War's End, Family's Beginning

In 1945, the Jordache family—German immigrant parents and their three American-born children—struggles to find stability in the small Hudson River town of Port Philip. The war's end brings both hope and tension. Patriarch Axel is a bitter, broken baker; Mary, his wife, is exhausted and emotionally distant. Their children—ambitious Rudy, beautiful Gretchen, and rebellious Tom—each sense the limitations of their world and the weight of their parents' failures. The family's poverty, violence, and secrets set the stage for the siblings' lifelong search for meaning, love, and escape.

Three Siblings, Divergent Paths

Rudy, the eldest son, is studious and determined to rise above his origins through education and discipline. Gretchen, the only daughter, is intelligent and sensitive, but stifled by her parents' expectations and the town's small-mindedness. Tom, the youngest, is wild, angry, and physically gifted, but already marked as an outsider. Each sibling's response to their environment—Rudy's conformity, Gretchen's yearning, Tom's defiance—will shape their destinies and relationships with each other.

Gretchen's Awakening

Gretchen's beauty and intelligence attract the attention of Theodore Boylan, the town's wealthy, cynical scion. A chance encounter leads to a seduction that is both transactional and transformative. Gretchen's affair with Boylan is her first taste of adult passion, betrayal, and the power dynamics of sex and money. The relationship, and its aftermath, will haunt her for years, shaping her views on men, love, and her own worth.

Tom's Descent and Exile

Tom's anger and need for respect manifest in street fights and petty crime. After a racially charged act of arson—a burning cross on Boylan's property—Tom is forced to leave town to avoid scandal and prosecution. His exile is both punishment and opportunity, setting him on a path through menial jobs, boxing rings, and eventually, the merchant marine. Tom's journey is one of survival, self-destruction, and the search for a place to belong.

Rudolph's Ambition

Rudy leverages his intelligence and charm to win scholarships and the favor of local businessmen. He becomes the family's hope for redemption, the "good son" who will escape the bakery and the slum. Yet his ambition is tinged with calculation and a need for approval. Rudy's choices—his education, his relationships, his eventual marriage into wealth—are both a triumph over his origins and a source of inner emptiness.

Love, Betrayal, and Escape

Gretchen's affair with Boylan is exposed, leading to family shame and her own flight to New York. Tom, adrift, is drawn into the world of professional boxing, where violence is both livelihood and curse. Rudy, meanwhile, is seduced by the promise of business and political success, but at the cost of emotional authenticity. Each sibling's attempt to find love—whether in marriage, affairs, or fleeting connections—ends in disappointment or betrayal, reinforcing the family's cycle of escape and return.

The Next Generation

As the siblings age, they have children of their own—Billy (Gretchen's son), Wesley (Tom's), and Enid (Rudy's daughter). The next generation is shaped by the traumas and ambitions of their parents. Billy is sensitive and rootless, Wesley is haunted by violence and loss, and Enid is sheltered but adrift. The family's legacy of longing, resentment, and the search for identity is passed on, even as the world around them changes.

The Cost of Success

Rudy achieves wealth and status, becoming a business leader and eventually mayor. Yet his personal life is marked by failed relationships, a loveless marriage, and a sense of alienation. The trappings of success—money, power, respect—cannot fill the void left by his family's dysfunction and his own emotional caution. Rudy's story is a meditation on the American Dream and its discontents.

Cycles of Violence

Tom's life is a cycle of violence—first as a street fighter, then as a boxer, and finally as a seaman and charter captain on the Mediterranean. His relationships are marked by passion and brutality, and his death is the result of a violent act of revenge. Wesley, his son, is drawn into a similar cycle, seeking vengeance for his father's murder. The family's inability to break free from violence is both tragedy and fate.

Reunion and Reckoning

The siblings are periodically reunited—at funerals, weddings, and moments of crisis. These gatherings are fraught with old resentments, unspoken truths, and the hope for reconciliation. The death of their parents, the division of the family estate, and the struggles of their children force Rudy, Gretchen, and Tom to confront the consequences of their choices and the limits of forgiveness.

The Shadow of the Past

The Jordache siblings are haunted by their childhood—by poverty, violence, and the failures of their parents. Their attempts to escape the past are only partially successful; old wounds resurface in new forms. The family's story is one of repetition and variation, as each generation tries—and often fails—to create a better life.

Inheritance and Identity

The question of inheritance—money, property, reputation, and emotional legacy—runs through the family's story. The siblings' struggles over the family estate mirror their deeper struggles over identity and belonging. The next generation inherits not only wealth and opportunity, but also the burdens of guilt, shame, and longing.

The American Dream Unraveled

The Jordache family's journey is a microcosm of the American Dream—immigrant roots, hard work, ambition, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet the dream is always just out of reach, undermined by class, prejudice, and the family's own flaws. Success brings new problems, and the promise of reinvention is shadowed by the persistence of the past.

Europe's Allure, America's Loss

For Tom and Wesley, Europe is both escape and exile—a place to reinvent themselves, but also a place of rootlessness and danger. The Mediterranean becomes a stage for adventure, romance, and violence. The family's ties to America are loosened, and the old world's allure is both seductive and fatal.

The Price of Redemption

Each sibling seeks redemption—through love, work, or sacrifice—but the price is high. Gretchen finds fulfillment as a film director, but only after years of struggle and loss. Rudy tries to redeem the family name through public service, but is haunted by compromise and regret. Tom's redemption is brief and ends in violence. The next generation is left to reckon with the cost.

The Enduring Family Curse

Despite moments of grace and connection, the Jordache family is marked by a sense of curse—of patterns that cannot be broken, of love that turns to loss, of dreams that end in disappointment. Yet the story ends with a glimmer of hope: the possibility that the next generation, armed with self-knowledge and the lessons of the past, might finally break free.

Characters

Rudy Jordache

Rudy is the eldest Jordache son, the family's hope for redemption. He is intelligent, hardworking, and determined to escape poverty through education and conformity. Rudy's ambition leads him to business and political success, but at the cost of emotional authenticity and intimacy. He is a master of self-control, but this becomes a prison, leaving him alienated from his own desires and from those he loves. His relationships—with his siblings, his wife, and his daughter—are marked by a mixture of duty, guilt, and longing. Rudy's journey is a meditation on the costs and limits of the American Dream.

Gretchen Jordache

Gretchen is the only daughter, beautiful and intelligent but stifled by her family and her small town. Her affair with Boylan is both awakening and wounding, setting her on a path of escape, self-discovery, and repeated betrayals. Gretchen's marriages—to a failed writer and a Hollywood director—are marked by disappointment and loss, but she eventually finds fulfillment as a film director. Her relationship with her son Billy is fraught with guilt and misunderstanding, but also deep love. Gretchen is the family's emotional center, the one most capable of change and forgiveness, but also the most haunted by the past.

Tom Jordache

Tom is the youngest, the family's scapegoat and wild child. Marked by his father's violence and his mother's neglect, Tom seeks respect through fighting, boxing, and eventually as a seaman and charter captain. His life is a cycle of violence, passion, and exile. Tom's relationships—with women, with his son Wesley, and with his siblings—are intense but unstable. He is both victim and perpetrator, capable of tenderness but doomed by his inability to escape the patterns of his youth. Tom's death is both a tragedy and a release, and his legacy is carried on by Wesley.

Billy Abbott

Billy is Gretchen's son, a product of her failed marriage and her emotional struggles. He is intelligent, ironic, and emotionally attuned, but also adrift and unable to commit. Billy's journey—from the army in Brussels to a tennis pro in Spain to a journalist in Chicago—is marked by a search for meaning and connection. He is both participant and observer, chronicling the family's story in his notebooks. Billy's relationships—with his parents, with Monika, with his cousin Wesley—reflect his ambivalence about love, loyalty, and the possibility of escape.

Wesley Jordache

Wesley is Tom's son, raised in chaos and violence, and marked by the loss of his father. He is physically gifted, emotionally intense, and obsessed with avenging Tom's murder. Wesley's journey is one of self-discovery, as he moves from violence to acting to the search for a new life on the sea. His relationships—with his mother, with Alice, with Billy—are marked by longing and mistrust. Wesley is the family's hope for breaking the cycle, but also its most dangerous inheritor.

Axel Jordache

Axel is the German immigrant father, a baker whose dreams are crushed by poverty, war, and his own violence. He is emotionally abusive, especially to Tom, and emotionally unavailable to his wife and children. Axel's failures set the stage for the family's struggles, and his suicide is both a release and a curse.

Mary Jordache

Mary is the family's matriarch, worn down by work, poverty, and disappointment. She favors Rudy, neglects Tom, and is unable to connect with Gretchen. Her emotional coldness and religious guilt shape her children's lives. Mary's death is a moment of reckoning for the siblings, forcing them to confront the legacy of their upbringing.

Theodore Boylan

Boylan is the town's rich, disillusioned scion, whose affair with Gretchen is both awakening and destructive. He is a symbol of the power and corruption of money, and his relationships with the Jordache siblings are marked by manipulation, longing, and regret. Boylan's influence lingers long after the affair ends.

David Donnelly

Donnelly is an architect and scene designer who becomes Gretchen's collaborator and lover. He is ambitious and creative, but also struggles with alcoholism and self-doubt. Donnelly's relationship with Gretchen is a source of both hope and pain, and his partnership with Rudy in a utopian housing project is a meditation on the limits of idealism.

Monika

Monika is Billy's lover in Brussels, a translator and secret terrorist. She is passionate, dangerous, and elusive, drawing Billy into a world of violence and political intrigue. Monika is both muse and threat, a symbol of the era's turbulence and the impossibility of safety or certainty.

Plot Devices

Multi-Generational Family Saga

The novel uses the structure of a multi-generational family saga to explore the impact of history, class, and personal choices on individual destinies. The story moves from the end of World War II through the 1970s, following the Jordache siblings and their children as they navigate love, ambition, violence, and loss. The shifting perspectives and time jumps allow for both intimacy and breadth, showing how the past shapes the present and how each generation inherits—and sometimes resists—the family's legacy.

Cyclical Patterns and Inheritance

The narrative is structured around cycles—of violence, ambition, escape, and return. The siblings repeat the patterns of their parents, and their children repeat the patterns of the siblings. Inheritance is both material (money, property) and emotional (guilt, shame, longing). The inability to break free from these cycles is both tragedy and fate, but the story also suggests the possibility of change.

Social Mobility and the American Dream

The novel interrogates the American Dream—its promise of reinvention, its rewards for ambition, and its hidden costs. Rudy's rise from poverty to power is contrasted with his emotional emptiness; Gretchen's escape from small-town shame leads to new forms of disappointment; Tom's search for respect ends in violence and exile. The story uses business, politics, and the lure of Europe as plot devices to explore the limits of social mobility and the persistence of class and trauma.

Violence and Revenge

Violence is a recurring motif—domestic, sexual, racial, and criminal. Tom's life is a cycle of violence, and his death is avenged (or not) by Wesley. The plot uses revenge as both motivation and curse, showing how the desire for justice can become self-destructive. The family's inability to escape violence is both personal and symbolic.

Gender, Power, and Sexuality

Sexual relationships are central to the plot—Gretchen's affair with Boylan, Tom's affairs and marriages, Billy's relationships with Monika and Carmen, Wesley's with Frances and Alice. Sex is a source of power, betrayal, and self-discovery, but also of shame and loss. The novel uses sexuality to explore gender roles, the limits of love, and the ways in which desire is shaped by class and trauma.

Foreshadowing and Irony

The narrative is rich in foreshadowing—early events (the burning cross, the affair with Boylan, Tom's first fight) echo in later tragedies. Irony pervades the story: the family's attempts to escape their origins only reinforce their fate; success brings new forms of emptiness; violence intended to protect leads to greater loss. The use of foreshadowing and irony deepens the sense of inevitability and the tragic dimension of the family's story.

Analysis

Rich Man, Poor Man and Beggarman, Thief are sweeping, unsparing portraits of a family shaped by the forces of history, class, and personal failure. Irwin Shaw uses the Jordache siblings and their children to explore the contradictions of the American Dream—the hope of reinvention, the lure of success, and the persistence of trauma and violence. The novel is both a critique and a celebration of ambition, showing how the pursuit of happiness can lead to both triumph and emptiness.

The story is deeply psychological, tracing the ways in which childhood wounds, parental failures, and social pressures shape identity and destiny. The siblings' attempts to escape the past—through love, work, or flight—are both heroic and doomed. The next generation inherits not only opportunity, but also the burdens of guilt, shame, and longing.

The novel is also a meditation on the limits of forgiveness and the possibility of change. Despite moments of grace and connection, the family is marked by a sense of curse—of patterns that cannot be broken, of love that turns to loss, of dreams that end in disappointment. Yet the story ends with a glimmer of hope: the possibility that the next generation, armed with self-knowledge and the lessons of the past, might finally break free.

In a modern context, the book remains relevant for its exploration of class, gender, violence, and the search for meaning in a world of rapid change. It is a cautionary tale about the costs of ambition and the dangers of forgetting the past, but also a testament to the enduring power of family, love, and the human capacity for resilience.

Last updated: April 29, 2025