Alive and Kicking

Download or read book Alive and Kicking written by Michael Graubart Levin and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For years the members of the large and pathologically litigious Gaines family have seen one another only across the courtroom or across the casket. For this family, a revered and time-honored tradition has been, as soon as one member dies, to lose no time in contesting the will, aided by the warring (and related) law firms of Shapolsky and Shapolsky and Shapolsky & Shapolsky." "Now their endless family squabble takes a new turn when fresh-faced young banker Amelia Vanderbilt helps Harry Gaines, 92-year-old patriarch and possessor of a multimillion-dollar fortune, draft a will requiring his fractious heirs to "get along" - or lose the whole $60 million bundle. But each of the many Gaineses has his own ideas about how to spend the money - and "getting along" happens only when two join forces to sue a third." "Will Sam David's bribes work and allow him to construct three Trump Toweresque skyscrapers with the money? Or will Dwight David, ne'er-do-well and Cap d'Antibes denizen, open a disco? Will the money be used to fund homeless shelters or to open a museum of stunt car driving? What will the two Shapolsky law firms do if they lose their best (and only) clients? And what secrets is Amelia hiding as she tries to shepherd the Gaineses into an agreement?" "But can the Gaineses agree on anything? Or will a hundred years of spite and an army of greedy lawyers spoil the last hope for family peace? Greed can turn even the nicest people into Borgias - and the Gaineses aren't all that nice to begin with." "In this comic twist on the family saga, Michael Levin demonstrates the sure sense of comedy and irony that earned praise for The Socratic Method and Settling the Score, with a cast of memorable characters and a plot that has more twists than a Shapolsky legal argument."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved