WHERE LOVE HAS GONE

For the unconfined market of men, women and children- at any rate teenagers, who were immobilized by The Carpetbaggers, this is less of a book, lengthwise. Perhaps there are no ordinary criteria to apply- such as good or bad, and it all comes down to the question of how well-stacked a story Robbins has to tell. And that it is, from the take-off which has its moment of instant recognition when a girl, just under 15, kills her mother's lover who had obviously been making out with both of them. From the crime and its postmortem (legal, parental, psychiatric), the question of her custody, and some of the more drastic consequences (blackmail), this then fills in and varies the details of the deadly parallel; young Dannielle's long history of desertion; her mother's success as a sculptress and the only truth of which she was capable her art; and of course the display of what is here known as ""how sweet the flesh of love""..... Do not question where this will go; it's a fail accomplis; and for all that it is profitably priapic, it would be unfair to overlook the fact that Robbins certainly knows how to tell a story (even if he derived it from a nationwide scandal) and keep it moving.