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Born in 1914, Howard Fast published over 53 novels, including numerous New York Times Bestsellers. His writing has been praised by the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and Time magazine. His most famous novels included Spartacus, Freedom Road, My Glorious Brothers, and The Immigrants series.
Cohen, a large, heavyset man of forty-three, was gradually losing his patience, and that would be a prelude to losing his temper and taking it out on everyone around him, and that had been happening too often. Small things, unimportant things, irritated him and provoked him. He had been through too many large things in his life, things that had failed to provoke him, not to realize that something unpleasant and corrosive was happening to him. He had fallen into a pattern of swallowing anger, frustration, and annoyance, remaining fairly unconscious of what was building up inside him. Now he exploded at the meek little woman who faced him.
"God damn it, Mrs. Melcher, I am trying to explain to you why this happens! You ride the damn clutch! A clutch is not something God made, like a horse's rump. It's a mechanism for connecting and disconnecting the engine and the transmission. There's a springloaded pressure plate, which is surfaced on both sides with friction material. Your foot is always on the damn pedal, and it shouldn't be. You have to learn how to drive. It happened before, and it will happen again."
She turned white and whispered, "You have no right to talk to me like that. You have no right to."
He stared down at her. "Oh, Jesus," he said to himself. Gomez, one of his mechanics, was watching him. He dropped his voice and apologized.
"You have no right to talk to me like that," Mrs. Melcher complained, on the point of tears, as if there were no other words she could imagine.
"I'm sorry. We'll fix the car. You'll have it tomorrow."
He turned and stalked through the garage to the men's room at the rear, locked the door behind him, slammed down the toilet cover, and sat there with his chin propped on his clenched, grimy fists. On the door facing him, surrounded by expressions of witless smut, someone had scrawled: "There was an old hermit called Dave, who kept a dead girl in his cave. He said, 'I'll admit I'm a bit of a shit, but think of the money I save.'" He stared at the words at first without comprehension. They hadn't been there the day before. Then, suddenly, everything bottled up inside him exploded. He kicked the door open and roared out at his four mechanics, "I want this goddamn toilet painted! Today! And the next one of you mothers who writes on the walls gets booted out of here on his ass!"
With the mechanics staring at him in amazement, he strode across the garage and into the little glass-walled office. A knot of pain swelled in his stomach as he dropped down behind his desk. He breathed deeply and stared at the inkstained blotter and wondered whether he was developing an ulcer. That would be the final ignominy. An ulcer or a heart attack. He was a big, heavily muscled man, and the last time he had undergone a physical examination, the doctor had warned him that he was the physical type that suffered the greatest incidence of early coronary.
Gomez opened the door of the office gingerly. "Hey, Bernie," he said softly, "something bad happen?"
He stared at Gomez without replying. Gomez, a small, skinny competent Chicano, was the foreman of the shop.
"You really want the crapper painted, Bernie? We're loaded with work."
"Forget it."
"You let them crazy dames get under your skin. Two guys here, they want to see you."
"Take care of it."
"They want to see you."
"About what?"
"I don't know." Gomez spread his arms. "Bernie, Jesus, what is with you? You got good men working here. We give you a day's work, and you chew our asses off. I stand here arguing with you. These guys, they don't want a car job. They want to talk to Mr. Cohen. Talk to them, huh? Let me get back to work."
Cohen nodded. Gomez left the office, and a few moments later, the door opened, and two men entered Cohen's office. One was a slight, sandy-haired man in his mid-thirties. He had bright blue eyes, a pale mustache, and a scar that ran from his temple to his chin. The other man was younger, twenty-three or twenty-four at the most, Cohen decided, plump, with a round, pink-cheeked, baby face. They came into the office and stood facing Cohen, and the pink-cheeked man said, "That's him?"
"That's him," said the sandy-haired man.
Cohen stood up slowly, staring at the sandy-haired man, who grinned at him complacently.
"He is one big sonofabitch," the pink-cheeked man said. Cohen came around the desk, stared for a moment more, and then threw his arms around the sandy-haired man, sweeping him up in an enormous bear hug. The pink-cheeked man watched and nodded.
"You're killing me with affection, you dumb slob," the sandyhaired man managed to say.
Cohen let go of him.
"This is Herbie Goodman," the sandy-haired man said. "Herbie, I want you to meet Bernie Cohen."
They shook hands. "You're a legend," Herbie said. "You are
absolutely a legend."
"How in hell did you find me?" Cohen asked.
"We got our ways. You'd be surprised what ways we got."
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Book Description Condition: Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 10125619-6
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Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Good. Please see any and all photos connected with this listing. A bit scuffed but all pages intact and legible. Good reading copies. Clean. No store stamps. --- --- THE ESTABLISHMENT --- (The third book in the Lavette Family series) --- In "The Establishment", Howard Fast pulls the listener into the turbulent and passionate lives of the Dan Lavette family story begun in "The Immigrants" and continued in "Second Generation". --- Howard Fast again brings to life a cast of characters whose lives become a portrait of their time. Listeners will witness the events in the lives of the children of Dan Lavette: Follow daughter Barbara Lavette, a strong and magnetic personality, from tragedy to final fulfillment; observe the elder son, Tom, as he quests for and finally succumbs to his own unscrupulous drive for power; and feel the conflict as the younger son, Joe, struggles between dedication to his medical work to the poor and having no emotional strength left for his beautiful wife left alone. --- THE IMMIGRANT'S DAUGHTER --- (The fifth book in the Lavette Family series) --- Howard Fast brings the story up to the present, to the fourth generation. As Dan Lavette dominated "The Immigrants", so his eldest child, Barbara, is the focus of this wide-ranging and passionate novel. . . . .After a life filled with danger, love and death, Barbara, now in her sixties, is living a simple life in San Francisco. And then, almost on a whim, she runs for Congress and sets in motion a series of adventures that brings her back to the excitement of the times, to a renewal of romantic love, to mortal danger as a reporter in Central America, to loss and tragedy, and in the end, to an exultant embracing of life. . .See photos for additional content. . . Seller Inventory # 37520
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_344285740
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR005200453
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 1980, stated First Printing, September 1980. Very good condition with light wear on cover. Seller Inventory # 20-15590
Book Description Condition: Buen Estado. Dust Jacket Condition: Buen Estado. Libros. Seller Inventory # 20322