From Hungary to Wall St

Press, 28 May 1983, Page 16

From Hungary to Wall St

Worldly Goods. By Michael Korda. Bodley Head, 1983. 348 pp. $19.95.

“Worldly Goods” is another good sample of the growing collection of thrillers based on the conflicts of wealth and power in the world of American big business. Its special quality comes from the manner in which it weaves together two stories that are widely separated in time, but linked by characters common to them both. Rival corporations do battle in contemporary America, but the roots of their conflict lie in Hungary in the 19305, and in Nazi death camps during the Second World War.

Korda is at his best when writing about the lives of the Hungarian aristocracy, first on its semi-feudal estates between the World Wars, and then in its struggles to survive when Hungary became a tepid ally of the Germans. The characters, even of such larger-than-life figures as Goring, have an authentic flavour well beyond run-of-the-mill heroes and villains. “Worldly Goods” has little to say about the operations of business empires, but a great deal of value to relate about love, and revenge, in a manner at once sensitive and convincing. — Naylor Hillary.