THE PRICE IS RIGHT

A story that is both a satire and a symbol of the world of competitive business, for in the biography of Henry Cade and his climb upward, the go-getters get a going over in sharp, acid terms. Henry, cautious through the terror of financial insecurity, gambles all on Wally Pohl, a veteran whose small town column hits A.P. publicity. Wally is under contract to Henry and Henry uses him as a lever to bargain for partnership in the syndicate agency for which he works. In the big time, Henry learns competition is keener, his partners as cutthroat as their enemies -- and it is Wally's death which is the means of freeing him from his bondage. Portraits of the wives and lives of his associates, the drives that dominate their ambitions, this is a gallery recognizable even in exaggeration, and a corrosive commentary on current times.