THE SPECULATORS

ildly fluctuating, The Speculators is not IT&T. When it sticks to Wall Street and the hero's shifty shenanigans, the novel ticks along briskly. But after the market closes each day, the story interest is left like a pair of men's shoes outside a boudoir. George Morganstern, the Street's most respected tout, gives up his job with a reputable brokerage firm and commits himself to a swindle. As George rises, and his success story makes Time, the women in George's life withdraw. Personable George gets control of great corporations while his friends drift away like yesterday's tape. He gains the world but loses that preferred stock which was his honesty. One good device- George never lies once, even when eventually his utterances achieve a Napoleonic bravura. Mr. Gerstine is content to hammer a novel together with a prospectus which can be clearly outlined on a dust jacket and it moves predictably and without originality.