A fascinating look at the development of the American social order, Heads You Lose is to American capitalism what The Grapes of Wrath was to the migrant farm workers. Our young protagonist George is in medical school when his parents commit suicide, shooting themselves in the restroom of the Colony Club while the stock market crashes. What follows is Georges and Americas forty years in the wilderness. George wanders the country seeking work and is given shelter on the Indian Reservation at Wounded Knee. When its discovered that the beautiful Matoaka is pregnant, he is forced to leave. A few years laterafter a stint in the CCCs, an FDR remedy for the Depressionhe becomes a union organizer, and is present at John L. Lewis founding of the CIO. He learns that Matoaka had died in childbirth, returns to the Reservation to claim his son, and eventually marries the daughter of a wealthy Bostonian. Seduced by the opportunity to better himself, he abandons working for the union, only to have his ambitions derailed by Pearl Harbor. In the service, he helps a Saudi-Arabian Prince, now an American citizen, avoid duty on the front. When the war ends, the Princes father sends for George so he can express his gratitude. In one horribly gripping scene, we see him crawling across the desert that will yield him untold riches. Georges empire ripens more quickly than Rome, and leads to a life and death struggle for survival. This novel is a must read for the younger generation who are beginning to reach out for the idealism that threatens to be forgotten. Flip a coin, this is Vegas, were building something out of nothing in the desert.
