CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS

by Taylor Caldwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 1972

On the very recognizable face of it, this should be as popular a book as any Taylor Caldwell has written in spite of the claimers and disclaimers of the dedication (""to the young people of America"" in the hope of their putative enlightenment?!?) which goes on to say that the backgrounds are real and all else her own ""invention."" But how is one to read a story of another not so good old Joe, self-made in working lad America, who determines that his son Rory will be the first Catholic president of America in spite of the very apparent ""curse on this family"" (one daughter's dreadful accident; another son's heroic death during the war) which indeed is fulfilled when Rory is assassinated on his way to his father's goal. As ""invention?"" While right beside Rory there's a wife murmuring ""It is time for Culture in political affairs."" Beyond all those deadly parallels, Miss Caldwell, with latent demagoguery, is hustling the thesis that there is indeed ""a plot against the people"" and that now or then or always America has been governed by the captains and the kings of high finance (both European and American) supported by her gilt-edged bibliography. A captain like Joe Armagh, whose story it really is, who came over in the steerage and as a boyeen of 13 went out to work and made money -- a pile assisted by an unexpected ""mountain of gold"" inheritance -- and then as always would permit nothing to interfere with his intransigent, ruthless, superrealistic grand design while all that lovely lucre goes hand in gloved fist with the ""Invisible Government."" There are of course all those Taylor-made touches for those who read through ""long aureate lashes"" without questioning the military-industrial complexity of her intent.

Pub Date: April 14, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION