If you wonder how Bernie Madoff and the guys at AIG could have such a cavalier attitude toward other people’s money, Robert Ruark’s 1959 novel Poor No More might supply some answers.
Craig Price grows up in the South in rural, depression-era poverty. He’s a loner living in a fantasy world in which he is “Captain-Admiral [...]
Archive for the ‘1959 Bestselling Novels’ Category
Engrossing Tale of Financial Fraud
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, My Top Pics, tagged business, finance, fraud, investments, Robert Ruark on March 11, 2009 | Comments Off
As Warming as a Nice, Hot Cuppa
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, Humor, tagged Dior, Gioia Fiammenghi, London, Paris, Paul Gallico on February 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Paul Gallico’s slim, sentimental novel Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris will warm you as comfortably as a nice, hot cuppa.
The Dear and Glorious Physician is Luke Warm
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, Fictional biography, Historical, Religious on February 11, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Dear and Glorious Physician is worth reading for the setting and scenery. Look elsewhere for entertainment or better understanding of people.
Ugly American Is Alive and Well
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, Historical, Propaganda, tagged Asia, Eugene Burdick, foreign service, US foreign policy, William J. Lederer on February 4, 2009 | Comments Off
The great—and horrific—thing about The Ugly American is that it still feels real today. You have only to see newscasts of President George W. Bush shrugging off the Iraqi shoe-thrower to see that Americans still have no appreciation of the cultures in which they have troops stationed. And post 9/11,we’ve seen how effective Mao’s embedded insurgents can be.
Boring, Not Shocking
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, Psychological novel, Romance, tagged banned books, D.H. Lawrence on January 28, 2009 | Comments Off
When it was first published, Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned in America. I doubt if most contemporary readers would plow through D. H. Lawrence’s ponderous paragraphs to get to the passages offended censors.
Politics, Patriotism and Platitudes
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, tagged Allen Drury, Cold War, Congress, Secretary of State, US Senate on January 21, 2009 | Comments Off
Allen Drury swaddles Advise and Consent in the flag and plays “Dixie” in the background as he shows how the confirmation process affects four senators and the vice president.
Hawaii Is Reality Reading
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, Historical, My Top Pics, tagged American History, Chinese, Hawaii statehood, James A. Michener, Japanese, missionaries on January 14, 2009 | Comments Off
James A. Michener’s novel Hawaii earns the adjective epic just for its length. But the novel lives up to that accolade. Michener makes his fiction read like biography, leaving readers convinced that the way he tells it was the way it was.
Exodus: Flimsy novel, substantial history
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, Historical, Romance, tagged anti, Jews, Leon Uris, Middle East on January 7, 2009 | Comments Off
Exodus is an unsatisfactory novel but an intriguing introduction to the history of present day Middle East conflicts.
The story is about an American nurse working among refugee children in the Middle East after World War II.
Kitty is attracted to Ari Ben Canaan, a handsome Jewish leader, but Ari seems cold and unfeeling, capable of no [...]
Look back to 1959 bestsellers
Posted in 1959 Bestselling Novels, Lists of bestsellers by year on January 5, 2009 | Comments Off
I just discovered that I wrote but never posted my list of the books I’d be reviewing this year.
I look back at vintage bestsellers of 50 years ago. Then I skip backward in 10-year intervals to earlier bestselling novels. So this year, my books are the bestsellers of 1959, 1949, 1939, 1929, 1919 and 1909 [...]
