From the author of the bestselling A Reliable Wife comes a dramatic, passionate tale of a glamorous Southern debutante who marries for money and ultimately suffers for love—a southern gothic as written by Dominick Dunne.It begins with a house and ends in ashes . . .Diana Cooke was “born with the century” and came of age just after World War I. The daughter of Virginia gentry, she knew early that … Virginia gentry, she knew early that her parents had only one asset, besides her famous beauty: their stately house, Saratoga, the largest in the commonwealth, which has hosted the crème of society and Hollywood royalty. Though they are land-rich, the Cookes do not have the means to sustain the estate. Without a wealthy husband, Diana will lose the mansion that has been the heart and soul of her family for five generations.
The mysterious Captain Copperton is an outsider with no bloodline but plenty of cash. Seeing the ravishing nineteen-year-old Diana for the first time, he’s determined to have her. Diana knows that marrying him would make the Cookes solvent and ensure that Saratoga will always be theirs. Yet Copperton is cruel as well as vulgar; while she admires his money, she cannot abide him. Carrying the weight of Saratoga and generations of Cookes on her shoulders, she ultimately succumbs to duty, sacrificing everything, including love.
Luckily for Diana, fate intervenes. Her union with Copperton is brief and gives her a son she adores. But when her handsome, charming Ashton, now grown, returns to Saratoga with his college roommate, the real scandal and tragedy begins.
Reveling in the secrets, mores, and society of twentieth-century genteel Southern life, The Dying of the Light is a romance, a melodrama, and a cautionary tale told with the grandeur and sweep of an epic Hollywood classic.
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Passion, loneliness, decadence, and sexuality are all powerfully portrayed in this beautifully written novel.
Robert Goolrick has created a mesmerizing, evocative novel brimming with passion and tragedy. His portrait of a depleted Southern family, hoping to reinvigorate itself and its magnificently neglected estate, is at once thrilling and devastating.
Goolrick’s best book yet. A brilliant mashup of all the old greats, Faulkner and Fitzgerald and DH Lawrence, The Dying of the Light reads like Absolom, Absolom! meets The Great Gatsby meets Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
I cannot think of a more aptly named book, in retrospect. This is a book devoid of light, of hope, of pretty much any good thing you might cling to…and somehow, as the story progresses, it is still a tale of the many different forms of the extinguishing of light and life, even though I am not sure how, since the former never appeared to be present in the first place and the latter only in the very barest sense.
What I liked about “The Dying of the Light”:
The description – This is a quality people either love or hate, but I am the former and the author successfully painted pictures in my mind. I could see the river and the house and the debutante balls. The visuals, when they came, were striking.
Priscilla and Clarence – Pretty much the only characters of redeeming value in the entirety of this novel. All the rest, even if I felt badly for their state of mind, were such secretive, self-centered, pathetic, loathsome, spineless messes that I couldn’t bring myself to like them even for a half minute.
What I didn’t care for:
The raunch – I noticed several reviews on this book attribute this to being written by a man, but I’ve encountered plenty of female authors equally capable of writing these scenes. It really was…a bit much, regardless. It may have been to prove a point about Diana’s character but mostly it just read uncomfortably.
No sense of time – Because of the way the book was laid out, beyond a certain point, I no longer had any inclination of “when” I was in history. When Diana was younger, there were enough references to her age that it was easy to deduce what era the country was in, but once Ash was a young man, it suddenly felt more muddled, until the very end. Throughout the bulk of the pages, though, nothing really seemed to give me a concrete feel for what the world around them was like. Then again, perhaps that was on purpose, since they all acted as though nothing beyond the perimeters of Saratoga bore any significance.
If I were to sum this up? A dark tragedy from which I couldn’t seem to disengage. Hopeless and empty, it felt very Gatsby-like to me, emotionally; no one came across as likable just pitiable for their very existence. The relationships were all dysfunctional at best and more often outright profane. The decadence was a thin, cheap veneer for the brokenness that seethed just below it. When I closed the book for the final time, I felt exactly after I did when I completed “The Great Gatsby”: utterly disheartened.
I had a hard time getting through this book. The story line was ok but it was a slow read for me. I didn’t finish it.
Diana Cooke was the last of a her line, a line unbroken back to Pocahontas. By the end of World War I, when Diana makes her much awaited debut, her beloved Saratoga is an albatross around her neck, one that compels her to marry a brash “Captain” whose greatest attribute is his bank account. Almost immediately they loath one another, seeking out new ways to exact cruelty one on the other, the only mutual interest being the unearthly love each possesses for their son, Ashton.
The Captain’s death relieves Diana of the burden of being his wife, though leaves her again financially on the brink. Not until her grown son is sent down from Yale and returns home permanently, prep school and university roommate in tow, will her finances – and the state of Saratoga – be set right. Saratoga saved, every other aspect of Diana’s life quickly spins away from her, resulting, we can only assume in the tragedy that opens the forward: Saratoga a fire-scarred ruins, the bones among the ash presumed to be those of the mistress.
So here’s my take: So. Much. Melodrama. I alternated between enjoying the story Robert Goolrick was creating and feeling it was just too much. Like, too, too much. In the same way, the prose was frequently beautiful, but occasionally too overdone. Perhaps this was a tool Goolrick used to create an overwrought, melodramatic narrative. If this is how the reader is intended to feel, well done. If not, I could have gone in for just a little less drama and fewer beautiful words.
Three-and-a-half stars.
(This review was originally published at https://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2018/11/the-dying-of-light.html)
Fantastic! This was an atmospheric saga to savor! As enchanting as the charm of a southern plantation and as heartbreaking as the lives destined for tragedy in the story. Thoroughly satisfying!
I don’t usually read literary fiction. I picked up the book because a trusted reader recommended it. And I was hooked. A delightful find, and I intend to read all his other books as well. Just shows you should stretch once in a while and get out of your reading rut.
It took most of the to set the stage
Appearances is all that matters, but you can’t keep up appearances without money.
Diana Cooke and her family had once been wealthy and in high Southern society. After the war, everything fell apart for the Cookes, and Diana is the only one who can save the family.
Saving the family means having to marry for money and endure all the debutante balls. Diana is lucky on the first try, though. She is chosen by wealthy Captain Copperton. She knows he isn’t who he seems, and even though she marries him to save her family and their home, she isn’t very lucky or happy.
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT tells the tale of the plight of the Cookes and the way of high society with the wealthy marrying the wealthy even though the Cookes are no longer wealthy.
Diana’s life was sad and lonely especially when her son was sent off to boarding school. The huge house was empty, and the house in the end was the ruin of it all. As the book begins, the ashes of the house seem to be the ashes of Diana as well – nothing left of her or for her.
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT is in typical Robert Goolrick fashion – excellent, descriptive writing, love, scandals, sex, mystery, and intrigue.
The cover is stunning, and as you continue reading, you will understand the meaning of the title.
The book also addresses domestic abuse both physical and emotional.
I enjoyed the Southern etiquette and loved the house and the setting, but I definitely did not like Captain Copperton at all – he seemed to be the cause of the demise of everyone and everything.
If you have enjoyed Mr. Goolrick’s other books, I know you will enjoy THE DYING OF THE LIGHT.
Mr. Goolrick can always tell a great story with beautiful words.
And what an amazing ending.
One last comment: Be sure to re-read the prologue. You will get more out of the book and have a better understanding the second time around.
ENJOY!! 5/5
This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.