A Man of Affairs

by John D. MacDonald

Beneath the Bahamas sun rages a titanic power struggle. A mastermind of the dog-eat-dog world of corporate corruption, Mike Dean uses every asset at his disposal - women, liquor, his own personal magnetism - to take businessmen's minds off their troubles, soften their consciences, muddy their good sense, and bend them to his will. But one of his house guests refuses to see things Mike's way. One of them won't be bought. One of them has a mind, and a heart, of his own. And he's determined to beat Mike at his own game.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Novels

175 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

John D. MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and educated at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Harvard, where he took an MBA in 1939. During WW2, he rose to the rank of Colonel, and while serving in the Army and in the Far East, sent a short story to his wife for sale, successfully. He served in the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. After the war, he decided to try writing for a year, to see if he could make a living. Over 500 short stories and 70 novels resulted, including 21 Travis McGee novels.

Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.

In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

MacDonald’s “A Man of Affairs” is the story about a local man, Sam Glidden, a high school football hero who blew out his knee and lost his chance at a scholarship. The Harrison Corporation, particularly the chief shareholder, took him in and gave him a career. Now, years later, the old man is gone, the company stock has tanked, and the founder’s two kids are worried why their quarterly dividends have dried up. With the stock in the tank though, it’s prime feeding grounds for corporate raider Mike Dean. With the two kids faltering, it’s up to Sam to save the company for its employees.

The setting though for most of the story is a private cay in the Bahamas where Dean plans to wine and dine his targets. Sam invited himself along though he has no voting stock. The scene on the island is one party scene with sexual escapades and fist fights. Amidst all the drunken revelry, though, business deals get hammered out and things get pretty serious.

More of a business adventure than a crime novel, it meanders a bit until the craziness explodes towards the end. The big question throughout is how to fend off Dean and whether selling out to him is the wise move or a betrayal of everyone Sam knows.

[Freddie the Know-it-all · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cape Sneer

A lot of witty, cocktail-party jousting by a dozen or so smart-alecs on Fantasy Island (ABC, 1977-1984), which is just The Love Boat (ABC, 1977-1986) run aground. Everyone on the island is porking everyone else and falling in and out of love like on The Edge of Night (CBS/ABC, 1956-1975), but with no cases of amnesia or mistaken identity. Nor do they get the idea to "start a band" like on Happy Days (ABC, 1974-1984).

There's some kind of Dallas (CBS, 1978-1991) style high-finance swindling behind it all. But the closest thing to a "Murder Room" (Volumes 1-750) is a guy eaten by barracudas, like you'd expect on Flipper (NBC, 1964-1967) or Sea Hunt (NA, 1958-1961).

The witty banter at the week-long cocktail party is never heard in real life -- we all know the often-quoted Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and GBS (1856-1950) stuff is just made up and the product of eight draft-revisions by a team of pro comedy-writers -- so this book got a solid "F" on my Believability Test.

As usual, the ending is long, but good, even though the hero (along with his new-found love-at-first-sight) don't spend nearly enough miserable time on Gilligan's Island (CBS, 1964-1967) to suit me.

The ending was good, so it gets an "A". And after the number-crunching, bean-counting, and wheeler-dealing -- without any glad-handing, back-slapping, in-fighting, knee-slapping, toe-tapping, hand-holding, or log-rolling -- this averages to 5 stars.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Boy wins girl. Boy wins rich girl. High school dream comes true at last."

A nice laid back little story about corporate intrigue and personal dilemmas. The story itself isn't anything amazing, but the writing and the characters are great, and sometimes you just need something quick, refreshing, and satisfying.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the characters that do it for me. This is not one of the best stories ever told, but it kept me reading and turning the pages because the characterization is just so incredibly good.

[wally · Rating 4 out of 5]

16 jan 15, friday afternoon, 5:15 p.m. e.s.t.
#25 from macdonald for me. last macdonald read Contrary Pleasure

(1957) a man of affairs john d macdonald

story begins:
i got out my car and stood beside it on the gravel driveway and looked at the big frame house. i had not seen it in over two years, not since the death of louise's father put an end to those futile and meaningless conferences he used to hold in his home. the house and grounds had not changed. the blinds were closed against the heat of a midmorning monday in may. the plantings were as formal and rich and well-tended as ever.

time place scene setting
*1957 macdonald often places his stories in the year he writes them or the year they are published
*portston
*the harrison corporation, a company started in 1858 by aaron harrison, louise's and thomas's great-great-great-grandfather
*the plant...al dolson's office
*grand bahama island
*dubloon cay, an aircraft, a 26' sports fisherman called try again dubloon cay is 30 miles northeast of grand bahama
*the grand bahama club
*a small island not far from dubloon cay

characters major minor peripheral real imagined famous
*louise dodge: daughter of one of a line of thomas mcgann's, one of two children of mcgann. 27-year-old, married to warren dodge, and she along with her brother inherited a large portion of the harrison corporation
*walt burgeson: a banker
*thomas mcgann: one of many by that name, deceased, father of tommy and louise
*a heavy negro woman, maid/housekeeper for the dodge family
*sam glidden: our hero, eye-narrator of the story, and vice president of the harrison corporation. 30-year-old, single, he was the only child of his mother's first marriage. mother remarried, he has four half-brothers and four half-sisters. he had hopes to become a football great but a knee injury put the keebosh on that. thomas mcgann put him through college and in turn sam went to work for the company. sam and louise have known each other since school days
*al dolson: president of the harrison corporation, a man likely to panic at bad news although sam has been building him up.
*michael "mike" davis dean: a shark, wealthy, with a reputation of success, a man who takes control of companies through stock and a man who does as he pleases, one company he still sits on board of directors, culver chemical corporation
*a small group of men knife-sharp staff of cpa's, tax attorneys, engineers & management specialists
*fletcher bowman: mike dean's man, a kind of second-in-command
*aaron harrison, great,great,great grandfather of louise and tommy, started company in 1858
*jessica, his daughter, married the first thomas mcgann
*gene budler: sales manager for the harrison corporation
*cary murchinson: in engineering
*a public stenographer...a houseman
*thomas "tommy" mcgann: son of the deceased thomas mcgann, 35-year-old, married to puss, yes, puss, portrayed as a likeable person, happy to play, w/o much in the way of cares
*puss mcgann: tommy's wife, 29-year-old, portrayed as a tom-boy
*a student
*two boxer pups, meanie and moe
*molly, secretary to al dolson
*alice rice, secretary to sam glidden
*harry and andy, two men work for the harrison corporation
*a slim young man who looked oriental, employee of mike dean
*two young men, moran the pilot of the plane and a copilot, or captain and pilot as macdonald distinguishes them
*ricky, steward on board the flight to grand bahama
*louise's girlfriend
*a man came toward the aircraft
*allan murray space shoes? what!...gregory peck...cicero
*two bahama boys
*butlin, name of name who built grand bahama club after war...sold
*poor little mouse (girl) on high board/pool...a smalll boy
*romeo, crew of the boat try again that takes them from grand bahama to dubloon cay
*amparo blakely: mike dean's girl friday
*two bahamaian boys in white jackets, employees of mike dean
*a blonde girl came in, called "murphy"...bridget hallowell, a writer, had been married, hubby died in an accident, works for brainerd associates, a p.r. firm hired by mike dean
*one of the white-coated men
*skylark, a small boy w/a white jacket and great dignity, romeo's and ruby's youngest son, employed by mike dean
*bonny carson, an actress in musicals
*bundy: a small man who attends bonny
*guy brainerd: bridget's boss, married, having a fling with elda garry, does p.r. for mike dean
*elda garry, lady editor of blend magazine
*cam duncan, cameroon mackenzie duncan, one of mike's many lawyers
*porter crown of crown ranch, tex-crown oil, crown-arabian oil, crown-dean aviation devices etc, feelthy reech, owns the portess a 50' yacht
*tessy crown, his 3rd wife, almost half porter's age, a barracuda
*crew of two for the portess:
*jack buck, muscle, cracker-stereotype, crews/captains porter's portess
*fidelio, mexican chef on the portess, steward
*lolly crown from laura, only child from porter crown's 2nd marriage
*john, one of the bahamian servants of mike dean
*booty: a female servant of mike dean, soon to be married to a man who is captain of a charter boat
*bert buford: resident manager of a big land syndicate near miami, employed by mike dean
*margaret mary: bert's wife, southern belle
*ralph pegler, a radio contact on the mainland, mike dean uses to keep updated on the doing's of his empire
*dave mcgintry: personal tax lawyer of mike dean
*jack, son of an old rancher buddy of porter crown
*another woman in guy's past...union officials...pretty good practical psychologists, some dandy statisticians and some bright accountants
*christer...as in church-going fella...faustus...judas...joan of arc
*driver...torero...tiny figure
*nassau, proper officials...funeral director...abner dead cartoons
*amparo had a child without benefit of clergy
*charlie...character in a book...lael hiw wife
*chaperons and the girls...sambo, a football coach who called sam sambo...new york staff
*bonny's last two agents
*spider
*george and kate thatcher...friend on a new york paper...her folks...the man
*kellison of kell-mar associates, another shark
*carlotta, a maid...miguel, gardenered, mexiso
*cuernavaca

update, finished, 17 jan 15, saturday afternoon, 2:15 p.m. e.s.t.
good story. there are not many of them, but you could include this one on the short list of fiction from macdonald that does not fit neatly on the genre shelf. take whatever name folk like to call things...this does not fit that mold. this is that hoity-toity fiction, literature...macdonald and hemingway, bare-chested in the bahamas. ooga ooga! what others are there? Flash of Green comes to mind. there are others, one or two more, stories included in that "#25 from macdonald for me" noted above. john d macdonald was writing dallas before dallas was cool. course, what they have back in the day? peyton place? i love lucy? in separate beds?

good story. worth a read. onward and upward.

a quote from the story
it takes a special man to tell the difference between right and wrong, but any damn fool can tell the difference between good and evil.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another one where the title, cover art, and jacket copy have no bearing on the content of the novel. The basic plot is that a corporate raider - Mike Dean - is trying to take over a small manufacturing company but needs the proxies from two family members who are majority shareholders. He invites them to his island in the Bahamas so he can wine and dine and get them to sign over the proxies. As the story begins, our protagonist, Sam Glidden, Vice President of the target company, visits the family members and self-invites himself to the Bahamas with the hope of convincing them not to sign their shares over to Dean. The real question, which surfaces quite early on during the Bahamas trip, is whether Sam Glidden will sell out and join Dean's takeover team

This novel further cements my belief that MacDonald spent a good chunk of his writing time cranking out character sketches, which he clearly enjoyed and excelled at producing. In this novel there are more than thirty people at Mike Dean's island estate and we get full descriptions and back story on all of them. The early part of the novel is weighed down with all these character introductions, too many to keep track of really, but MacDonald came up with a clever technique for getting a lot of them on the page without just doing an exposition dump of all his prepared sketches. He has another character describe - in a saucy and witty stretch of dialogue - all those assembled around the pool. It is a characterlog of the cast delivered in a unique voice. Once we've met all these people, MacDonald spends the rest of the novel throwing them at each other. And that's really what the novel is about. The corporate take over part of the plot takes up about as much space as a longish short story. All of the character introductions and the later interactions between them are the rest of the book, but that is where MacDonald's true gift resided, so it is all entertaining.

A couple of interesting precursors for this novel are found in two stories that were published in MacDonald's collection The Good Old Stuff. "Breath No More" and "From Some Hidden Grave" are both set on a private island estate with a large cast of characters. Those stories have a completely different plot setup, but the island setting, the estate with its "bugged" rooms, the crowd of characters, and the way the interactions ultimately unravel the good time weekend in paradise, all track from the stories to the novel.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Corporate soap opera. This was written in era where men rolled up their shirt sleeves and used slide rules and women were either secretaries and willing to work long hours or full time homemakers keeping the martinis cold for their hardworking husbands. That's over simplifying things of course, but this is JDM's world populated by squares, louts and lushes. My book has the odd tagline about being a "story with a hero" and a cover showing a man dressed for the beach surrounded by 6 women in bikinis. I can totally imagine my teenage self finding this book in a used bookstore and thinking "Right on! It's a man's world!" but now that I'm a somewhat jaded guy in his 50's I look at the cover and just think "Right on! That should be my life!" Okay...never mind that. As for the book itself, nothing really criminal happens in it. Instead it's a story about a company in New York facing a corporate raider. Our "hero" has to decide if he'll let the company get taken over or fight the takeover and turn the company around with hard work and a good old heaping helping of American can-do attitude. This is all played out on a Caribbean island with too many characters. There is a lot of drinking, screwing, fighting and soul searching going on while our hero has to decide if he's going to sell out or remain faithful to his company. It's never boring and is an interesting look at the corporate mindset of the times. MacDonald was a Harvard MBA grad and uses that background for setting up the plot. It's okay. But if you're looking for a taut suspense novel that MacDonald is famous for this one isn't it.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam the VP of a company attempts to fend off a hostile takeover after the death of the owner. When controlling shares pass to daughter and son, they both are wavering whether to cash out the the charismatic Mike Dean. Sam, however, has worked so hard to make the company profitable. The story moves to a small island the Bahamas when Dean invites all on a company retreat to work his charm.

This is early MacDonald written in the 50's, but has the mark of all his later books. I find them easy to read, though a bit chauvinistic with dated ideas. While MacDonald sometimes goes off on philosophical tangents that slow the plot down, I, never the less find most of his novels entertaining as I do this one.

[Peter Sidell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big guy discovers he's not a phony and gets the girl

With an interesting foreshadowing of the more contemporary business world there is a threatened hostile takeover of a family business as the center of the story. There are a couple of deaths. Conveniently they move the plot along. Unpredictable enough to keep the readers interest. The story ends with an interlude in Cuernevaca. MacDonald lived there from time to time.
Cigarette smoking comes up a lot. Paints an interesting picture of life in the fifties.

[Derek Karten · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book by John D. MacDonald. About corporate intrigue on a tropical island get away and relationships between the characters. Some violent incidents and a few deaths make for an interesting build in suspense. A good read.

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable enough and follows MacDonalds usual hodge lodge of interests. It is a little disappointing because the book does not entirely deliver the "Epstein Island" style situation the copy on the book kind of eludes to but I suppose this was plenty novel and lurid when it was punched in 1957.

[Maggie Foster]

A less than completely heroic hero, but at least he marries the girl and they live happily ever after.

[Jorn Barger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A vivid early portrait of corporate raiders raiding. The ending was a bit silly.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic MacDonald, except the ending.

[Margaret]

I read a review of this book in the Globe this morning. It seems that MacDonald, a contemporary of Ayn Rand, presents a perspective that varies from Rand's in Atlas Shrugged and may be more promising from an economic view. This looks like a must read.

[Larry Webber · Rating 5 out of 5]

just read it! Rough business hijinx in the Carribean moonlight!

[Eddie Novak · Rating 2 out of 5]

January 26, 2006
January 28, 2006