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Summary
Author Notes
Harold Robbins was born in New York City on May 21, 1916. He later claimed to be a Jewish orphan who had been raised in a Catholic boys' home, but in reality he was raised in Brooklyn by his father and stepmother. He made his first million at the age of twenty by selling sugar for wholesale trade. By the beginning of World War II, he lost all his fortunes. He eventually moved to Hollywood and worked for Universal Pictures.
His first book, Never Love a Stranger, was published in 1948. He began writing full time in 1957. He published more than 20 books during his lifetime including The Dream Merchants (1949), The Betsy (1971), The Storyteller (1982), and The Carpetbaggers (1961). His novel, A Stone for Danny Fisher (1951), was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole starring Elvis Presley.
He died from respiratory heart failure on October 14, 1997 at the age of 81. Since his death, several new books have been published, written by ghostwriters and based on his notes and unfinished stories.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Thirty-four years after penning one of the bestselling novels of all time, Robbins has written a sequel-and while he hasn't matched the potboiling heat of The Carpetbaggers here, this is still his most entertaining novel in years. It's now 1951, and Jonas Cord (read: Howard Hughes) has turned his father's company into an empire. He has remarried his ex-wife, recognized the daughter he once rejected and only regrets not having a son to whom he can leave his legacy. While visiting Las Vegas, Jonas buys a casino and incurs the wrath of the mob by shutting down the casino's money-laundering operation. To avoid appearing at a Senate hearing on his business practices, the tycoon flees to Mexico, where he looks up an old girlfriend-and learns that he has a son by her, 25-year-old Jonas Enrique Raul Cord y Batista (aka Bart), who has inherited his father's looks, brains and thirst for power. Father and son team up to streamline the Cord empire, launch casinos in Las Vegas and Cuba (where they rely on Bart's family connection to the Cuban dictator) and vanquish greedy senators and a vengeful mafia. But sparks fly between them as they compete in the bedroom-and in the boardroom. Robbins can still make readers turn the pages through cliff-hanging chapters and a gallery of eccentric characters, but frequent interruptions with unnecessary background material and an extravagance of graphic sex scenes (many more than in the mother novel) make the narrative hard to follow. Readers will welcome historical cameos (from the likes of Jack and Bobby Kennedy, to Jimmy Hoffa and Jack Benny) and the reappearance of Cord's sidekick, Nevada Smith, in this lively follow-up to a commercial fiction classic. Simon & Schuster audio. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
It's 34 years since The Carpetbaggers ignited Robbins's fame, but the familiar scandals, sex, and skulduggery in this late- breaking sequel have cooled to room temperature. Jonas Cord Jr., whose tumultuous relationship with his father ended lovelessly in The Carpetbaggers, by the 1950s has become the Jonas Cord--rich and powerful. Though he has an 18-year-old daughter, Jonas vows to tell his son (should he ever happen to have one) that he loves him. Surprise! Enter his bastard boy, whose mother, elegant wife of a Cuban statesman, Jonas had deflowered and then spurned when she was an ingenue. Jonas Enrique Raul Cord y Batista--Bart for short--is already a brilliant WW II vet-Harvard- grad-lawyer-polyglot-blond-hunk when he meets Dad, who is determined to add heir and businessman to Junior's list of credits. Bart begins to dip his toe into Jonas's dealings, and before you know it he's up to his neck in Mafia-entangled hotel casino deals, entertainment industry high jinks, and messy family politics. Bart discovers that, like his father, he has a taste for sex, money, power, and conflict. So the two go head to head in round after repetitive round of nervous parent vs. rebellious adolescent: Bart has affair with actress, Dad has affair with her competition; Bart launches loser TV variety show, Dad complains he's botching the job; Bart restructures company, Dad cries sabotage; Dad tells Bart to marry longtime classy girlfriend Toni Maxim, Bart says MYOB. Appearances by such real-lifers as Jack Kennedy (with whom Toni sleeps), Che Guevera, Jimmy Hoffa, Tallulah Bankhead, and Danny Kaye add some spice and historical context. Despite clashes in arenas like the corporate shark tank and the gnarled family tree, there is not much bracing conflict here. But generous doses of heavy breathing and heaving buttocks will likely provide solace for Robbins's stalwart fans. If only the plot were as impressively hung as the men.
Booklist Review
The Carpetbaggers made Robbins' name a household word in the early sixties, especially after it was made into a movie starring George Peppard. So now, 30 years and 13 books later, Robbins has written a sequel, figuring, no doubt, that glitzy novels featuring big bucks, big boobs, and plenty of showy sex are always in demand. The Carpetbaggers focused on Jonas Cord, Sr., a Howard Hughes knockoff with a fondness for aviation, moviemaking, and broads. The crux of the story involved his stealing the woman his son, Jonas, Jr., wanted to marry. Now, 20 years later, Jonas, Jr., regrets the fact that he and his manipulative, cutthroat father never exchanged any words of love. He believes he would do better if he had a son, but is anything but affectionate to his only daughter. When The Raiders begins it's the early fifties and Jonas is on the lam, hiding from the feds first in a Las Vegas penthouse, then in Mexico City. These interludes change his life: he decides to invest in the gambling business, and, after looking up an old lover, discovers that he does have a son after all, a son related to Cuba's dictator Batista no less. Jonas the Third has dual Mexican and American citizenship, and is a war hero and Harvard law school graduate. In no time these two egomaniacs are locked in bitter competition for control of the Cord empire and various gorgeous women. While Robbins' plot involving Vegas, the Mob, Havana, Jimmy Hoffa, and the early years of television is serviceable enough, and his characters entertaining, this novel is cartoonish and hackneyed, rife with blatantly sexist sex and laughable dialogue. But will it be in demand? You bet. (Reviewed October 15, 1994)0671872893Donna Seaman
Library Journal Review
More than 30 years after publishing The Carpetbaggers, Robbins returns with a sequel. In the original, Jonas Cord never had time to show his son any love, and, despite his best efforts, his son is about to make the same mistake. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
