The Legacy

Lavette Family #4

by Howard Fast

Dan Lavette's daughter, Barbara, is caught up in a brief, bittersweet marriage, an intriguing affair, and the social and political turbulence of the 1960s

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Historical Romance, Novels

359 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Howard Fast was one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century. He was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. The son of immigrants, Fast grew up in New York City and published his first novel upon finishing high school in 1933. In 1950, his refusal to provide the United States Congress with a list of possible Communist associates earned him a three-month prison sentence. During his incarceration, Fast wrote one of his best-known novels, Spartacus (1951). Throughout his long career, Fast matched his commitment to championing social justice in his writing with a deft, lively storytelling style.

Pseudonyms: Walter Ericson, E.V. Cunningham

Reviews

[Bodosika Bodosika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I have not read the others, it was the fourth book in the sequence and can be read as"a stand alone" It was unputdownable.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth novel in the Lavette Family series covers a span of ten years (1958-1968). The lives and experiences of the Lavette family continues along, intertwined with the Levy and Cassala families. The focus shifts to the grandchildren, now grown and just starting to branch out on their own although there is still quite a bit relating to the older generations as well. In fact, Dan’s daughter Barbara continues in the role of the primary protagonist of the entire series. While Dan’s story was the focus of the first book, The Immigrants, every other book has featured Barbara in the lead role.

But that’s OK because her life has mirrored much of 20th century America itself. Major events that occurred during this volume include the women’s movement, Civil Rights activism, various anti-war projects, and of course the Vietnam war. While the Vietnam war is experienced from the living rooms of our characters, the 6 Day war in Israel is more front and center as Barbara’s son Sam gets caught up in it after a stint at Hebrew University. I was surprised that more wasn’t devoted to the JFK assassination, but it is marked as were the assassinations of RFK and MLK. All-in all, I was pleased to read an historical novel of the 1960’s that focused on a slightly different mix of topics than the usual.

The history is the background while the emphasis remains on the characters and their interconnected journeys through life. I enjoy Howard Fast’s style and following along with these families. It feels like I know them and I look forward to the final two volumes.

[Dora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Παρολες τις επαναλήψεις, λέει σχεδόν όλη την ιστορία του Ντάνι και της Τζιν ξανά κ ξανά, έχει πριν το τέλος ένα αντιπολεμικό κομμάτι παρα πολύ καλό !! Κάνει μια σκληρή αυτοκριτική των ομοεθνων του, του πολέμου του Βιετνάμ, των κυρίαρχων πλανηταρχων.
Κρίμα που δεν βρήκα τα υπόλοιπα 2 μέρη που έγραψε πολύ αργότερα ο Φαστ
Εξαλογια λοιπόν η δυναστεία των Λαβέτ κ Λέβι. Σ'αυτο πεθαίνει η Τζιν ενώ στο προηγούμενο πέθανε ο Νταν.
Λυπάμαι που θα αφήσω αυτή την παρέα μεταναστών Ιταλών κ Εβραίων στο Σαν Φρανσίσκο του προηγούμενου αιώνα. Μοιάζει τόσο με τη Θεσσαλονίκη!!

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

ENTERTAINING SOAP-OPERA / HISTORICAL FICTION.

“There has to be an end someday to this dividing the world up into races and religions and nations, all of them with a license to murder anyone who is different…” (kl. 5979)

Howard Fast is a master at writing compelling historical fiction / soap opera. His novel, The Legacy, the forth in his saga of the Lavette Family, is especially engaging for those of us who lived through the mid-50s to the mid-60s.

Recommendation: For all who’d enjoy a window into the way it was.

“Joe’s imperfect world was to Sally a lunatic cage, wherein the stupidity of men brought agony to practically everyone.” (kl. 6032)

Open Road Media. Kindle Edition. 7020 Kindle Locations

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, no doubt, I absolutely love this Lavette family saga from Howard Fast. This is the fourth book and basically takes readers from 1958 to 1968.

Barbara dominates most of the book again with her anti-war and women's movement involvement after she rejects her Hollywood opportunity as a screenwriter for her own early novel. The third generation of Lavettes and their contemporaries begin to mature and figure out their roles in California commerce and politics.

Surprisingly, there's little mention of the Kennedy years and really nothing about the 1960 presidential election. This is surprising since Nixon is a California product. However, JFK's assassination and Johnson's presidency along with the MLK and RFK assassinations do get attention along with how these incidents relate to the Lavettes.

Fred gets involved with the civil rights activists in Mississippi while he's about ready to graduate from Princeton. Sam insists on looking for his roots on his father's side in Israel and ends up beginning his med school education there.

Fast makes much of the Vietnam "living room" war, bringing back memories for me of that first televised war.

Again, I'm struck by how much I feel these characters are friends and families that I know.

I finally took the time to figure out that Barbara Lavette is a contemporary of my mother and Sam is of my generation. The family trees at the end of this book, like the one before it, help a great deal.

I especially recommend this series for anyone who lives in or around San Francisco and is interested in the history of that city.

Now, I'm taking a brief break before reading the next is this series to read "The Girl in the Spider's Web" by David Lagercrantz. It's the fourth in Steig Larsson's Millennium (Lisbeth Salander) Series.

[LadyCalico · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally love big, sweeping family sagas, but not this one. In order to enjoy a saga one must find the characters somewhat interesting and likable, but I didn't. I found Barbara Lavette a self-important pretentious bore and the next generation of self-absorbed brats even worse. The characters were generally effete, spoiled, snobby, whiney elitists who might say they love man in the abstract while selfishly treating individual people like dirt in reality. I wouldn't have wanted to spend any time with these characters in real life so I certainly wouldn't want to spend any time with them in a book--reading takes longer. Nothing really interesting or enjoyable in here.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

WAY to much review of the previous books! I loved the ongoing story but this book was more review than story, I should have stopped with the third book in this series. I know there are now two more but this one ruined the rest of it for me. I'm done.

[Carolyn Pina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Book 4 of The Immigrant Series and (like the others) excellent reading.

[Fran Gerardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the book we see the grown grandchildren of Dan Lavette, as well as the Levy and Cassala children. This families remain entwined after three generations. It also focuses on the older Barbara Lavette, Dan's daughter. The author introduces many social and political issues. We see how the family struggled through the Kennedy assassinations, the civil unrest of the 60s, particularly in Mississippi. We see the role the Viet Nam war played on the family and how the destruction of war in general motivated Barbara to become a leader in the women's rights movement. The author also showed, through Jean Lavette, how systemic prejudice can evolve. As a child Jean was taught that anyone different from her was beneath her, not her equal, to be looked down upon and definitely not an association. As the years go by we see the shift in Jean's thoughts and actions, but the underlying prejudices are still there in subtle ways carried down to her daughter who has to think twice about her own discriminatory thoughts towards her Jewish husband and others she has closely encountered in her life.

[LauraT · Rating 4 out of 5]

"... I certainly should not believe everything I read. In particular about politics. Do you?
- When I can I prefere fiction. So I don't have to believe it"

"Afterwards, I wondered whether it would have made any difference if I were all Jewish, instead of something that isn’t a Jew or a Christian. But that’s all right. There has to be an end someday to this dividing the world up into races and religions and nations, all of them with a license to murder anyone who is different, and I guess that I’m sort of thankful that I’m caught somewhere in the middle."

“The sense of being a woman,” Dan’s daughter, Barbara Lavette, wrote in her first novel, which was entitled Driftwood, “is the sense of being an outsider. There have been other outsiders-slaves, minorities, the Jews, and at one point or another both the Catholics and the Protestants—but through all of remembered history, there has been only one constant outsider, the woman. She is never of the world; she always remains at the edge of it, tolerated, loved occasionally, respected less occasionally, and once in a while given a small gift of power. But even with the power, she is never free to leave the edge of the circle and walk into the center of it.”

Sometimes even in what you'd not call "High Literature" you find pearls worth an afternoon read ...

[Scott Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 4th book in the series, and I've enjoyed them all. I like this kind of series, which combines good writing, good characters, with historical events. In this case the history covers the time from 1958 to 1968, which is now getting into the period of time I can remember in my own life. In reading this part of the story I am reminded of the problems in the country and the world that seemed challenging then, but we came through it ok. This gives me hope for the future. It seems every generation thinks things are getting worse, but much of the drama is cyclical instead of linear. Human beings are flawed, but there is also a lot of good in most people and having a strong, loving family is a great resource. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series and I am confident it will be just as good!

[Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really appreciated this book for its simplicity. The plot is not crazy and it basically just shows how rich people live. They are human just like non-rich people and pretty much the same things are going on in their mind as in other’s mind. I like this because bringing such a different perspective shows that being human means something similar no matter where we come from. As mentioned by many others, having read the previous books of the Lavette family was not necessary at all, even when it came to understanding the ties between the characters. I am now very motivated to read the other books of the series.

[Patsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Legacy continues the saga of the Lavette family begun in these bestsellers: The Immigrants, Second Generation, and The Establishment.
This fourth-in-series story takes place during the turbulent 1960s as Barbara Lavette and her family are embroiled in the issues of that decade: Civil Rights, Israel's Six-Day War, the Nixon years, Vietnam and riots in the street. Barbara Lavette develops into a powerful, strong willed, capable person while the children of the third generation of Lavettes take their place in society and stand by their own ideals and values.

[Anne Vandenbrink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big Dan Lavette passed away. His daughter, Barbara, always the activist, starts the "Mothers For Peace" movement. Her son, Sam, studying to become a doctor in Israel, get caught up in the 6 day war as a medic. Many other stories involving the extended families. Good book, but I'd advise reading them in sequence.

[Ruth Vanderhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Atebe Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Devilishly readable!

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed

I have followed these characters through 4 books in the series. Have enjoyed them and can’t wait to see what happens in the last two books.

[Susan]

1958-1967 San Fransisco: Lavettes sisters

[Willie Kirschner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I continue to be a fan of this series and of this author and look forward to reading the next 2 books in the series.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Chic]

What a great four book series. Loved each ot the book one thru four. 9 of 10!

[Guillermo Maddalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buena novela!!! Si bien es una tetralogía, se puede leer de manera individual.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

an era i grew up in

A time i grew up in. Life was in a turmoil. Vietnam soldiers dying. Kennedy assassination. Busing. Rfk assassination. And the next generation.

[Tanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the fourth installment just as much as the first books of the series, this one taking the reader through the years from 1958 to 1968.

[Graceann · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE LEGACY is the fourth in the six books of the Lavette Saga - this volume concentrates on Barbara's opposition to the Vietnam war and her son's adventures in Israel.

Howard Fast masterfully ties many threads together to make a very interesting quilt. Several diverse and well-written characters make appearances. Barbara and her mother, Jean, are especially well executed. Barbara's crises of guilt and depression over various issues are believable and compellingly expressed. The very real fear that every parent of a son at that time had - that their child might be sent away to fight in a conflict on the other side of the World - is palpable.

Once again there is a boring subplot about a spoiled brat who can't decide what they want out of their life. Thankfully, it was short in duration, but it was enought to reduce my rating from five stars to four. Otherwise, The Legacy is a gripping read. Sadly, as is the case with a series that spans almost a century, I had to say goodbye to characters I'd come to love; I kept hoping they would be with the story for just a few more pages, because they began to feel like family. That, to me, is one of the highest marks of an enjoyable series.

[Rox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fourth episode took the reader via the Lavette family into the 50's and 60's. Instead of reading about someone else's American history, it was familiar to me as I grew up during those decades. I am looking forward to seeing San Francisco next year, especially since reading about it through the eyes of the book's characters.

[Terri Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howard Fast has taken the Lavette family from the turn of the century to the turbulent 60's where the family is involved in civil rights, the six day war, and Viet Nam. Unfortunately, I have had to say good bye to some characters that I have come to love. And in this book Barbara Lavette starts to ponder her own mortality and the inevitable march of life something that those of us in their mid years can relate to. The author explores a woman's aging in all it's facets from empty nest, fighting depression, and reinventing yourself to find a new meaning and fullness of life.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in the Lavette family series. This book encompasses the lives of this family during the 60's through Vietnam and to Nixon and Watergate. Barbara Lavette is still the fiery star of this book. I have really liked this series.

[Cws]

F Fas

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this one as well as the previous books in the series. It was depressing, not a whole lot seemed to go right for the characters.