Cohen, finding another Tough Jew, relates the outrageous life of Samuel Zemurra, who rose from emigrant poverty as a Mobile shopkeeper by selling ripe bananas along the southern railroads, then branching off into his own plantations, then operating under the wing of United Fruit, then overthrowing the Honduran government with New Orleans goons, then breaking from United Fruit, then taking over United Fruit. Along the way he toppled governments and installed banana republics of breath-taking incompetence and corruption, assembled crews of crazy people too bizarre to make up (Lee Christmas, for one, and his father in law, the Parrot King of Nicaragua), became a philanthropist (Tulane, Radcliffe, Mayan artwork, hospitals, a Honduran agricultural college still in operation), hated Huey Long, became a Zionist (according to a Tulane story, Sam sat down the night of the UN vote on the creation of Israel, pulled out an address book and called the head of state in every Latin American country to demand their votes), was a doting father and grandfather and source of many of the regions continuing political and economic problems.