Having read three Harold Robbins bestsellers, I wasn’t looking forward to reading The Pirate.
The novel lived up to my expectations.
The story is set “today” — the novel came out in ’74—in the Middle East, which is the setting for most of the action outside of bedrooms.
The pirate is Baydr Al Fay, a Jewish baby switched at birth for a dead Arab one and schooled in England and America to use money to make more money.
Baydr is emotionally separated from his California-born wife, seeming to care only about their two sons, whom he rarely sees. Their elder son is soon to be named heir and successor to the Prince Feiyad.
One of Baydr’s daughters by his wife has joined the Fedayeen in rebellion against her father’s preoccupation with making money.
Badyr is a tough guy living by Eastern codes in which women count for nothing; however, my Western mind says rape is rape even if the victims have the personality of a foam egg carton.
The story jerks disjointedly though the sexual adventures of all the major characters and a few of the minor ones, until the novel ends in flames in the Syrian mountains.
The Pirate by Harold Robbins
Simon and Schuster 1974. 408 p.
1974 bestseller #7. My grade: D
© 2018 Linda Gorton Aragoni
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