Tycoon [Paperback]

Tycoon is about the characters, and there are many. Robbins creates many characters and I'm surprised that after reading, so many of them made an impression on me. Robbins' story doesn't dwell too deeply on the motives of the characters, but instead just describes the actions of the characters, which speak for themselves.

Lear has his three wives and many mistresses and business associates. Lear's kids, Jack and Joni are also fun to read about as are his employees Sally Allen and Curt Frederickson. Jack's family is also interesting. They are the same type of people as he.

Lear seems to have a good marriage with his first wife Kimberly, yet he cheats on her constantly. This is my biggest problem with the novel. There is a lot of sex in Tycoon, a lot described in great detail. Yet Robbins never puts it in context. We never hear how Lear feels about cheating on his wife. We never hear about any reasons the characters might have cheated on on their respective spouses. And this is frustrating because using sex in a story can be very effective in a novel if there is a reason for it.

Jack Lear would've been a better character if he felt any remorse for cheating, or if he enjoyed it. Instead it is presented as a given, natural thing to do (as it is with all characters in the novel).

Tycoon is a sprawling novel with many memorable characters. The incest between Jack's kids seems a little unnecessary yet it shows Robbins isn't afraid to touch any subject.

The climax really isn't one because it involves Lear fighting to save the station, and since I really didn't care about him, I didn't care if he was successful. This novel is good because it tells a good story about many people. Yet afer reading I realized none of the characters were nice people and so I don't know how many more Robbins novels I'll read.

And that's not different with that book. Although the story at first seem interesting, soon it starts to get pretty trite, but what really matter in this book is that Harold tried to fit in every empty space scenes of pure sex, a characteristic that made him famous worldwide.

Although his books have more sex and erotic scenes than a real good story, this book is interesting and a good reading. It's the kind of book that you enjoy reading even though you feel disgusted when you read some parts of the book, like a woman who has sexual relations with her brother and even get pregnant of him... And he describes the sex scenes, that's what most terrible. Though, these scenes are interesting because it's not the kind of thing you usually see in books. Harold Robbins was brave enough to brake some taboos, and that's great. Reading this book is just a great fun, nothing else. But it's worthwhile. It's always (or almost always) worthwhile. Even if you don't like the books, at least you learn lots of new ways and positions of making sex!

Marco Aurelio.