Max Britsky rises, by the time he is thirty, from the tumultuous streets of turn-of-the-century New York to control of the first great Hollywood studio--through brawls, loves, triumphs, and betrayals Max Britsky rises, by the time he is thirty, from the tumultuous streets of turn-of-the-century New York to control of the first great Hollywood studio--through brawls, loves, triumphs, and betrayals

The conclusion of the Lavette saga focuses on Barbara, now in her sixties, whose campaign for election into Congress brings excitement, the renewal of a romantic love, mortal danger, tragedy, and personal triumph

An Independent Woman continues the story of Barbara Lavette, the charismatic heroine of Second Generation, The Establishment, The Legacy, and The Immigrant's Daughter. Gently aging but as strong-willed as ever, she has become the matriarch of the large and powerful Lavette clan, whom everyone turns to for guidance and for the strength of her faith in the human spirit. After years as a liberal journalist, Barbara discovers the joys of a real love when she meets and marries Philip Carter, a Unitarian minister. Yet upon their return home to San Francisco from a romantic honeymoon in Europe and Israel, Barbara faces a test that proves to be more challenging and harrowing than anything that has come before.

On a quiet night in the best part of Greenwich, Connecticut, eight people assemble for a convivial dinner. But after that night, their lives will never be the same, as death erupts into their lives. They are a disparate group, including a former State Department employee, a Catholic nun, a linguistics professor, and a successful novelist. They, and the people they love, portray the arrogance and innocence, brutality and compassion in America today. Each character becomes a thread-dark, light, or a shade in between-in a carpet of intricate design, and as Howard Fast weaves them together, they embody the interdependence of human life and human guilt and the eternal work of redemption.

When Ike Goldman, a seventy-eight-year-old retired law professor at Columbia University, dissuades a much younger woman from jumping off the George Washington Bridge, he never suspects that his selfless action will lead to love. Nor does he suspect that the sensitive and caring woman whom he saved from herself will be accused of murdering her abusive ex-husband. Ike cannot believe that Elizabeth could be capable of such an act, but he has known her for only six weeks and cannot stop the questions that hound him. Was the abuse that Elizabeth suffered during her eight-year marriage enough to drive her to murder? Could Ike's love for her blind him to a dark side of her personality? Does her refuge in her Catholic faith mask a dreadful vengeance? In the swirling thrust and parry of Elizabeth's trial, Ike is forced to examine his hopes, his beliefs, and his love for a woman whose life hangs in the balance.

This First Edition in Spanish is hard to find! Hardcover shows some bending in corners and signs of shelf life. Book inside is in wonderful reading condition. Pages have a tan. From the private collection of a fine erudite book lover.