NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A modern American epic set against the panorama of contemporary politics and culture—a hurtling, page-turning mystery that is equal parts The Great Gatsby and The Bonfire of the VanitiesNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • PBS • HARPER’S BAZAAR • ESQUIRE • FINANCIAL TIMES • THE TIMES OF INDIA On the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, an enigmatic … INDIA
On the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, an enigmatic billionaire from foreign shores takes up residence in the architectural jewel of “the Gardens,” a cloistered community in New York’s Greenwich Village. The neighborhood is a bubble within a bubble, and the residents are immediately intrigued by the eccentric newcomer and his family. Along with his improbable name, untraceable accent, and unmistakable whiff of danger, Nero Golden has brought along his three adult sons: agoraphobic, alcoholic Petya, a brilliant recluse with a tortured mind; Apu, the flamboyant artist, sexually and spiritually omnivorous, famous on twenty blocks; and D, at twenty-two the baby of the family, harboring an explosive secret even from himself. There is no mother, no wife; at least not until Vasilisa, a sleek Russian expat, snags the septuagenarian Nero, becoming the queen to his king—a queen in want of an heir.
Our guide to the Goldens’ world is their neighbor René, an ambitious young filmmaker. Researching a movie about the Goldens, he ingratiates himself into their household. Seduced by their mystique, he is inevitably implicated in their quarrels, their infidelities, and, indeed, their crimes. Meanwhile, like a bad joke, a certain comic-book villain embarks upon a crass presidential run that turns New York upside-down.
Set against the strange and exuberant backdrop of current American culture and politics, The Golden House also marks Salman Rushdie’s triumphant and exciting return to realism. The result is a modern epic of love and terrorism, loss and reinvention—a powerful, timely story told with the daring and panache that make Salman Rushdie a force of light in our dark new age.
Praise for The Golden House
“[A] modern masterpiece . . . telling a story full of wonder and leaving you marveling at how it ever came out of the author’s head.”—Associated Press
“Wildly satiric and yet piercingly real . . . If F. Scott Fitzgerald, Homer, Euripides, and Shakespeare collaborated on a contemporary fall-of-an-empire epic set in New York City, the result would be The Golden House.”—Poets & Writers
“A tonic addition to American—no, world!—literature . . . a Greek tragedy with Indian roots and New York coordinates.”—San Francisco Chronicle
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Made my brain hurt.
This was an intriguing, yet pedantic and tedious, telling of the lives of a family of uber-rich, modern immigrants, the Goldens, who take up residence in New York’s Greenwich Village. The intricately-woven tales of these quirky, colorful and quite dysfunctional relatives are relayed to the reader from the perspective of their young neighbor, Rene’, who fosters a passion for film-making. By casting the Goldens as the subject of his latest film creation, Rene’ inadvertently casts himself as an annexed member of the family and becomes embroiled in their ever-present quibbles, enmeshed in their infidelities and entangled in their nefarious deeds.
Imbued with barely-concealed, nonsectarian political censure and littered with obscure film, book and music references, the prose oft times became draining and tiresome to slog through. But, what was glaringly obvious was Rushdie’s blatant spotlight on the fact that we are a broken, dissociate society, over-indulgent in our hedonism and blind to our illusory, reality TV-infused existence.
This wasn’t a wholly-boring or poorly-written novel. Some may find it vastly fascinating and brilliant. It just wasn’t for me.
*I received a complimentary ARC of this story from NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group – Random House in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.
Salmon Rushdie reminds us in the midst of criminals,clowns and madmen,their past is inescapable their effect dangerous.The author writes Americans tell you that knowing things is elitist and they hate elites ,and you were brought up to believe in the loveliness of knowledge but then all of education ,art,music,film becomes a reason for being loathed.In the world of the real I had learned hard lessons. Lies can cause tragedies both on the personal and the national scale .Lies can defeat the truth. Humanity was the only answer to our cartoon.I had no plan except love The writer leaves us with the question what can be more important than the love we hold for one another?
Although this a a book by a world class, capable writer I felt the story could have been told in half the number of pages.
I have praised this book to everyone who would listen to me, yet have found this a hard book to review. It’s complexity and beautiful style made my words sound trite in comparison. I was intrigued by Salman Rushdie because of his notoriety from The Satanic Verses; I am more intrigued after reading his latest book, The Golden House. What a mind this man has! He weaves through a myriad of topics, both ancient and contemporary, with an ease that draws in the reader in a captivating manner.
Nero Julius Golden and his three adult sons have moved to Greenwich Village from a country that cannot be named, from a city that cannot be named. The Goldens themselves cannot be named, as they assumed aliases upon arrival. Their mansion abuts a central garden, formed in the 1920’s by an architect who combined the rear yards of all the mansions to form a grassy quadrangle. Although he wants to remain anonymous, Nero and his family are observed by Rene, a young boy who also lives in the Garden. This young man, who has dreams of becoming a cinematographer, is the voyeuristic narrator of the tale.
Thus begins the epic tale of the Goldens. Nero, each of his adult sons, his second wife Vasilisa, and Rene all have complex stories. I love how Rushdie fleshed out the characters, much like a sculptor adds clay a dab at a time to a statue. Petronius is first introduced as the “big brilliant clumsy agoraphobic firstborn lummox.” He later expounds that he is brooding and damaged: dandyish, “conservatively attired but invariable smart”; we later learn that he is “tormented, an extraordinary, vulnerable, gifted, incompetent human being. He was physically clumsy, and sometimes, when agitated, clumsy too in the mouth.” Each character receives the same detailed descriptions, metered out in a precise manner to reinforce the earlier comments about them.
One reason that I read is to be entertained. The stories in this book certainly did that, often eliciting a hearty laugh, sometimes filling me with a certain sadness. I also read to be educated, which Rushdie did in spades. He discusses autism, gender identity, contemporary politics in America, folklore, hip art, cinematography and classic films. He weaves ancient history, contemporary issues and current events into a seamless tale. Two themes drive this story—Rene sums it up by saying that “the question is the question of evil.” Nero Golden’s business dealings in Bombay caused the family move, and lead to the eventual downfall of all the characters. The second theme is that the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the sons, which we see as the story progresses. And the climax of the book comes straight out of Rebecca—a fitting scene for the cinematographer Rene.
I love to be challenged by a book. I needed both a dictionary and Google as I read this book. I realized early that a serious reviewer would have taken more copious notes. I later knew that this book would require a re-read. By the end of the book, I had figured out that this book needs a study guide! English Literature professors could have a field day with this one. I’d love to be in one of those classes. And yes, I did reread it.
I received an advance readers copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The ending was a bit too tidy for my taste, but I enjoyed the book.
The main character is a writer who has decided to do a documentary of his neighbor and his three sons, who seem to have erased their past before they arrived at their New York home. The mystery is why.
He insinuates himself into their lives, and over ten years his documentary instead becomes a novel. It’s a very tragic story, well written, although I found myself devoid of sympathy for the main character by story’s end. Turns out, he wasn’t such a great guy.