The Heart of a Father. Review on Where Love Has Gone - Harold Robbins

Recently, I saw a rather disturbing news of a newborn girl, who fractured her leg while coming in the world, thanks to the doctor's negligence. My heart cried as I saw the poor baby with her leg wrapped in plaster. Though such kind of news has always had a considerable impact on my mind, still, this time it was different. I couldn't sleep the whole night, thinking about the poor one-day old, who was introduced to pain even before she was introduced to light. I wondered why I was feeling so involved with a girl I had never met, who was not at all related to me in any way. I mean, as a human being, it was quite natural for me to feel bad for the poor suffering baby....but....this was something different. I could actually feel the pain, the sorrow! I had experienced a similar feeling when I had seen some television images of a tiny girl, who had sustained bullet injuries in her abdomen in the recent Gujarat Temple Attack. As I wondered why this was happening to me a sweet voice called me- Papa! As I took my one-year-old in my arms, the answer dawned on me.

I was a father! And quite simply, I had a father's heart inside me.

If you can understand what I felt....I am sure that you will be impressed by the book Where Love Has Gone by Harold Robbins.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Harold Robbins was an orphan, born in the city of New York. He had this fantastic talent of blending his own experiences and real life characters in his stories. Like in his first book Never Love a Stranger, where he writes about his days as an orphan in the streets of New York city. Or the second book The Dream Merchants, where he uses his experience of Hollywood.(He worked as a shipping clerk, and later as a studio executive in the Universal Pictures).

It's quite natural for the readers of this review to wonder as to on what was the novel under scrutiny- Where Love has gone- based! Well, as they say, the character of the leading lady of the novel, Nora Hayden, was based on Lana Turner. Miss Turner retorted back to Robbins with her The Lady, the legend, the truth, which came almost two decades after the novel.

THE PLOT

Luke, or Colonel Carey, is a wartime hero, who returns back after the war and tries to make a living through architecture. As luck would have it, he meets Nora Carey, a highly ambitious lady who has always got what she wanted....be it men or success. She is a sculptress. After the couple marries, Luke starts seeing the darker side of his wife's nature. Though he has a very understanding and mature mother-in-law, his wife's unacceptable habits make life hell for him. The only sunshine in his married life is his daughter Dani. As it happens with all such marriages, very soon, Mr. and Mrs. Carey find themselves in the divorce courts fighting for the custody of the child. Using the Hayden clout, Nora gets the child's custody. After all, Nora Hayden can never lose. By her sheer hurting talks, she sees to it that Luke does not even visit Dani. Depressed, Luke takes to drinking. Nora marries her manager, then divorces him too, and finally gets her new manager Riccio to move in to her house. This is in San Francisco.

As luck would have it, Luke meets Elizabeth, and gradually they fall in love, marry and settle down in Chicago. Just when Elizabeth is expecting their firstborn, Luke gets a call from his wife's lawyer Mr.Gordon, that Dani has been arrested for murdering Riccio. Luke somehow manages to cough up some cash, and rushes to San Francisco, back to his Dani, after five years.

Can he save the girl? Is Dani really the murderess? If yes, then what made his small cheerful baby turn to such violence? If no, then who is the murderer? Can a father save his child?

For all this, do make it a point to read Where Love Has Gone. I am sure that you will enjoy the book!

WHAT POINTS DOES IT DRIVE HOME

Well, first and foremost, this book deals with the child psychology in a very easy manner. How the parents can influence their children in their growing age is a point that has been impressively highlighted by the author. Especially the sessions between Dani and the child psychiatrist Miss Jennings make some interesting reading.

Secondly, the book also provides a window to the innermost feelings of a father. Though not very effectively, still, the book does establish Luke's feelings for his daughter in as good a manner a book can do. Father's love can be best portrayed only through the first sound one hears of his newborn.

IN CONCLUSION

My one-year-old was giggling, and pulling my hair. And every giggle seemed like God's own voice. I couldn't help thinking of my old father. I never knew he loved me so much....