King Solomon

‘Gary’s narrator is young and streetwise: big, handsome taxi-driver Jean, who one day picks up 84-year-old Mr. Solomon, a dapper, wealthy gent devoted to helping the unfortunate–in a world full of “injustice,” a world forsaken by a cruel God. Most of Solomon’s apartment has been turned over to a suicide-hotline service. He hires Jean to be his fulltime driver/errand-boy, delivering anonymous gifts to those fallen on hard times. And Jean’s primary assignment consists of visits to Mademoiselle Cora Lamenaire, an acclaimed, Piaf-like singer whose career went downhill after her wartime affair with a Gestapo officer. (Solomon, an old flame, has never forgiven his WW II protector Cora–yet takes long-distance care of her.) Jean, infected with Solomon’s do-gooder “”anguish”” over God’s cruelty, is determined to salvage Mlle. Cora.’ (description from Kirkus Reviews)