The Dream Merchants by Harold Robbins

It’s been a long time since I read a book of Harold Robbins. I’ve always thought his books made light reading with sexual scenes sprinkled liberally.

The Dream Merchants proves me wrong. It shows H.Robbins in a new light. This is the novel of our age-old theme “from rags to riches story”. Almost all the famous authors have tried their hands at this theme and for sheer narrating skill, I would rate Jeffrey Archer’s “As the crow flies” as the best in that genre. This book of H.R. however focuses on the human emotions and conflicts and has brought them out superbly and in a very moving manner. Though the story revolves around the film industry, there is not much of glamour to be seen that you normally associate with any novel dealing with that subject. Instead his attempts to portray the friendship between two persons and their joint struggle to move to the top.

No sharp twists, no explicit sexual encounters, no dramatic incidents but Robbins holds one’s attention till the last page with his gripping narrative which flows so smoothly that even the dramatic twists that he introduces  don’t produce the desired effect.

The novel is pretty lengthy which might be a put off but once you start, Robbins guarantees that you’ll race through every page and atlast, put it down with a heavy heart.