Family Drama

I vividly remember that it was my Ate Herb who lent me two books that chronicled the patriarch and matriarch family history of the Wakefields of Sweet Valley which spanned almost three generations. Yes, they are the parents of the California blonde twins, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield that I fondly read during my high school days. That was one of the most complex and most exciting read that I had during my early bookworm years.

When I got hold of Sidney Sheldon classic, Master of the Game, I was once again submerged into family drama, adventure and intrigue which destroyed and unified a proud family dynasty. Its’ theme had been entirely different from my Sheldon’s favorite book, Doomsday Conspiracy, but the author’s magic in weaving an intelligent, complicated, entertaining and easy to read books gave him the immortality as the master story-teller.

The book started with the young Jamie McGregor who repeatedly risked his life to make his dreams of being rich come true by mining diamonds in South Africa. His adventures to gain his riches are overwhelming as it involves the harsh land of Africa, vultures, sharks, riptides, landmine, guard dogs that made a survivor who crossed the line between life and death several times. His hatred to his father-in-law and wife had been his motivation and his son’s tragic demise had been his end.

And then, there was Kate Blackwell, the manipulative heiress who turned his father’s fortune into a worldwide dominance. It was a rich-spoiled-tomboy girl story which bloomed into a cunning, scheming beautiful businesswoman who gives importance to her conglomerate, Kruger-Brent, first before anything else, even her own family.

Kate’s twin granddaughter’s Eve and Alexandra are the extreme opposites. Eve is the slutty, Omen-like sister. Her goal in life is to seduce as many men as she can and be the sole-heir of her grandmother’s empire by murdering her own twin sister. And Alexandra is the clueless, affectionate and naïve one who had the luck of overcoming her evil sister’s plan of eliminating her.

It was Tony’s story which had been the best part of the book. He is the smart, handsome, promising son of Kate Blackwell. He loves her mother so much, so even though he has not interest in business, he enrolled in a business school. He told his mom that he doesn’t change his mind to pursue his love in arts. Stripping his famous surname, he became an ordinary, struggling painting student in France. There he fell in love with a gorgeous model, Dominique, who took care of him and persuaded him to showcase his paintings in a solo art gallery. With his mother’s connection, they were able to invite a reputable art critic who can make or break an upcoming artist. In the newspaper the next day, his art exhibit had been given an extremely bad review saying that he should just be a house painter. Discouraged and heart-broken, he finally accepted to work in her mother’s company.

Without his knowledge of the strings that her mother attached to him, he later married Marianne. There is a huge risk in her pregnancy, but with the encouragement of Kate, they kept it a secret to Tony. Kate’s goal is for Kruger-Brent to have an heir, even if it means that she needs to sacrifice Marianne.

In the final reckoning, it was time for Kate, the Master of the Game, to face the consequences of the manipulations and scheming that she did. Marianne died as a complication in her risky-pregnancy. Tony was informed that her mother concealed to him that he could lose his wife. It was also revealed to him that Dominique was paid by his mother to be with him France and that she also bribed the art critic who destroyed his dreams. Tony just snapped, he shot his mother with a gun several times in her own room and slashed all her clothing saying that she was possessed with the evil that was Kruger-Brent. He became unstable and violent, he was lobotomized in the asylum to spend all his life free from the hurt that his mother inflicted him and he can at last pursue his goal of being a great painter.