The Poor Man And The Rich Man Story
21.08.2019by admin
(Rich man, poor man) Rich Man, Poor Man is the story of two brothers whose contrasting natures reflect the turmoil of post-war America. Rudy is the rich man - a romantic who would let no one stand between him and success. Tom is the poor man - the black sheep of the family on the run from his violent past. Jesus told a story about a rich man who wore the finest clothes and lived in luxury. A beggar named Lazarus lay outside the rich man's gate. Lazarus was hungry and his body was covered with sores. He was hoping that the rich man might have pity on him and that he might be able to satisfy his hunger with the leftovers from the rich man's table.
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(Rich man, poor man)
The San Francisco Examiner calls Rich Man, Poor Man 'a novel so well written, so engrossing, the reader actually hates to finish it . . . by far Shaw's best work . . . it's all fascinating'. Don't forget to stock up on this six-million-copy bestseller.
Published July 15th 1971 by Dell (first published 1969)
To see what your friends thought of this book,please sign up.
To ask other readers questions aboutRich Man, Poor Man,please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Anshuman SinhaShaw's short stories are an insight. Try 'The Young Lions' Follows the lives on both sides, across the 2nd world war -
Family Saga 674 books — 788 voters
Big Fat Books Worth the Effort 1,741 books — 7,179 voters
More lists with this book...
Rating details
Sep 13, 2011Steve rated it really liked it · review of another edition
At the time that I read this, way back in high school days, I’m sure I would’ve given it the full five stars. I hadn’t thought much about it since. Then, a few weeks ago, as I was reminiscing about it with my culturally astute wife, her comment was something like, “Oh yea, wasn’t that a night-time soap?” Thinking back, I suppose it was. They made a mini-series out of it that featured a young Nick Nolte as the black sheep brother – the edgier one, quick with his fists.
I recall getting caught up...more
I recall getting caught up...more
Sep 20, 2011Karen M rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
If only all books were this good.
The story of three siblings who started life in a dysfunctional family, each with their own personality, striving for a better life.
The eldest, Gretchen, who accepted help from a wealthy man and willingly paid his price, ends up becoming an independent woman but only after many years have passed.
Rudolph, the golden child not just to his mother but also to other people as he climbs the ladder of success with hardwork and honesty which can't save him from great dis...more
The story of three siblings who started life in a dysfunctional family, each with their own personality, striving for a better life.
The eldest, Gretchen, who accepted help from a wealthy man and willingly paid his price, ends up becoming an independent woman but only after many years have passed.
Rudolph, the golden child not just to his mother but also to other people as he climbs the ladder of success with hardwork and honesty which can't save him from great dis...more
This is the fourth, and best, book I've read by Irwin Shaw, and having completed it, I feel that it will be a good idea for me to read everything else he ever wrote. There are many ideas and themes related throughout the course of its 600 or so pages that made me stop and think before continuing reading, and that made me think later on in the day, or the next day.
The story follows two brothers and a sister, all very different, and how their lives affect each other throughout the course of a quar...more
The story follows two brothers and a sister, all very different, and how their lives affect each other throughout the course of a quar...more
Jul 09, 2009Steven Kent rated it really liked it
Like so many Americans in the 70s, I fell into Shaw's grasp after seeing the mini-series version of Rich Man, Poor Man. As I understand it, this was the first mini series. It was soon followed by Roots, Winds of War, about a dozen Sidney Sheldon stories, and more.
After seeing the mini series I read the book and found fell in love with it. This is the story of two brothers, one is a good student, a natural leader, and destined for the good life. The other is a trouble maker and a gifted fighter.
H...more
After seeing the mini series I read the book and found fell in love with it. This is the story of two brothers, one is a good student, a natural leader, and destined for the good life. The other is a trouble maker and a gifted fighter.
H...more
Here's another book that turned up on my newsfeed and I was reminded of how much I enjoyed this novel when I read it decades ago. Even if the writing didn't blow me away, I couldn't help being swept up by the story and the characters. It's just plain great storytelling.
Oct 20, 2011Rodrigo rated it liked it · review of another edition
So sad I didn't read it when it was a huge success back in the 90's because now, even when I really enjoyed, it seemed to me a little old fashioned. It's catchy and you get involved in it, but the style and the story itself seems so... 90's! The typical american story of success, with the 'dark' side of poverty and failure, portrayed in the 'poor man'. This last one, Thomas, ended up being, in my opinion, the most wonderful character. Not only because of his final sacrifice, but because he seeme...more
Nov 17, 2011Victoria Evangelina Allen rated it really liked it
I read the book in Russian, and span through its 500+ pages in a couple of days: it is such an easy, vivid read, and the characters really drew me in. I kept on expecting more drama, though, more of conclusion... I guess, the genius of the book is in the characters, who, with their strengths and weaknesses are just people. They are not 'archetypes' but simple people, traumatized by the childhood in different degrees and coping with it through their lives as they can and see possible. I liked Rud...more
This was my first truly adult book with actual sex in it. I remember that I was in high school and a freshman who was a virgin. I read the scenes completely blushing and thinking that everyone knew I was reading about sex. So embarassing. Yet the story was fabulous. I love it. poor girl marries rich man and does not find happiness.
The Poor Man And The Rich Man Story Movie
Jun 20, 2007Kim rated it liked it
This is another one I pulled off my dad's bookshelf when I was maybe 17 or 18. I remember there were some racey sex scenes. At my (ahem) tender age I was more than a little shocked either of my parents would have anything like that on their bookshelves, and surprised they didn't mind my reading it too. Other than the sex, I remember very little about this book, except they made a TV mini-series about it in which several important parts were left out (like the sex seens) and characters were combi...more
Rudolph and Thomas Jordache are raised in the same house, by the same parents, and yet they take very different life paths. Rudolph is disciplined and a hard worker who is determined to get ahead in life by following the rules and paving his own way. Thomas is the wild younger son who uses his fists to get ahead...or behind. Their sister Gretchen is beautiful, but haunted in her own way.
They are three characters who are very different, and yet they are family. A family who doesn't even seem to l...more
Jun 12, 2019The Celtic Rebel (Richard) rated it it was amazing · review of another editionThey are three characters who are very different, and yet they are family. A family who doesn't even seem to l...more
Shelves: guilty-pleasures, best-seller, male-author, american-literature, love-story, literature-and-fiction, 1950s, hardcover, adventure, angst
I have read this book several times since I first read it in the latter 1970s. I love it as much today as I did the first time I read it. It made me fall in love with Shaw's writing and I have read many of his books since then but never have loved any of them as much as I do this one.
I love the plot and how it is basically a good vs. evil story, but what fascinates me most about the book are the characters. I love the 3 siblings and how each are affected by the family situation they grow up in....more
I love the plot and how it is basically a good vs. evil story, but what fascinates me most about the book are the characters. I love the 3 siblings and how each are affected by the family situation they grow up in....more
Jan 14, 2014Radina ☕ Ravenclaw rated it really liked it
The story is engrossingly written, as the narration is refracted through the thoughts of the main characters (the Jordache family), though written in third person.
The first figures of the rich and the poor men are Boylan and Axel Jordache which both influence the three children in their ways – the first through his money and power, and the other – through the impure, bad blood they share and the environment he was able to provide for them during their growing. The second figures are the two brot...more
The first figures of the rich and the poor men are Boylan and Axel Jordache which both influence the three children in their ways – the first through his money and power, and the other – through the impure, bad blood they share and the environment he was able to provide for them during their growing. The second figures are the two brot...more
Mar 18, 2012Amanda Spacaj-Gorham rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
I read this one and its sequel back in high school (back in the 80's) and I'm surprised how much I remember from the book. It was probably the raciest book I'd read at the time, perhaps the shock that my mom had books like this(taken from the family book shelf) helped the rest of the novel stay fresh in my mind...perhaps it was all Shaw's talent which preserved passages so well. I really should re-read it and see how it strikes me now.
I can't say objectively if it's me today giving it 5 stars f...more
I can't say objectively if it's me today giving it 5 stars f...more
Nov 26, 2015Drew rated it did not like it
Compared to 'The Young Lions,' 'Rich Man, Poor Man' is a major disappointment. What starts off as absurdly salacious trash (A young virgin must choose between getting tag-teamed by horny soldiers and becoming a middle-aged man's mistress.) degenerates into triviality (The same woman must deal with the humiliation of going into the Twenty One club with rain-spattered stockings.) The men, Shaw's real 'heroes,' operate by a moral code that can self-justify any behavior. The book's lesson? Money sol...more
Nov 28, 2009Tracy Schuster rated it really liked it
WOW! This book sat on my mom's book shelf for years and I always thought I should read it. I am so glad I did. It reminded me what real story telling is. Shaw weaves the lives of so many people in an out of the lives of the three main characters and you simply cannot predict where you are going next. He is truly a storyteller who takes you through history on the heels of the three Jordache children and teaches you about family and how children can eventually overcome the wounds of their childhoo...more
The book is true, hard and cruel. It has no happy ending, but it's okay, because as hard to believe, human's life doesn't end happily. American dream that came true, French dream that came true. Poor are often unhappy and miserable, but wealth can't buy happiness as well. Money change people, either in a good or a bad way. How is it, to be a part of a difficult family? Characters change during the book, and a reader changes with them. It's true saga, worth of reading.
Feb 06, 2012Glory rated it liked it · review of another edition
I found the book to be very long and boring, but somehow the ending saves everything. I sure rather read books that I love from the first page, but at least this one had an ending that made it worth while.
A bit heavy on the soap, but always liked this one -- particularly the character of Tom Jordache. (Portrayed in the TV mini-series by Nick Nolte, back in the day when he was Joe Cool on-a-stick. What happened Nick?)
Reread it after a decade or more from the first reading, and the book is still wonderfully engaging, relevant, and as well-written as I remembered it was.
Sep 18, 2007Mark rated it it was amazing
This book affected me strongly as a pre-teen, which is why I rated it 5 stars.
Loved the book, loved the series!!!!!!
Regarding struggles and the coming together of an immigrant family living through the Great Depression and how their fortunes change through hard work and caring for each other.
Nov 25, 2015Wsm rated it really liked it
Irwin Shaw' s masterpiece.I enjoyed it a great deal and after all these years,it's time to read it again.
I read this so long ago, and my list is too long but I would go back and read again!
Jul 31, 2018Stephanie Holcomb rated it really liked it
So much to say about this book.
This book was written a few years before I was born, and the social and political climate has changed so much. So much so that when political parties were mentioned, or stories arrived involving people of color, I wasn't sure what to think about them. What was the author's stance? What did he want us to feel? To explore? I mention this to my sister, she says 'just read the book' but for me, it's so much more than that. Not having been alive when this book was writt...more
This book was written a few years before I was born, and the social and political climate has changed so much. So much so that when political parties were mentioned, or stories arrived involving people of color, I wasn't sure what to think about them. What was the author's stance? What did he want us to feel? To explore? I mention this to my sister, she says 'just read the book' but for me, it's so much more than that. Not having been alive when this book was writt...more
Feb 22, 2019Dianeparente62gmail.com rated it really liked it · review of another edition
A Slice of Life
What is offered here is !n an intriguing story of two boys and a girl as they make their way through life. We encounter them first as teenagers already bearing the scars of their parents' actions and attitudes. Gretchen and Tom act out their teenage anger in self destructive behavior while brother Rudolph stays above the fray by keeping his nose to the grindstone of academic demands. His parents, the baker father and resentful mother see Rudolph as the most likely to succeed.
Succe...more
Sep 01, 2017Therese rated it liked it · review of another editionWhat is offered here is !n an intriguing story of two boys and a girl as they make their way through life. We encounter them first as teenagers already bearing the scars of their parents' actions and attitudes. Gretchen and Tom act out their teenage anger in self destructive behavior while brother Rudolph stays above the fray by keeping his nose to the grindstone of academic demands. His parents, the baker father and resentful mother see Rudolph as the most likely to succeed.
Succe...more
Shelves: classics, 2017-popsugar-reading-challenge, historical-fiction, 2017-reads
The Jordache family gives new meaning to the word dysfunctional, and although they work hard, they don’t have much to show for it, not even love for one another, let alone much caring. Axel Jordache is a brute of a man and his wife, Mary, has only learned to tolerate his cruelty after 20 years of marriage. Their three children, Gretchen, Rudolph, and Thomas don’t care for their parents for each other much either, but one thing the parents agree on is that Rudolph, their golden child, will make s...more
Apr 01, 2019Dario DallaLasta rated it really liked it · review of another edition
What a stunning achievement by novelist Irwin Shaw! My only reference to this best-seller was a dim recollection of the week-long miniseries in 1976 starring a then-unknown Nick Nolte, playing the pugilistic and trouble prone Tommy Jordache. Basically, the book follows the Jordache children: oldest sister Gretchen, middle child Rudy, and youngest boy Tommy, as they grow up in the 1940s and follows them through the late 1960s. Rudy is the uptight and tightly wound 'Rich Man' of the title and Tomm...more
Read this a L O N G Time ago in the early 70's and it was a favorite. The TV Mini series was great but no recorder then so had to be sure to be home when it aired. Oh, those were the days!!!
Anyway, still have my trade paperback that has turned brown with age and the cover is falling apart so in my quest to do yet another of my cleaning up of my shelves, I'm finally letting this one go.
Since the times were so different and I was so much younger when I read this, if I reread it now may not enjoy...more
Anyway, still have my trade paperback that has turned brown with age and the cover is falling apart so in my quest to do yet another of my cleaning up of my shelves, I'm finally letting this one go.
Since the times were so different and I was so much younger when I read this, if I reread it now may not enjoy...more
This book is a family saga of the Jordache family Gretchen, Rudy and Thomas. It takes us through the years as each family member develops their own personalities and life paths. Gretchen whose mother calls her a whore, Thomas the wild child always getting into trouble and Rudy the golden boy of the family. Excellent reading, I kept waiting for something catastrophic to happen. I wasn't disappointed
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Shaw was born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the South Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants. Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for his novels, The Young Lions (1948) and Rich Man Poor Man (1970).
His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw...more
His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw...more
Rich man, poor man(4 books)
More quizzes & trivia...
“I make it a point to look as healthy and attractive as I can at all times,” Boylan had explained to Rudolph. “Even if I don’t see anybody for weeks on end. It’s a form of self-respect.” — 4 likes
“Кейт, всеки път, когато те любя, забравям по едно лошо нещо в живота си” — 1 likes
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Not the book you’re looking for?Preview — Rich Man, Poor Man by Irwin Shaw
(Rich man, poor man)
The San Francisco Examiner calls Rich Man, Poor Man 'a novel so well written, so engrossing, the reader actually hates to finish it . . . by far Shaw's best work . . . it's all fascinating'. Don't forget to stock up on this six-million-copy bestseller.
Published July 15th 1971 by Dell (first published 1969)
To see what your friends thought of this book,please sign up.
To ask other readers questions aboutRich Man, Poor Man,please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Anshuman SinhaShaw's short stories are an insight. Try 'The Young Lions' Follows the lives on both sides, across the 2nd world war -
Family Saga 674 books — 788 voters
Big Fat Books Worth the Effort 1,741 books — 7,179 voters
More lists with this book...
Rating details
Sep 13, 2011Steve rated it really liked it · review of another edition
At the time that I read this, way back in high school days, I’m sure I would’ve given it the full five stars. I hadn’t thought much about it since. Then, a few weeks ago, as I was reminiscing about it with my culturally astute wife, her comment was something like, “Oh yea, wasn’t that a night-time soap?” Thinking back, I suppose it was. They made a mini-series out of it that featured a young Nick Nolte as the black sheep brother – the edgier one, quick with his fists.
I recall getting caught up...more
I recall getting caught up...more
Sep 20, 2011Karen M rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
If only all books were this good.
The story of three siblings who started life in a dysfunctional family, each with their own personality, striving for a better life.
The eldest, Gretchen, who accepted help from a wealthy man and willingly paid his price, ends up becoming an independent woman but only after many years have passed.
Rudolph, the golden child not just to his mother but also to other people as he climbs the ladder of success with hardwork and honesty which can't save him from great dis...more
The story of three siblings who started life in a dysfunctional family, each with their own personality, striving for a better life.
The eldest, Gretchen, who accepted help from a wealthy man and willingly paid his price, ends up becoming an independent woman but only after many years have passed.
Rudolph, the golden child not just to his mother but also to other people as he climbs the ladder of success with hardwork and honesty which can't save him from great dis...more
This is the fourth, and best, book I've read by Irwin Shaw, and having completed it, I feel that it will be a good idea for me to read everything else he ever wrote. There are many ideas and themes related throughout the course of its 600 or so pages that made me stop and think before continuing reading, and that made me think later on in the day, or the next day.
The story follows two brothers and a sister, all very different, and how their lives affect each other throughout the course of a quar...more
The story follows two brothers and a sister, all very different, and how their lives affect each other throughout the course of a quar...more
Jul 09, 2009Steven Kent rated it really liked it
Like so many Americans in the 70s, I fell into Shaw's grasp after seeing the mini-series version of Rich Man, Poor Man. As I understand it, this was the first mini series. It was soon followed by Roots, Winds of War, about a dozen Sidney Sheldon stories, and more.
After seeing the mini series I read the book and found fell in love with it. This is the story of two brothers, one is a good student, a natural leader, and destined for the good life. The other is a trouble maker and a gifted fighter.
H...more
After seeing the mini series I read the book and found fell in love with it. This is the story of two brothers, one is a good student, a natural leader, and destined for the good life. The other is a trouble maker and a gifted fighter.
H...more
Here's another book that turned up on my newsfeed and I was reminded of how much I enjoyed this novel when I read it decades ago. Even if the writing didn't blow me away, I couldn't help being swept up by the story and the characters. It's just plain great storytelling.
Oct 20, 2011Rodrigo rated it liked it · review of another edition
So sad I didn't read it when it was a huge success back in the 90's because now, even when I really enjoyed, it seemed to me a little old fashioned. It's catchy and you get involved in it, but the style and the story itself seems so... 90's! The typical american story of success, with the 'dark' side of poverty and failure, portrayed in the 'poor man'. This last one, Thomas, ended up being, in my opinion, the most wonderful character. Not only because of his final sacrifice, but because he seeme...more
Nov 17, 2011Victoria Evangelina Allen rated it really liked it
I read the book in Russian, and span through its 500+ pages in a couple of days: it is such an easy, vivid read, and the characters really drew me in. I kept on expecting more drama, though, more of conclusion... I guess, the genius of the book is in the characters, who, with their strengths and weaknesses are just people. They are not 'archetypes' but simple people, traumatized by the childhood in different degrees and coping with it through their lives as they can and see possible. I liked Rud...more
This was my first truly adult book with actual sex in it. I remember that I was in high school and a freshman who was a virgin. I read the scenes completely blushing and thinking that everyone knew I was reading about sex. So embarassing. Yet the story was fabulous. I love it. poor girl marries rich man and does not find happiness.
Jun 20, 2007Kim rated it liked it
This is another one I pulled off my dad's bookshelf when I was maybe 17 or 18. I remember there were some racey sex scenes. At my (ahem) tender age I was more than a little shocked either of my parents would have anything like that on their bookshelves, and surprised they didn't mind my reading it too. Other than the sex, I remember very little about this book, except they made a TV mini-series about it in which several important parts were left out (like the sex seens) and characters were combi...more
Rudolph and Thomas Jordache are raised in the same house, by the same parents, and yet they take very different life paths. Rudolph is disciplined and a hard worker who is determined to get ahead in life by following the rules and paving his own way. Thomas is the wild younger son who uses his fists to get ahead...or behind. Their sister Gretchen is beautiful, but haunted in her own way.
They are three characters who are very different, and yet they are family. A family who doesn't even seem to l...more
Jun 12, 2019The Celtic Rebel (Richard) rated it it was amazing · review of another editionThey are three characters who are very different, and yet they are family. A family who doesn't even seem to l...more
Shelves: guilty-pleasures, best-seller, male-author, american-literature, love-story, literature-and-fiction, 1950s, hardcover, adventure, angst
I have read this book several times since I first read it in the latter 1970s. I love it as much today as I did the first time I read it. It made me fall in love with Shaw's writing and I have read many of his books since then but never have loved any of them as much as I do this one.
I love the plot and how it is basically a good vs. evil story, but what fascinates me most about the book are the characters. I love the 3 siblings and how each are affected by the family situation they grow up in....more
I love the plot and how it is basically a good vs. evil story, but what fascinates me most about the book are the characters. I love the 3 siblings and how each are affected by the family situation they grow up in....more
Jan 14, 2014Radina ☕ Ravenclaw rated it really liked it
The story is engrossingly written, as the narration is refracted through the thoughts of the main characters (the Jordache family), though written in third person.
The first figures of the rich and the poor men are Boylan and Axel Jordache which both influence the three children in their ways – the first through his money and power, and the other – through the impure, bad blood they share and the environment he was able to provide for them during their growing. The second figures are the two brot...more
The first figures of the rich and the poor men are Boylan and Axel Jordache which both influence the three children in their ways – the first through his money and power, and the other – through the impure, bad blood they share and the environment he was able to provide for them during their growing. The second figures are the two brot...more
Mar 18, 2012Amanda Spacaj-Gorham rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
I read this one and its sequel back in high school (back in the 80's) and I'm surprised how much I remember from the book. It was probably the raciest book I'd read at the time, perhaps the shock that my mom had books like this(taken from the family book shelf) helped the rest of the novel stay fresh in my mind...perhaps it was all Shaw's talent which preserved passages so well. I really should re-read it and see how it strikes me now.
I can't say objectively if it's me today giving it 5 stars f...more
I can't say objectively if it's me today giving it 5 stars f...more
Nov 26, 2015Drew rated it did not like it
Compared to 'The Young Lions,' 'Rich Man, Poor Man' is a major disappointment. What starts off as absurdly salacious trash (A young virgin must choose between getting tag-teamed by horny soldiers and becoming a middle-aged man's mistress.) degenerates into triviality (The same woman must deal with the humiliation of going into the Twenty One club with rain-spattered stockings.) The men, Shaw's real 'heroes,' operate by a moral code that can self-justify any behavior. The book's lesson? Money sol...more
Nov 28, 2009Tracy Schuster rated it really liked it
WOW! This book sat on my mom's book shelf for years and I always thought I should read it. I am so glad I did. It reminded me what real story telling is. Shaw weaves the lives of so many people in an out of the lives of the three main characters and you simply cannot predict where you are going next. He is truly a storyteller who takes you through history on the heels of the three Jordache children and teaches you about family and how children can eventually overcome the wounds of their childhoo...more
The book is true, hard and cruel. It has no happy ending, but it's okay, because as hard to believe, human's life doesn't end happily. American dream that came true, French dream that came true. Poor are often unhappy and miserable, but wealth can't buy happiness as well. Money change people, either in a good or a bad way. How is it, to be a part of a difficult family? Characters change during the book, and a reader changes with them. It's true saga, worth of reading.
Feb 06, 2012Glory rated it liked it · review of another edition
The Poor Man And The Rich Man Story In The Bible
I found the book to be very long and boring, but somehow the ending saves everything. I sure rather read books that I love from the first page, but at least this one had an ending that made it worth while.
A bit heavy on the soap, but always liked this one -- particularly the character of Tom Jordache. (Portrayed in the TV mini-series by Nick Nolte, back in the day when he was Joe Cool on-a-stick. What happened Nick?)
Reread it after a decade or more from the first reading, and the book is still wonderfully engaging, relevant, and as well-written as I remembered it was.
Sep 18, 2007Mark rated it it was amazing
This book affected me strongly as a pre-teen, which is why I rated it 5 stars.
Loved the book, loved the series!!!!!!
Regarding struggles and the coming together of an immigrant family living through the Great Depression and how their fortunes change through hard work and caring for each other.
Nov 25, 2015Wsm rated it really liked it
Irwin Shaw' s masterpiece.I enjoyed it a great deal and after all these years,it's time to read it again.
I read this so long ago, and my list is too long but I would go back and read again!
Jul 31, 2018Stephanie Holcomb rated it really liked it
So much to say about this book.
This book was written a few years before I was born, and the social and political climate has changed so much. So much so that when political parties were mentioned, or stories arrived involving people of color, I wasn't sure what to think about them. What was the author's stance? What did he want us to feel? To explore? I mention this to my sister, she says 'just read the book' but for me, it's so much more than that. Not having been alive when this book was writt...more
This book was written a few years before I was born, and the social and political climate has changed so much. So much so that when political parties were mentioned, or stories arrived involving people of color, I wasn't sure what to think about them. What was the author's stance? What did he want us to feel? To explore? I mention this to my sister, she says 'just read the book' but for me, it's so much more than that. Not having been alive when this book was writt...more
Feb 22, 2019Dianeparente62gmail.com rated it really liked it · review of another edition
A Slice of Life
What is offered here is !n an intriguing story of two boys and a girl as they make their way through life. We encounter them first as teenagers already bearing the scars of their parents' actions and attitudes. Gretchen and Tom act out their teenage anger in self destructive behavior while brother Rudolph stays above the fray by keeping his nose to the grindstone of academic demands. His parents, the baker father and resentful mother see Rudolph as the most likely to succeed.
Succe...more
Sep 01, 2017Therese rated it liked it · What is offered here is !n an intriguing story of two boys and a girl as they make their way through life. We encounter them first as teenagers already bearing the scars of their parents' actions and attitudes. Gretchen and Tom act out their teenage anger in self destructive behavior while brother Rudolph stays above the fray by keeping his nose to the grindstone of academic demands. His parents, the baker father and resentful mother see Rudolph as the most likely to succeed.
Succe...more
review of another edition Shelves: classics, 2017-popsugar-reading-challenge, historical-fiction, 2017-reads
The Jordache family gives new meaning to the word dysfunctional, and although they work hard, they don’t have much to show for it, not even love for one another, let alone much caring. Axel Jordache is a brute of a man and his wife, Mary, has only learned to tolerate his cruelty after 20 years of marriage. Their three children, Gretchen, Rudolph, and Thomas don’t care for their parents for each other much either, but one thing the parents agree on is that Rudolph, their golden child, will make s...more
Apr 01, 2019Dario DallaLasta rated it really liked it · review of another edition
What a stunning achievement by novelist Irwin Shaw! My only reference to this best-seller was a dim recollection of the week-long miniseries in 1976 starring a then-unknown Nick Nolte, playing the pugilistic and trouble prone Tommy Jordache. Basically, the book follows the Jordache children: oldest sister Gretchen, middle child Rudy, and youngest boy Tommy, as they grow up in the 1940s and follows them through the late 1960s. Rudy is the uptight and tightly wound 'Rich Man' of the title and Tomm...more
Read this a L O N G Time ago in the early 70's and it was a favorite. The TV Mini series was great but no recorder then so had to be sure to be home when it aired. Oh, those were the days!!!
Anyway, still have my trade paperback that has turned brown with age and the cover is falling apart so in my quest to do yet another of my cleaning up of my shelves, I'm finally letting this one go.
Since the times were so different and I was so much younger when I read this, if I reread it now may not enjoy...more
Anyway, still have my trade paperback that has turned brown with age and the cover is falling apart so in my quest to do yet another of my cleaning up of my shelves, I'm finally letting this one go.
Since the times were so different and I was so much younger when I read this, if I reread it now may not enjoy...more
This book is a family saga of the Jordache family Gretchen, Rudy and Thomas. It takes us through the years as each family member develops their own personalities and life paths. Gretchen whose mother calls her a whore, Thomas the wild child always getting into trouble and Rudy the golden boy of the family. Excellent reading, I kept waiting for something catastrophic to happen. I wasn't disappointed
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Shaw was born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the South Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants. Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for his novels, The Young Lions (1948) and Rich Man Poor Man (1970).
His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw...more
His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw...more
Rich man, poor man(4 books)
More quizzes & trivia...
“I make it a point to look as healthy and attractive as I can at all times,” Boylan had explained to Rudolph. “Even if I don’t see anybody for weeks on end. It’s a form of self-respect.” — 4 likes
“Кейт, всеки път, когато те любя, забравям по едно лошо нещо в живота си” — 1 likes
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