A Stone for Danny Fisher (1952) (41 page)

I
was
the
ordinary
man
about
whom
songs
are
never
written,
stories
are
never
told,
legends
are
never
remembered.

But
I
am
the
man
who
will
live
forever
in
the
thousands
of
years
yet
to
come.
For
I
am
the
man
who
will
reap
the
few
benefits
and
pay
for
the
many
errors
that
are
created
by
the
great.

And
the
great
are
but
my
servants,
for
my
numbers
are
legion.

The
great
lie
lonely
in
their
graves
beneath
their
mighty
monuments
because
they
are
not
remembered
for
themselves
but
for
what
they
made.
But
for
me,
all
who
weep
for
their
loved
also
weep
for
me.
And
every
time
someone
mourns,
he
also
mourns
for
me.

You
open
your
eyes
in
slow
wonder
and
gaze
upon
the
six
stones
lying
on
my
grave.
Now
you
know,
my
son.
This
was
your
father.
Your
mother’s
arms
enfold
you,
but
still
you
stare
at
the
stones.
Your
fingers
point
to
the
words
written
behind
them
on
the
monument.
Her
lips
move
gently
as
she
reads
them
to
you.

Listen
carefully
to
them,
my
son.
Are
they
not
true?

To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.

Few novelists know the seamy side of New York life as well as Harold Robbins—the terror in the streets, the ways to make shady money by playing along with gamblers and mobsters, the unbridled lusts and passions of slum life.

A
Stone
for
Danny
Fisher
is the story of a young man who did not start at the bottom. For Danny Fisher was born into a family of modest means and respectability, but was
gradually
driven downward into the world of crime, racketeering, and poverty.

His bitterness, his homesickness over the loss of the house in Brooklyn that was given to him for his eighth birthday, and his feud with his harsh father pulled him one way; his natural decency and his love for a sweet Italian girl, Nellie Petito, pulled him another. Danny was a boxer—a sensational amateur and potential champion—and he might have gone straight had the fight promoters not tried to exert pressure. But he could not escape the gangsters, and later he became deeply involved in the black market and then in slot-machine rackets.

Nevertheless, the driving force behind Danny’s actions was always his sustaining love for Nellie. In a story that is harsh and yet tender, realistic and yet compassionate, Mr. Robbins reveals what makes the Danny Fishers what they are.

HAROLD ROBBINS

has
also
written

NEVER LOVE A STRANGER

THE DREAM MERCHANTS

NEVER LEAVE ME

79
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