THE MAN WHO HAD EVERYTHING

The first Bromfield novel since The Farm, but it brackets more definitely with his Twenty-Four Hours than with any others in his repertoire. Good reading, yes, if by that one means good entertainment, but pretty thin on final analysis, both from point of view of plot and characterization. The story of a rich and successful playwright, playboy of society, facing in middle life the emptiness of his grasp on real life, the incompleteness of his own development. The background shifts from New York to France, with an abortive attempt to recapture a youthful dream; then back again, with perhaps a deeper understanding of his own reasons for failure. Bromfield has a sure market. The publishers will back with advertising and promotion.