ARENA

by Norman Bogner ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1979

Munich, 1938. Jewish gym-owner Alex Stein is a doomed man after Joe Louis' defeat of Alex's coachee, Max Schmeling. Jewish hotel-keeper Sam Weissbeck can no longer deny the savagery of Nazi Germany when his little daughter Lenore is raped (and rendered thenceforth catatonic) by two gross Germans. Italian restaurateur Victor Conte has seen his chic cabaret become a decadent Nazi hangout. And gangster Pauli Salica is on the run from the Italian police, with his adoring moll Chou. So, in the first (and by far the best) section of Bogner's latest sex-and-money saga, these four likable and desperate men join together to rob a bank and escape--with their families--to the U.S. Once in America, however, all four refugee families rise to the top of various professions with implausible speed--and Bogner reverts to a familiar post-Godfather formula of gangsters, show-biz, family squabbles, and sleazy sex. The primary focus falls on Alex's son Jonathan, an ambitious/macho/loner type who isn't satisfied with his father's successful gym in Brooklyn and determines to build a N.Y. arena that will outshine Madison Square Garden; this he does, with help from Uncle Pauli (a top Mafioso ever since personally killing Bugsy Siegel) and Uncle Victor (who is now a top agent and TV pioneer in Hollywood). Jonathan, however, does have a tragic burden: his hopeless love for Lenore, still catatonic up in the Catskills, where papa Sam is a leading hotelier. Before Jonathan and Lenore can finally team up, he'll have a seamy Park Avenue affair and a fatal marriage; Sam's hotel will fall on hard times; Jonathan's artistic brother David will become a compulsive gambler; Victor will conduct negotiations with a copulating Howard Hughes; papa Alex will be beaten up by blacks in Brooklyn; Lenore will emerge from catatonia to become a feminist career woman; and Victor's bisexual daughter Georgie will supply the requisite drug-addict and kinky-sex scenes. Lots of wheeler-dealering, and equal dollops of corn and porn--so Seventh Avenue patrons will not be disappointed. But, unless tough, vulgar, tedious Jonathan is your kind of hero, you'll lose interest soon after those feisty Munich refugees reach America.

Pub Date: July 11, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION