THE TYCOON

A humble son of the rocky soil of the Greek islands climbs the rocky road to the top of the heap of Greek shipping magnates and finds that it is very nice to be rich and famous. The author (according to the publisher, a ""reclusive financier, with business interests worldwide"") sings in the first person of the relentless rise and romances of Mr. Constantine Sthanassis, a half-Cretan with the Midas touch. The fourth child in a family of peasants, Sthanassis (""Kostas"" to his pals) is a bright lad whose mother's dreams for his education must be set aside when the family finances fail. It's off to Corfu for Kostas. There he becomes an apprentice fisherman and a full-fledged ladies' man as he wins the heart of Danai, the boss's daughter. She is just the first in a series of increasingly voluptuous and beautiful women who fall victim to our hero's charms and manly endowment. But Danai's parents arrange a better match for her, so the penniless and heartbroken Kostas sails to America and employment with his tightwad uncle in New York. There our hero floats on the rising tide of the Jazz Age and begins to build his fortune providing alcoholic spirits to Americans unfairly deprived by the Volstead Act. From then on, it's ever upward, picking up fortunes in tin and shipping until, after a disastrous marriage to an incestuous countess, he at last finds love with an opera singer. Standard fare.