BROOD OF EAGLES

This long (it is long--600 pages; it seems longer) mercantile enterprise is about the aircraft empire and dynasty founded by one Ira Dancer and it gathers under its wingspread most of the planes which have been developed from World War I to the present. It is one of those assembly line novels which sacrifices everything to efficient continuity and pays very little attention to its personnel: the brothers Dancer, Ira and Tom; their original partner Curly who crashes in the early days when they're still operating out of a shed; and the progeny of Ira down to the third generation. ""There aren't any words"" to describe the ""Do you want me to"" interstices in the bedroom. In fact Mr. Stern, with familiarity as his co-pilot, has written the kind of book you must (or for that matter, why should you?) have read before even though there's probably no questioning its automatic transmission into paperback.