THE SAXON CHARM

by Frederic Wakeman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 9, 1947

Another biography of a business and portrait of a personality, this time the theatre and a ""producer whose greatest production was himself"". As a novel, this has by no means the flash, the facile amusement values of The Hucksters, but does however level some pretty assured satire at a profession and its exponents, manages also a fair amount of extracurricular exploration of sex, alcoholism, psychiatry, the literary- liberal scene. The story, which is weakest, is almost exclusively concerned with Saxon, his easy charm, spoiled, sullen brutality, dynamic eclat. When Saxon centers his all absorbing attention on Busch, a novelist who brings him a first play to produce, it is Busch who is stimulated, corrupted by the Saxon charm, who loses his creative ability as he takes on the Saxon influence, almost loses his wife as he takes up with one of Saxon's discarded mistresses. Only as the Saxon charm-and luck- run out, does Busch come to and reaffirm his own identity... Clever, certainly, but without the shock tactics of The Hucksters, or for that matter the momentum. The market, however, if less extensive, will still derive from that book.

Pub Date: Oct. 9, 1947

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Rinehart

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1947

Categories: FICTION