This is one of the funniest books I have ever read in my life. Unintended by the writer. The story is of the rise to power of an auto company and the family of the founder. The real humor begins in the "modern era" sections of the tale. 1971, when this was written... The mighty American car companies are dying at the hands of small Japanese imports, the VW bug, and etc. The high stakes race to build an american sub-compact is on. Ford has the Pinto, there's the Gremlin, and the Chevy Vega. This car company is making "the Betsy".Power, greed, power sex and greedy sex. A glamorous and cut-throat game... Over a subcompact car. Discos, drugs, everyone is smoking and drinking Crowne Royal all the time. Lots of adultury and betrayal. Basic soap opera stuff. In Detroit.A typical exchange (main character's last name is "Hardeman". Of course):The factory roared far beneath Loren Hardeman's penthouse apartment. He lit a cigarette as his eyes glittered with anger. The engineering staff looked as though they'd rather run for the relative safety of the freezing river. Hardeman howled as he stood from his desk, growing red with anger, "We can't touch the Gremlin at $1000 dollars. They're beating us before we move an inch on price."Duncan, the chief engineer paled and said, "We tried sir, and we just can't do it and keep the air-conditioner in the Betsy."Hardeman seemed to swell, and Angeline, forgotten in the corner for now quietly lit a cigarette. She lifted her drink to hide her expression. Her loins gushed at the sight of Hardeman in his anger, and she hated him so much. She quickly sat down and thanked the gods again that Naugahyde wouldn't show the wet spot. But her tightening nipples were impossible to hide in the sheer dress. Why did her body always betray her?Hardeman threw his whiskey glass across the room where it shattered against the oak paneling. "I won't build a car without air-conditioning god-dammit!! You're fired Duncan. I'm tired of hearing how we can't beat the Gremlin. Somebody find me a man who can get things done!!"...
Holy smokes! bought this one in front of a posh bookstore in Roppongi to nurse my pulp addiction. 200 yen, and worth every one! A pulpster's response to women's lib, set in the world of race cars and Detroit boardrooms, with people who don't like Detroit very much and presage white flight with every breath. Told by a tarnished angel corporate alpha guy, who gave up a career racing (and also lost his face, as we read in the opening scene in a Swiss hospital!) to sublimate his love of cars into a fictional corporation's R&D department. Many many scenes with divorcees, female test car drivers, relatives in law (I lost track) and on and on. The story hinges on a web of generational family rivalries and skeletons--most typical oedipal stuff, royalty social climbing...staples of this kind of potboiler. In this one, the race is on to produce a new sporty car of some kind (there were some good driving scenes, but I lost the specificity of the car itself...) But also an ugly "tracing closet case" story, in which one of the corporate warriors is secretly betraying his wife with the most trollish and unpleasant of the executive cadre, and ultimately commits suicide, in shame. Yikes. He did not get to be part of that revolution...
What do You think about The Betsy (2002)?
Going through some Harold Robbins books I got from a library sale. This one was written when Robbins still seemed to give a damn about writing novels, but you can tell he got tired of it before finishing it. The sexy stuff was pretty graphic for its time and its popularity. Think of teenagers with a ton of money and no repercussions (didn't someone once say Hollywood is like that?) and you got an idea what motivates many of the characters. The main plot is about a family that makes cars, and how the patriarch, now in his 90's, is driven to make one last splash in the world of cars with The Betsy, named after his granddaughter. I liked it fine while reading it. It's not going to tax the brain and it's got about as much weight as a show like Revenge. That's not a slam - there is room in the world for commercial entertainment, and if you go into it with any deeper expectations than that you'll be disappointed. I've got two more Robbins novels in the stack to go. Also, I highly recommend if you have any interest at all in the world of bestselling writers, publishing in the 60s and 70s, and the perils of celebrity.
—Kurt Reichenbaugh
