Beggarman, Thief (1977) tells of the third generation of Jordaches who come of age in the late 1960s. The protagonists are Gretchen's son Billy Abbott and Tom's son Wesley Jordache.

Like their parents, they must contend with a legacy. For Billy the legacy is jealousy: Billy is driven to alienation by Gretchen's love affairs, which he regards as insults to his father's memory. Billy grows so alienated that he joins a band of terrorists. Wesley bears the legacy of revenge: His determination to find the killers of his father leads him into danger from organized crime. Only half the length of its predecessor, Beggarman, Thief, does not develop the range of characters or the sweep of events that made the first novel noteworthy. The sequel also suffers from the lack of a strong female protagonist.

The sequel lacks the social commentary that Shaw's proletarian sympathies added to...