ENDTERM PROJECT BOOK ANALYSIS 05/19/11

I.

Summary or Synopsis:

After the death of their parents, Laura and Clay Fairchild are trained in the stealthy art of burglary by their half-brother Ben. In setting up the wealthy owners of the world-class Salinger hotel chain, Ben intends to avenge his father for injuries done him by Felix Salinger. Unfortunately for Ben, however, Laura befriends and grows to love Felixs father. At the same time, Owen finds in Laura the qualities he would have wished to see in the daughter he never had. Laura Fairchild then, who came from an unruly environment in the heart of New York enters a charmed world when eccentric patriarch Owen Salinger takes her in as his protg and confidante. In the patrician circles of Bostons Beacon Hill, she acquires grace, culture and a passionate lover in Owens nephew, Paul. She becomes a new person without the stain of her past which she carefully concealed in the abyss of her being. Owen loved

and adored her the way she is without question and giving her the chance to keep a part of her self hidden and still feel the same way towards her. Felix resents this new attachment bitterly and conspires to defraud Laura of her inheritance upon his fathers death. Thats why Owens death shatters Lauras dreams. Favored in his will, she now faces the wrath of his family, especially of Felix Salinger, Owens eldest son who close ranks against her. Discovering her true identity, they used it against her. Even Allison, whom Laura thought was her friend, thought the worst of her, but the saddest part was that Paul, whom she was engaged to, broke off the wedding because he thought she was nothing but a gold-digger and thief. Disinherited, Laura vows to recapture all that has been ruthlessly taken away. They may have somehow managed to disinherit poor Laura and leave her totally peniless and homeless. But she was not absolutely empty-handed, because she has with her the priceless knowledge about hotel management Owen thought her while he was still alive.

With brilliance and flair she builds a hotel empire that rivals that of the Salingers, together with the help of Wes Currier. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, she slowly regains everything that should have been hers. As the years go on, Laura would keep on succeeding and succeeding on her hotel businesses until she bought back everything that was left to her by Owen. Meanwhile, Ben makes his mark on that family through a more underhanded route. Yet beneath her successful faade lives the outcast girl, longing for the home and family she has lost. As long-buried secrets rise like threatening clouds, Laura has to fight to regain her love, her family, and to claim her true inheritance!

II.

Character Analysis: 1. Laura Fairchild A teenager still gangly, not yet a woman with long, well-formed legs with good muscles. An ordinary, pretty girl with poor posture and an uncomfortable wariness in her stance. Her eyes were dark blue, almost too big for her slender, delicate face showing in their depths a strong will that did not yet know its own strength or direction. In the first part of the novel, she was like that. But everything changed when she met Owen Salinger. With his help, she was no longer the girl she had been. She transformed into a wise, strong and lovely woman who dealt with her past and make it a part of her future. A smart lady with elegance and brilliance in dealing with her hotels. But most of all, she was no longer the little girl who was unsure of what she is and what shell become but a woman with substance and a brave heart in the midst of all the obstacles she has to go through to take back whats rightfully hers and fulfill Owens dream and be worthy of his love, trust and faith in her.

2. Owen Salinger An old man, very tall and thin, with a white drooping mustache and white hair that reached his shoulders. There was contrast in his heavy eyebrows and wide, sensual mouth in a face so thin it was almost gaunt. His speech had an oldfashioned cadence and his smile was warm and private. As time went on, Owen had aged. He looked almost ethereal. His cheeks were more sunken than she

remembered and his face was crinkled with webs of fine lines, like ancient parchment. His eyes were as bright as ever, but they seemed more deep-set. He has so much vitality. He was a powerful man in his younger years who went to a university for two years, then left and started his own company- a hotel chain. He had this greatness in him which everyone loved and admired.

3. Paul Janssen His eyes were almost black beneath straight brows, his face was thin with a long, narrow nose above a wide mouth and quick smile. He was young and handsome. He was Owens great nephew and Lauras first and only love. Hes something of a playboy and takes interest in photography. He cared about learning, responded to beauty and he wasnt stingy. He knew how to take life in his hands and enjoy every bit of it. His life changed when he met Laura. He stayed with one woman and in one place for so long and so happily. He learned to do that anything has a beginning and a middle and an end.

4. Clay Fairchild Handsome and unsure of himself. He has blond hair, a rounded chin and heavylidded blue eyes and has the cautious look of someone worried about all the obstacles life could throw in his way. He was Lauras younger brother. He hated school if not for her. He is restless at work. He love fancy cars and expensive clothes. He gambles for big stakes. So happy and excited thinking he was a big man but he actually never grew up and stuck with his childishness.

5. Felix Salinger Ambitious and aggressive. Eldest son of Owen Salinger. He was pompous and humorless, a rigid man who thought he could impose his idea of order on he world around hi,. He was always hiding behind the shadow of his father. He wanted the Salinger Hotels Incorporated to be his alone. And he despised Laura because Owen loved her so much and gave her a piece of his fortune. He was selfish and bitter. He was also stubborn, vindictive, acquisitive; a good businessman but not as good as he could be, because he didnt trust anyone and he was always trying to prove he was better than his father.

6. Leni Salinger The wife of Felix Salinger. She was a tall, angular woman, perfectly dressed, her fingernails wrong, her face and voice perfectly calm. She was the pride of Felix, the envy of other men. She has this charming passive serenity that mask whatever dissatisfaction she felt in her marriage. For Felix, she has the elegance of the mother he only vaguely remembered; a strength and a streak of coarseness that would help him defeat his father; the New York background that would made her a stranger in Boston and as a bonus, she had belonged to a man Felix had never been able to stop envying.

7. Wes Currier

He was a financier who had moved beyond the skyscrapers of New York and Chicago to roam the world as a consultant to international corporations. He was known as the master of mergers and acquisitions, a generous supporter of the arts and of young people starting their own companies, and one of the most eligible bachelors on two continents. He had made his fortune by following his hunches and never showing his hand. He nurtured his reputation for unpredictability. He was attractive and intriguing and his success was exasperating. He was Lauras knight in shining armor, he was the one who helped her with the money needed in taking back her hotels. He was also Lauras passionate lover who was so kind to patiently wait for the time that Laura would fell in love with him too but humbly accepted that such would never happen.

8. Ginny Starrett She was in her late fifties when Laura met her in the lobby of the Boston Salinger. She had too much make-up, bleached hair, expensive suit, fine pearls. Her nails were manicured and she made a scene in the lobby by screaming and crying. Years later, they met again but she was a different person. She was one of Manhattans few hundred thousand thin, single women looking for a good man. She was a trim, smart lady of indeterminate age who wore clothes designed only for her, who traveled from country to country as casually as city dwellers take cabs from one place to another, who took an interest in almost everything, and loved being motherly to Laura. She was mostly a very good friend to Laura who gave a great deal of advice.

9. Allison Salinger She is the daughter of Felix and Leni Salinger. She was a young woman who was about Lauras age and looked like a young Leni. She was tall and angular with long and straight blond hair and had a touch of arrogance. She was like Lauras sister and bestfriend. She fell in love with Ben Gardner who turned out to be Lauras half-brother.

10. Ben Gardner He was the half-brother of Laura Fairchild. Handsome and sophisticated, the cleverest man Laura ever knew. He had a devil-may-care look. He was also tall, golden blond, with classic features and blue eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses. He became the husband of Allison Salinger. He later became the president of Salinger Hotels.

III.

Evaluation:

This was one of the most compelling books I have ever read. The plot was solid. The way the authors tell the story leave me vividly imagining the character and the scenes. It was perfectly described. Despite the fact that its 695 pages in paperback, I didnt find it boring. Every page is magic. When I started reading this, I almost find it impossible to put it down. All sorts of twists and turns along the way leave me in awe. The story was tightly-knit and carefully fashioned in a way that at one moment youd find it almost surreal and then realize its in touch with reality.

The characters different and clashing personalities connected in a way that it gave a full-blown story. It grabbed me from the beginning and held on to me until the end. The ending holds a justice of it's own. INHERITANCE is more than a simple tale, its a plausible tale where good is inevitably victorious over evil.

SUBMITTED BY: MA. FRANCHESKA B. SERDENIA BABAIC