Rich Man Poor Man

This novel was filmed in the 1970s - one of the first big serials on US TV. It was enormously popular, and the book was a best seller. It is a novel starting in 1945 at the end of World War Two, a history of an immigrant family in America. Rudy, the older brother, is hard working and clever and becomes rich and successful. His brother Tom is an angry young man who becomes a boxer and mixes with Criminals. Their sister Gretchen becomes a journalist and then a film maker. Rudy's life goes well for many years and he seems successful but then he becomes Mayor Of Whitby, the town where he lives and makes a foolish decision when in a stand off with some students who are protesting about the War and using drugs. His wife has a drink problem and he himself ends up having to resign as mayor. Meanwhile Tom has bought a boat on the Mediterranean. He has made a bad marriage, but has a son, Wesley, whom he brings to France to live. Tom has finally achieved peace after his years of fighting and being angry with the world. He falls in love with an English girl, who becomes pregnant by him, and he marries her. But at their wedding, disaster strikes. Jean, Rudy's wife, starts drinking again and gets in trouble and Tom goes to rescue her. He is killed by the pimp who was trying to rape her. The book ends sadly with his funeral at sea.