Already shaken with doubts - about the quality of his work, about the state of his marriage and the state of his mind - Anders is invited to Salzburg as a participant in an international law conference. There he is confronted with some highly unsettling memories: the enigmatic death of his father in the Spanish Civil War; his own youthful awakening in occupied Salzburg; collaboration with Jews fleeing the refuge internment camps en rout to Palestine; and most unforgettably, the haunting face of Paola von Fyrmian, his tragic and beautiful Austrian mistress.
Graham Anders has been a divided man. Now, in Salzburg, dealing with a fascinating and mysterious figure named Boris Fleischer, handling a corporate takeover which could insure his future with Coneyers & Dean, confronting the dynamics of political infiltration, Graham watches the disintegration of his own dream. And, ironically, finds himself uniquely qualified to save the dream of another man - but at enormous cost.
In a tense courtroom drama Graham Anders makes his choice - and Arthur Solmssen reveals once again his consummate knowledge of the law and his flawless ability to make its most intricate details exciting and relevant.
Alexander's Feast, brilliant successor to Rittenhouse Square, intrudes on the bedrooms and boardrooms of Philadelphia and penetrates the hearts of one of the most romantic towns in Europe. Exploring the past and present as they are interwoven in one man's life, this novel represents an impressive development in the power and scope of Arthur Solmssen as a compelling contemporary storyteller
BOOK I
1961 - A Point of View
[1] The annual
meeting of the stockholders of the Boatwright Corporation
[2] What are
you going to do about Boatwright and what are you going to do about yourself?
[3] Have we
learned anything this evening, Doctor?
[4] Producing
results?
[5] Alexander's
Feast
[6] How'd you
like to go over to Salzburg for a month with me?
BOOK II
1947 - An Island
[7] You're not
going to Berlin. You're staying here.
[8] All right,
we're the Military Government.
[9] The Americans
are teaching us to be democratic instead of fascistic.
[10] Well,
this is Fasching.
[11] Letters
after Ash Wednesday
[12] Say Boris
is at Schloss Fyrmian.
[13] THE AMERICAN
ACADEMY IN EUROPE - Prospectus for the First Session
[14] Learn
to think of people as individuals.
[15] Parlez-moi
d'amour, redites-moi des choses tendres.
[16] Not one
thing left to show that you've ever been on earth? - "Sources of Soviet
Conduct"
[17] A Countess,
a Prussian Officer and a Ländler
[18] Now this
part of your life is over and I'm sending you home.
[19] A father
who's too busy to watch his son die. - The Spring of 1961
[20] I cannot
sell Schloss Fyrmian to the Academy.
BOOK III
1961 - A Change of Air
[21] The first
thing I saw was the Festung Hohensalzburg far in the distance, silhouetted
against the shadowy curtain of the high mountains.
[22] Next day
at the Academy we got to work - Graham, you know what Fleischer did?
[23] Im weißen
Rößl am Wolfgangsee
[24] Brockaw
writing a thesis on Austrian baroque architecture? - Boatwright Corporation
and Boris Fleischer, plaintiffs
[25] You know
there a Mr. Devereaux? Mr. Armistead Devereaux?
[26] I think
always of Peter Devereaux.
[27] It sounds
like an act of desperation, and it won't hold up in court.
[28] In those
Oklahoma Hills WHERE AH WAS BOW-AHHHN!
[29] ... that
we should meet again like this . . . I think perhaps there is a reason.
[30] "Is there
here an American by name of Brockaw?"
[31] This is
Boris Fleischer!
[32] "Does
Hans work for Gehlen?" Paola shook her head. "More the other way around."
[33] Won't
you please come home? Everybody needs you, I most of all.
[34] With this
Waffenstillstand you have time now.
[35] You're
going to regret this for the rest of your life!
[36] We Europeans
would not do it. None of us. - People think you need medical attention.
[37] Will they
trust you?
[38] Some things
about the U.S.A. are perhaps rather important, and to us impressive.
[39] You're
going to need a good lawyer.