodrama standards.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION