Seventh Avenue

by Norman Bogner

Jay Blackman is an ambitious man. He has the kind of obsessive drive peculiar to successful men, and it is because of this that he marries Rhoda and gets a toe-hold on the slippery slopes of the rag-trade. From this point, there is only one direction he can go: up.

Norman Bogner's novel conveys brilliantly the cut-throat business in which Jay is involved: a violent world where sex is used as a bribe, a threat, or a promise...

Genres: Fiction, Romance

413 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Nick Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of the daytime soap opera ‘The Bold and The Beautiful’, which like Norman Bogner’s ‘Seventh Avenue’ concerns itself with adultery and the fashion industry. And, as I’m fond of saying, Bold & Beautiful’s lead heroine Brooke Logan need only look longingly at a man to completely wreck his marriage. Jay Blackman, the anti-hero at the center of ‘Seventh Avenue,’ need only show the slightest sexual interest in a woman to completely wreck her life. And, he wrecks quite a few lives as he schleps, schemes and screws his way to the top of the rag trade. Rags to riches - literally.
A few weeks ago, I read Harold Robbins’ first novel, ‘Never Love a Stranger’ and marveled at how Robbins wove a sexy yet sentimental tale around a tough yet tender hero. And, reading ‘Seventh Avenue’ I marveled at how Bogner wove a compelling yet downbeat tale around a thoroughly unlikable cast of scummy opportunists, anguished adulterers and obsequious bartenders. Bogner is like Robbins, minus the cheap sentimentality but with an obnoxiously larger vocabulary.
There was, for me at least, a compunction to keep turning the pages, to find out how truly low these people could go and to see how many highfalutin words Bogner could use to describe their antics.

[Nicholas Beck · Rating 1 out of 5]

Norman Bogner really knocks one out of the ballpark in the race to the gutter on this one. Overwrought and over the top story of a self-made millionaire in the New York rags trade, Bogner mixes metaphors, has a dictionary at hand for some obscure vocabulary and generally muddles his way through over 400!! pages of pulpy fiction storytelling. Oh and with a side helping of misogny and racism and misanthropy. This is most definitely not a long forgotten/neglected masterpiece although the edition I read was the 4th printed 2 years later than the 1st edition so this book must have sold quite well at the time. What this says about the reading public is perhaps better left unsaid!

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it a long, long time ago

[Bob Box · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in 1977. Novel about the garment industry in New York.

[Alejandro Velez Vieira]

Eva, Rhoda, and Terry are three smart and successful women in Manhattan’s young fashion industry, but their lives somehow become entangled with Jay Blackman, a dangerous man who knows how to get what he wants from the women--control on Seventh Avenue. Reprint.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting, then boring, then interesting and by the time I was near the end I couldn't wait until it was over oops

[Lily Wakefield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1966, 7th Avenue is a raunchy yet surprisingly erudite soap opera about a deeply flawed young opportunist clawing his way to the top of the NYC rag trade, whilst destroying every woman who crosses his path. Jay Blackman has just enough good points to make you wish you didn't have to hate him. Bogner's portrayal of the Jewish "mafia" of the 1930s and 40s is vivid and clearly based on personal experience.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seventh Avenue by Bogner_ Norman
Story about Jay and he's hard to hold onto his job and ends up getting a young girl pregnant and he will marry her but he wants to do more merchandise to save up for a place to live.
He uses everybody he's in contact with to get ahead. Really liked the fashion part of this book.
Crude sex scenes and abuse.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

[Debbie Duran · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it was intriguing & about New York in the early 1900's, many of the sub characters were just dropped with no explanation.