Larger than life, the Golden men have become a source of fascination to Rene, the narrator of this story. Nero Golden, the father, obviously has a mysterious past that has enabled him to immigrate to New York from a country he prefers not to name, with endless wealth and sinister undertones. His grown sons, all of whom have assumed Roman names, have weaknesses: one is agoraphobic and autistic; one alcoholic; and one of questionable gender identity. When Rene decides to make this Greenwich Village neighbor family the subject of his debut film, he becomes immersed in their lives, at the same time he falls in love with a kindred documentary film-maker. With the 2016 presidential election as the backdrop, Rushdie describes characters and their actions with forebodings of tragic outcomes. While Nero cannot escape the repercussions of his past deeds, Rene also makes choices that he knows he will regret, even while wishing to be the best person he can be. The classic themes of greed, betrayal, love, loyalty, and redemption are made all the richer by allusions to mythology, literature, and contemporary culture.

There is no question that when Sir Salman Rushdie decides to hang up his pen and paper, he will be a 1st ballot inductee into the Literary Writers Hall of Fame. He is truly unique.

“The Golden House” shows that it is not time to walk away for a good while yet. There is so much between the covers. What will probably receive most buzz is the fact that this is the 1st serious fictional post-Trump election commentary on the (sad) state of our world.

The classical Rushdie erudition is on full display. He finds a multitude of apt literary, cinematic, artistic and pop-culture references to drop into all the right places. Readers are also offered ample opportunity to acquire knowledge regarding historical events on multiple continents over multiple eras.

The plot is full cast of characters, as expected. We meet nefarious actors, privileged rich boys and girls experiencing and creating both 1st world and 3rd world problems. Some of the boys are girls and vice versa. Some aren’t sure quite what they are and settle on maybe both.

Magical realism and mysticism make their requisite appearances. Things aren’t always what they seem or are meant to be. In fact, things are rarely what they appear to be. And it’s all being captured for a blockbuster film. What could go wrong?

Sir Rushdie is a special treat, always to be savored. Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the DRC. There will be much deserved buzz around this treat of a novel.

At the outset, I should mention that I've always been a fan of Salman Rushdie. As a kid growing up in India, I'd obviously heard about his ban and the Satanic Verses controversy. It wasn't until 3 years ago that I was introduced to the man himself through Midnight's Children and I knew right then that I was in the presence of something else, something intangible but laudable. Then, I picked up The Enchantress of Florence and loved that too. There, I've said it, I'm a biased Rushdie fan.

I don't exactly have words to describe the plot of The Golden House - the book blurb probably does it as well as I'd be able to - but if I had to sum it up, I'd say this: it contains everything that is of relevance in the USA today. There are arcane film trivia, criss-cross politico-cultural references to Southeast Asia and Europe, along with (very dark) comic book references, all tied up in one neat golden bow. This man truly is a master of symbolism and allegory. His characters and situations can shapeshift with such ease, nothing is what it seems. Rushdie draws upon his immense trove of knowledge to connect the past, present and future, the real and unreal, the myth and the urban legend, to show us the duality and conflict inherent in every breath his narrator takes. The levity and slight turning up of the nose at his characters are so quintessentially Rushdie.

I was impressed with the story, the pace, the characters, and the connections - in short, pretty much everything. I'd definitely recommend it to readers at all levels, and especially to readers familiar with Rushdie's earlier work.

My only grouse with this wonderful wonderful book was the reference to 'four helical amino acids', which left me stumped. Four helical DNA bases? Even that doesn't make sense - because there are 4 DNA bases and DNA strands are helical in structure, but what of that? Amino acids are a different story altogether. Here's hoping that it's a typo and I haven't missed another satirical point.

"How does one live amongst one’s fellow countrymen and countrywomen when you don’t know which of them is numbered amongst the sixty-million-plus who brought the horror to power, when you can’t tell who should be counted among the ninety-million-plus who shrugged and stayed home, or when your fellow Americans tell you that knowing things is élitist and they hate élites, and all you have ever had is your mind and you were brought up to believe in the loveliness of knowledge, not that knowledge-is-power nonsense but knowledge is beauty, and then all of that, education, art, music, film, becomes a reason for being loathed, and the creature out of Spiritus Mundi rises up and slouches toward Washington, D.C., to be born. What I did was to retreat into private life—to hold on to life as I had known it, its dailiness and strength, and to insist on the ability of the moral universe of the Gardens to survive even the fiercest assault.". - from The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

The Golden House by Salman Rhusdie will probably be hailed as the first great novel depicting the despair felt throughout the reading life world (no doubt the same or worse feelings have been generated in artistic and other segments of society but I can only speak about the feelings of those of us who cherish literature above all as it is what I know). If Rushdie, this is the fifth of his novels upon which I have posted, never wins The Nobel Prize it will be a tribute to the power of the petro dollar.

I know as soon as The Golden House is published it will be written about throughout the literary press. A new Salman Rushdie novel is a major event. I am not inclined to summarize the "story line" in great detail. Basically it centers on an incredibly wealthy older man with three sons who is forced to relocate from his ancestral home in Mumbai, he still has to think to avoid saying "Bombay" by the ramifications of his past corruptions catching up with him to New York City. How he got so wealthy is a bit shrouded in mystery. He lives in NYC in a development called "The Gardens", which is inhabited by people very much like the trump family. The family patriarch is in his early seventies, he has a much younger trophy wife. The scenes are split between NYC and Mumbai. There is a very interesting treatment of the terrorist attack on the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, a symbol of opulence.

The story is told be a neighbor of the Golden family, a filmmaker, who decides to make a movie about the family. We get to know Mr. Golden and his sons well. It was impossible for me not to see Golden's sons as meant to bring to mind those of trump. The wife might as well be a very expensive prostitute, Golden cannot get her pregnant and in an intriguing subplot the filmmaker begins an affair with the wife, she gets pregnant and the child is thought by Golden to be his.

Rushdie depicts trump mercilessly in all his completely self centered shallowness, devoid of any culture, the champion of those who worship the ignorant or maybe use those the people who voted for him to safe guard their own status, preying on and abandoning their followers as soon as they are no longer needed. Of course I do not see any trump supporter actually reading The Golden House so it will only impact those who already despise what he has brought forth.

I love the lush language of Rushdie, his descriptions are so vivid, his imagination so powerful. I also really liked all of the literary and classic cinema references made by the narrator.

The Golden House is everything a supreme literary work of art should be.

I don't doubt there are deep meanings in this work,cultural allusions and historical references that I missed on my first reading.



Mel u
The Reading Life


I will be very curious to see how it is received.

Rereadinglives.blogspot.com

I fully enjoyed delving into Rushdie outside of the realm of the fanciful and mythological. This one to me was much more reminiscent of his nonfiction about going underground to avoid the Fatwa that was brought against him as opposed to his magical works which tend to blend the real and unreal. Gripping story. Humorous turns. Germane topics and allusions. I'd definitely pass this one on to a friend. Recommended!!!

This novel was well written enough to impress me with its commentary against bigotry before then frustrating me with trivialising it as political correctness, amidst an interesting story.

"The Golden House" exceeded my expectations. I was a little 'ho hum' for the first 10% to 12% percent. Once introduced to the character Petya, the oldest son in 'The Golden Family', the storytelling kept soaring.
I was immediately pulled in to the personality profiles of each of Nero Golden's three son's.

Petya, is considered high on the autism spectrum. I was especially interested in
the behaviors of Petya because my husband and I had guest staying with us last week who either had austism or we suspected Asperger's. It was a challenge and experience for us last week. Our guest was in town for a virtual reality symposium. He was exactly the way Petya is described: extraordinary, vulnerable, gifted, and an incompetent human being. "He was physically clumsy, and sometimes, when agitated, clumsy to the mouth, stammering and stuttering and being infuriated by his own ineptitude".
Petya prefer to stay indoors -just like our guest -perhaps borderline agoraphobic.
If you asked Petya direct question he would answer honestly because his brain made it impossible for him to lie....
"Yet out of loyalty to his father's wishes he managed to find a way. He trained himself in locutions of avoidance, "I will not answer that question", or "maybe you should ask someone else". At age 42.... there were parts of Petya that would always remain a child. I was fascinated with Petya.....

But....

Then we meet his brother, one year younger in 'age'. Their birthdays are less than 12 months apart. Lucius Apuleius, a.k.a. Apu. is 41 -- a Gemini horsescope like his older brother Petya.
Apu was unsympathetic to his older brothers issues. A very different type of person in every shape and form. He was a gifted painter - considered technically as great as Dali. Many of the New York ladies were happy to undress for him.... and soon after his first solo show he became a famous artist.

"America changed them both, Petya and Apu--America, that divided self--polarizing them as America was polarized, the wars of America, external and internal, becoming their wars as well; but in the beginning, if Petya arrived in New York as a heavy
-drinking polymath who was afraid of the world and found living in it a constant hardship, then Apu came as the sober romantic artist and promiscuous metropolitan, flirting with everything that was visionary yet with a clarity of vision that allowed him to see people plain as his portraits showed".

The youngest son is named D. D is 22 years old... he feels like the odd one out child - has dealt with loneliness -feels like a misfit in his own skin. He's withholding a secret from his family.

Rene is a young filmmaker - around mid 20's - young with energy and ambition. He
weasels himself- very smoothly into the Golden family. He wants to make a film about their family. As a significant and subtle character - he never overshadows the turn of events - he guides them subtly.

I really enjoyed this book. I felt nostalgic for those early days when we first learned Barack Obama became President. I remember the hope - the pride - the joy .....
then the sadness which hit me as I read "The Golden House". I'm sure I didn't understand every single thing - Salman Rushdie is a challenging author to read ....but I was sincerely engaged. I laughed out loud many times. I was in 'aw' at Rushdie's brilliance other times.
I ended with 'sitting'...... sitting in a chair for 20 minutes- alone - quiet .... eyes watering..... just 'thinking'.
This is our world right now ---animated, theatrical- nutty - scary - confusing - with many people most comfortable isolating in their homes---while others are flamboyant outlandish socially active in the arts - sports -politics- and community. Love, fear, anger, hate... we live with it all. It's a sad beautiful world!

Enduring storytelling!!! This is Rushdie's best book since "Midnight Children".

Thank You Random House, Netgalley, and Salman Rushdie

Thank you Net Galley. This is one of Rushdie's best books. I enjoyed the story and its telling very much. I loved the story, interwoven with observations on life, the breadth of the novel and the characters. Reading it, I was amazed at how well Rushdie had captured the contemporary world, quite prescient. A must read.