LiterariLeigh

I describe some books as "a soap opera". It's not a criticism, it just means I think it's very dramatic, features over the top situations and highly emotional characters, and compels me to keep reading no matter what.

In the case of Rich Man, Poor Man by Irwin Shaw, the book is a grand family saga that chronicles  two brothers and their sister from the mid-1940's through the late 1960's. A difficult and bitter home life sends the Jordache siblings into the world on vastly different paths. Gretchen is the eldest and runs off to try and pursue a life in the theater; brother Rudy pushes himself to succeed as a businessman; and angry, defiant little brother Thomas is sent off by his father, and must try to make it on his own. Full of scandal, passion, triumph and defeat, this novel is the very definition of "popular fiction". I also suggest delighting in the made for TV mini-series from 1976 - we have it on DVD!