To preface this review, I have to begin by somewhat taking umbrage with the following parts of the publisher's synopsis of this book (which appeared just like this in the "Read it Forward" newsletter):

"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." … "Meanwhile, like a bad joke, a certain comic-book villain embarks upon a crass presidential run that turns New York upside-down."

What bothered me here is the emphasis on the political aspect of this book, which I found to be merely a blip on the radar. True, at first glance, people might think that Nero Golden is Rushdie's attempt to build a somewhat convoluted version of today's POTUS. However, although there are some striking parallels, I don't believe that this was Rushdie's intention, particularly because there are hardly any references to the 2016 elections and its results. What he does do is quite amusing, in that Rushdie nicknames the two final candidates as Bat Woman and The Joker (green hair and all), and uses these images as elements in campaign cartoons developed by René and his girlfriend. In fact, other than this, the book almost totally avoids political commentary.

On the other hand, if you ask me, I think this book is more about the narrator René, and I must agree with the publisher fully when they say, "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." In fact, if I could boil it down even further, I would say that this is practically a coming-of-age novel. In other words, René's idea for this film is the vehicle for him to pass through numerous trials and tribulations - including some he experiences only second hand - in order to reach his true self.

However, there's another aspect here, in that this is also a cautionary tale of wealth and power, particularly those who achieve this through corruption. The book delves into how powerful they can get, as well as how all that money cannot stop time, nor avoid the same types of tragedies and difficulties that can befall everyone, from the greatest to the lowliest among us. Even so, this is still René's story, and through it, I think Rushdie is trying to say that when it comes to evil or corruption, there really is no such thing as a truly innocent bystander, because inaction has no fewer consequences than getting involved, unless your only action is to resist and fight. Although René initially denies his involvement in the Golden family, there is something about them, their secrets and their quirks that seem to draw him into their lives. Aside from this, René's own life situation changes, forcing him to become almost dependant on the Golden family, which thereby draws him further into their world, despite his constant attempts to pull away.

This is only the second novel by Rushdie that I've read, and I can see now why he's gained such popularity and acclaim, but I like this Rushdie better than the other one. Don't get me wrong, it isn't as if I didn't enjoy his previous novel, but it was very fantasy oriented and speculative, which can turn some people off. This book, however, is firmly based in reality, with all of the elements noted above, that are particularly relevant to today. More importantly, even though all this sounds like it could be extremely heavy, Rushdie brings to this narrative enough lightness and humor to keep it from depressing his readers, while keeping it strictly in the genre of drama. Even when Rushdie's prose seems to meander somewhat, I truly felt that this book was much more focused than his previous novel. This is probably because of the lack of fantastical elements in this book, but this didn't stop Rushdie from including some very thought provoking passages, some of which boarded on the poetic. For example, there's one part where one of the Golden sons is discussing if he should or shouldn't have sex reassignment surgery that struck me as spectacularly insightful regarding personal identity. This is just one way in which Rushdie reveals his brilliance together with how amazingly widely read he is, without every sounding patronizing or superior. All of this is just to say that I think that I enjoyed this book even more than "Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights," and I believe it deserves a full five out of five stars.

I have to confess that I am a huge Salman Rushdie fan. I think he is a brilliant writer and an incredible storyteller. In picking up The Golden House I was pretty sure I was going to love it. I wasn’t disappointed. As usual Rushdie’s writing blew me away with its cleverness, humour and humanity. I found myself highlighting passage after passage, just wanting to read them over and over and to share them with someone.

The story he tells in The Golden House is so woven into current events that the two cannot be disentangled. His views of the 2016 election are very clear and his despair for America his palpable. While he doesn’t mention any names he does recount the election as between Batwoman, the hero, and the Joker, an insane clown. I laughed out loud over many passages and shook my head in wonder and disbelief that this wasn’t just fiction. Rushdie has a knack for pinpointing the exact pulse of current events and building his stories around them.

This story is tragic and heartbreaking, dark and bleak while ultimately being hopeful. The Golden’s are fascinating and infuriating and very, very human. Their lives are packed full of a series of almost unbelievable events, much more than an average person would ever experience and they are larger than life characters yet pieces of their stories are relatable. Our narrator “Rene” sees the world through a cinematic lens and when he meets the Golden’s he sees that they are the perfect subjects for a film. Their lives do seem very much like a movie with organized crime, assassinations and secrets galore. The big mystery of the Golden’s and their history is unraveled slowly throughout the story while the present day events have huge impacts on the characters and their capacity to keep their secrets. Watching everything unfold was just riveting and I couldn’t put the book down. This was another sublime work by Rushdie and it just may be my favourite one yet!

Thank you to Random House for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

Was hoping to enjoy this book more than I did. May pick it up again at a later point.

This was my first Rushdie novel and I was excited to read it, but I admit I had trouble getting into it because of the verbosity. And while I love literary fiction, I also read a lot of thrillers so this one was slow-going for me initially. But the storyline with Golden's family was intriguing and, because it was set against a modern backdrop, made it relevant to modern culture and politics. Lovely prose meant to savor. I will need to investigate his others as well.

The Golden House and I have a complex relationship, one that becomes more difficult as each minute passes. I desperately wanted to love this book, but there was something that held me back and I seem to be in the minority according to the early Goodreads reviews.

So let me start begin with what I loved about The Golden House: the writing. There is something luxurious about Rushdie’s writing. It is unhurried and comprehensive, especially in this book. The sheer scope of the character portrayals and historical references is comprehensive, to say the least. Additionally, Rushdie’s thematic exploration and writing techniques are noteworthy. By merging this book with film cues and monologues, the line between fiction and reality is thoroughly blurred. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Rushdie explores issues of identity, migration, transformation, and morality.

Some of my favorites was how Rushdie examines the line between performance and reality. How do we inhabit our personas and make them into our identity? At what point does the line cease to matter? This was just one of the beautiful themes explored in the novel. It makes it so hard to review this book, because all the ‘grand idea’s behind this book I loved – if we can be good and evil at the same time (contrasted by superheroes and villains), how we make sense of our guilt, etc. But it was difficult to get there.

Rushdie’s writing envelops you completely, but I found it, at times, to be smothering. These thorough character glimpses can be exhausting sometimes. The plot can become muddled, lost in the haze of detail. At one point Rushdie compares people to icebergs beneath the surface of the water, and he spares no expense to take us deep underwater to the depths of their foundation. But this was both a blessing and a curse, as I felt that the plot was slow moving. While it picked up after the novel was halfway done, it was a little taxing to get there.

There is a wealth of intertextuality here: authors, films, historical events. This both made it seem so real, but also unrelatable. I felt like I was wading in a crowd at a socialite event where they all know each other and I know no one. The references I did recognize, I loved – so I imagine this book would be even richer if I was more cultured, especially in film. There were so many moments where Rushdie’s writing was incredibly poignant and I made note of it.

And what was at the heart of the book, the characters, was also a contested issue for me. I didn’t connect with very many and the ones I did, were side characters. I wouldn’t heard about one of them, D for example, for many pages and so my attention began to wane. And the ones I liked even more than D, were even more seldom mentioned. I understood the main characters, and their struggles, but I could not connect with them.

However, many from Goodreads have observed that you need to have patience. That you cannot be thinking about anything else. And I agree. This book is immersive, and all eyes must be glued to the text, otherwise you may have gotten lost like I was. I’m not sure why this book didn’t click for me. Was it the style? The departure of Rushdie from magical realism to historical fiction? The characters? Whatever it was, I got through it, but missed that exhilaration and love I felt after reading Midnight’s Children.

So if you’re sitting at the end of this review and wondering if the book is for you, let me give you some help. If you enjoy character books, cultural references, and fantastic writing this book could just be your next literary fiction love. If you are ready to devote a chapter a night, next to the fire, with your feet up, this may be a perfect thinking chair book. But if you also love Rushdie, give this a go. I sincerely hope you give it the love it deserves.

It is hard for new ideas to come into the world.

More than anything else in the novel, I think ‘it is hard for new ideas to come into the world’, hits you between the eyes. How true and how terrible. I went into this hoping it wasn’t all some sort of Trump novel the way some have been toting it to be, to tiresome to have to deal with all that in reading escapes. It’s not entirely though there are echos of what is going on now. The control Nero has over his sons because of his vast wealth and power is terrible to read, how hard to step out of the shadow their father’s dominance creates. There is a line that alludes to not really needing to be aware of just what his father does in his work, anymore than the child of a dentist needs to know about the teeth his dad works on that really humored me. What a way to muddy the waters but humorous too because really- what better way to distance oneself from the ugliness of where the money you so enjoy comes from.

Each of Nero Golden’s sons are damaged, Petya with ‘cracked intelligence’ which I really want to discuss, Apu the second born is a wildly talented artist but lazy, addicted to the lavishness his father’s money affords, D is the youngest, whose earlier disloyalty to Petya and Apu’s mother is never forgotten, whose place isn’t as solid as his older brothers and whose identity has been insubstantial from his very birth. Each son is burning, each Golden will be consumed by the flames of their father’s fire. René is the filmaker who has found his subject and obsession in the Golden Family, but he doesn’t keep an artistic distance, not even close. Enter a woman with her own agenda, the threat of the ‘princes’ being tossed from their throne and helpless to prevent the destruction she brings.

Why did the Golden Men flee their homeland? Can you really re-invent yourself, wash yourself clean of the past? Isn’t that the reason so many come to America, a sort of rebirth, but how much of your country and past haunts you? Can you escape yourself, your fate?

I have a love/hate relationship with autism spectrum characters. My own adult son has Asperger’s, lives on his own, is in college and studies game design, while there were some things that mirrored my own child, certainly he doesn’t have ‘cracked intelligence’ and isn’t ‘inept’. I realize Rushdie took Petya and exaggerated many of the struggles those on the spectrum face but I felt he was made to be far more helpless. Again, exaggerated. Naturally, the umbrella is wide and each person is an individual as we all are. I feel sometimes people that write about autism do damage while glorifying the ‘giftedness’ on one hand, on the other they insult the individual as helpless. Not so in my experience. Petya is just a character, and he is ‘hemmed in by himself’ I get that. It’s such a difficult world to navigate for all of us, those on the spectrum often come off in literature as bumbling idiots- which they are not. It does get frustrating and insulting to those on the spectrum when such characters are always falling apart, even in their successes. Okay, off my little soapbox. I can allow the author his artistic liberties, one could well argue Petya’s environment (wealth) does more damage- the majority of those on the spectrum don’t have the best and can’t hide in their gardens, they grow better having to navigate the world.

There is so much happening, gender identity, how others pushing people in a direction they may not have otherwise gone can damage the soul. Why for some, maybe it’s not necessary to be this or that- it is provocative and challenging. Every reader will have different feelings reading this novel. The past isn’t the only thing discarded, Nero isn’t easy to hate outright- one can find tenderness, scratching the surface. For a book that isn’t out until September it’s hard to hold my tongue because there is ugliness and truth- but we ask ourselves, what is the truth anymore? Are times in America really this ugly and vulgar? Are we so naked and lost? These are questions only the readers can answer for themselves. The beginning of the novel didn’t grab me, but stay with it because deeper to the center is where you find the heart and it’s on fire.

Publication Date: September 5, 2017

Random House

This is not one of Rushdie's greater works: it lacks the ambition of, say, Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses, The Moor's Last Sigh, or The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Unlike those, The Golden House is sometimes formulaic and predictable. Some of its accomplishments appear to come rather easily. Still, it's well worth reading. The writing is, of course, masterful, and the plot is absorbing. Its intricate network of allusions—from reality, high culture, and pop culture alike—provides a layer of interest, as does its counterpoint between literature and film. In terms of its content, it fits in with some of my courses better than some of the greater novels do, so I will probably assign it, and I'll certainly recommend it.

To say this book was difficult to read so soon after the 2016 presidential elections would be an understatement. So soon in the sense that reading the descriptions of the candidates was painful. But also so soon in the sense that when I wasn't trying to work my way through Rushdie's unwieldy sentences and references I was trying to figure out how quickly he got this book turned around after the election had ended.

While the plot of the book was interesting, it suffered from it's slow lead up and then slow wind down. As after the bulk of the action in the good had happened, yet the book was still going, I could only continue to wonder why I was still reading and what was the point. When "the point" finally came, it felt anti-climatic and like something that the author could have gotten to much faster. The writing was beautiful, but I would have rather the Rushdie had focused less on his references and tangents and more on the story. Rushdie had already crafted a captivating story, he did not need to throw all of the extra ornaments on it.

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.]

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I never really know how to review a Rushdie book. They're always so lofty, "academic," I feel like I need to be in a classroom having a discussion about it in order to fully process. But since I've been out of school for, oh, 9-going-on-10 years, I'll make my own little stab at it.

There's a lot to unpack here. On the surface we have the story of Nero Golden and his three sons. But simmering (sometimes boiling) underneath is the story of Rene (whose name has an accent but which I am too lazy to reproduce here), the man observing and taking notes on the Goldens and all their antics. We also have side characters who take the forefront at times, a hidden mafia, and a scathing satire of the 2016 US presidential election. Names are never mentioned. It's just The Joker (literally a man who was born with shocking green hair who embraced the fact that he looked like the Joker, and made himself up to complete the look), and The Batwoman. You can obviously guess who is who.

Nero is a hard man, who packed up everything he owned, including his family, and moved them from an unknown location (revealed in the first couple of chapters) to NYC. He is often contrasted with a blowhard we all know who ended up becoming our president this year. At times I felt like Nero was the caricature, but then The Joker turned up. It was very strange, but served to capture a couple of different sides to the "real life" person. Neither of them are very likable. Obviously.

Rene sees this strange family show up out of the blue, and, a budding filmmaker, decides they must be the subject of his major film. It takes him a decade to make the film, and all of that decade is spent trying to figure out this family. From beginning to end of the obsession, many incredibly wrong decisions are made, a lot of tragedy happens, and one very lucky miracle. Towards the end we get the satire of the 2016 election, and I'm wondering exactly how quickly Rushdie worked to complete this book after the results were announced in order to get it out so soon. But I have no idea of his process; maybe he was just incredibly prescient and made a guess months ahead of election night in order to suit his needs.

The book was very referential, and it was a little hard to follow in places because most of the movies referenced I have never seen or heard of. So I have nothing to draw on in those places besides what the narrator gives us, which isn't very much besides the list of names and titles. Maybe a glimpse into the director's process or a brief comment about the scene. But otherwise it was just a reference. I also had a hard time with Rene and his insertion into the lives of these Goldens. I'm amazed he felt so free to pry into their backgrounds, make himself a fixture in their lives, live in their home at one point, and all the many other ways in which he became involved, and yet still make this (fictionalized) movie about them. Granted, by the time the movie was made, they were all dead, so it's not like they would have cared. His recounting of their lives in the US was very hollow.

The story was interesting, and included some other references (fictionalized or actual) to other news stories in recent years that had made national headlines. For example, the Dannemora prison escape (out in my neck of the woods) was a huge deal here. As soon as "prison escape" was mentioned, even though he had fictionalized it to happen in a different state across the country, and different names, I knew what he was talking about. There were others made, many names of the black victims of police violence were mentioned in a few points. These were not changed. I'm not sure why there were some true-to-life references and others had to be edited, although with the prison escape I guess it made sense because of one of the prisoners' connection to another character. Still, I wasn't always sure which parts were real and which were not.

This review sounds very ambivalent, probably because I'm not sure what else to say about it. I enjoyed the book, but it took a long time to really get into it. There were some interesting twists, although I wanted to smack most of the characters most of the time. I wish we could have seen how Rene's movie actually went, because we got the "real" story, but I wanted to know how "his" story ended up going. And Suchitra - that woman is a saint. Seriously.

I wouldn't consider this a light beach read (I wouldn't consider any Rushdie to fall in that category) but I don't think it was quite as academic as some of his other novels could be considered. I was able to read and digest it on my own, although I do feel like I would have benefited from a read through with a book group or grad class. Good book, strange story, recommended.

Please see my GoodReads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2043786489

In this Salman Rushdie story, we meet the Golden family, a family of Immigrants whose patriarch comes to America with unlimited wealth, three sons renamed with Roman names, and a nefarious background which is explored by a neighbor of the Goldens. Nero, the family's head is a billionaire and his sons Petya, Abu, and D all of whom have issues that seem to ruin their lives and determine their destiny. Into this arena of tortured souls comes an erstwhile filmmaker, Rene, who is the narrator of the family's tale. He is besotted with them and becomes a teller of their lives while becoming further emeshed into it. Nero is a bachelor until he meets and marries the devious Vasilisa. She knows that in order to ingratiate herself further into Nero's graces she needs to produce an heir. Nero, a septuagenarian, is unable to father another child so Vasilisa tricks him into believing he can and does become pregnant through the help of Rene, who is quite willing to be of service.

The family excites the residents of the small enclave in which they live while Rene's pursuit of them becomes almost one of a stalker. However, as he ingratiates himself into this family, he also finds himself in the midst of their crimes, their struggles, and their infidelities.

As the story unfurls, we often find ourselves becoming exactly like Rene. Mr Rushdie is able through his writing to make the reader become Rene and look for the lascivious nature of the people he purports to care about. Here is where the story for this reader took steps backwards. In the telling, this reader found very few if any characters to like. Added to the whole story is the backdrop of politics which seemed to be more of a rant by the author on his political stance. I found that it added nothing to the story since politically speaking the Goldens had little to do with politics as they tried to maintain the mysteries surrounding themselves. If Mr Rushdie had kept to his characters, this novel would have in my estimation been excellent. Instead it became a pedantic tale with his political feelings making up the weakness of the novel.

Recently I got my hands on Salman Rushdie's upcoming novel The Golden House. It's a tragedy. A modern-day tragedy. From page one up to the last there's the whole genesis of this book is well planned over a form of a drama based on human suffering that invokes and interest us from our ancestral days. Many cultures provoked this idea, especially the Greeks around 2500 years ago.

The storyline is plain and follows a wealthy Nero Golden, a powerful real estate tycoon, of similar breed as of The Godfather, who immigrate to United States under a circumstance that took away the life of his wife, along with his three children. Beloved maybe. All of them, the four of them, make up their own names, inspired by Romans and move into a grand mansion in Manhattan shortly after the inauguration of Barack Obama's first term. Their golden story is narrated to us by their garden loving neighbour, another wealthy child, Rene who is an aspiring film director searching for a meaningful story. Upon finding his subject, he describes the whole story in the form of movie, sometimes a script, that is being played inside his mind.

The whole book is divided into three parts and ends near the reign of the current United States president. Such that it is contemporary in nature. The pace of the book is calmly moving along with the characters' mingling activities. Constant use of references to various cultures, movies, books, and fairy tales such as Vasilisa and the Hut of Baba Yaga by Alexander Afanasyev. Then the constant dip Greek and Roman mythology mingles with the background of American politics during all those years.

Things start to get interesting in the second part. The characterisation is strong but then it is expected from a writer like Rushdie's calibre. Writing style is fluent without a doubt. The element of surreal including the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, in 2008 gives the plot a foundation to live on. Otherwise there isn't much into the plot to say.

In the end, I could not find a major spectacular element. There are bits of goodness and irony, and hints from the author of how it will turn out in the end and one could pick those hints to predict the ending before reaching the end itself. You maybe right. You maybe wrong but you will be close enough. It does lack the surprise element that the contemporary fiction must emphasise on these days. Enjoyable but not surprising enough.

3 out of 5!

Not my favorite Rushdie, by a long shot. Solid story but the characters never really pulled me in.

THE GOLDEN HOUSE
SALMAN RUSHDIE


MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️
PUBLISHER Random House
PUBLISHED September 5, 2017

An fabulously intelligent and mysterious novel about identity set against the backdrop of contemporary American politics and culture.

SUMMARY
Barack Obama has just been inaugurated the first time when a septuagenarian foreign billionaire and his three adult sons take up residence in New York’s Greenwich Village. Nero Julius Golden arrives at his new home in a Daimler limousine, with his eldest son Petya, 44, who is agoraphobic and an alcoholic; Apu who is 41 and a romantic and flamboyant artist, and D who at 22 is the baby of the family and harbors a deeply held secret. But, that is only one of many secrets that this family holds. The biggest secret is why they have come to the United States, and changed their identities. While still in the limousine Nero tells his son to never tell anyone where they came from.

Upon the Golden’s arrival at their new home, the Murray mansion, the grandest of all the homes in the Macdougal-Sullivan Gardens Historic District, we soon are introduced to the Golden’s neighbor, and our narrator René. René is an ambitious young filmmaker full of energy and ambition and enamored with the Golden’s mystique. He ingratiates himself with the family in order to learn as much as he can, with the hope of finding out what brought them here and developing a movie about them. He not only tells the story but soon plays a part of the story, he inevitably become embroiled in the family’s quarrels, romances, infidelities and their secrets.


REVIEW
THE GOLDEN HOUSE is set against the backdrop of current American culture and politics. As the family assimilates to life in the US, events begin unfolding triggering disaster for the Golden family. The mystery of who this family were, where they immigrated from, and why, is a predominant part of the story.

The character development for THE GOLDEN HOUSE was masterful. Nero and each of his sons image, personality, interests, strengths and weaknesses leap off the pages of this book. It's easy to become enthralled with each of their unique and perhaps, peculiar lives. And even René, the knowledgable neighbor, and creative and passionate narrator proves to be a most endearing character. His integration with the family proves to be more than even he expected.

The story of the of Golden family is intense, mysterious and complex. A variety of topics are included in this 368 page book: current politics, fidelity, sexual identity, autism, art culture, migration, honesty, and sins of the father. The complexity of the book is derived from René’s innumerable historical, literary, and film references, many of which I was not familiar with. While this was somewhat challenging, it did not diminish the enjoyment of THE GOLDEN HOUSE. Another imaginative part of the book was René’s telling of portions of the story as a scripted scene of how he would film it for his movie. Loved it! One of my favorite parts of the book was SALMAN RUSHDIE’s adroit humor when describing the 2016 presidential election, in particularly the ingenious symbolic use of a certain comic book villain as the crass candidate in the election. Not that there was ever any doubt that RUSHIE admirable stood with Her.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Golden House tells the tale of Nero Golden and his three sons. The narrator is the Golden's Manhattan neighbor and a filmmaker who has possessively staked a claim on their story. The Goldens left an unnamed country to immigrate to the US, taking new names as they arrive. The story follows the Goldens through the Obama administration and the latest American presidential election cycle. Unlike other Rushdie books I've read, I found this extremely difficult to connect with. The narrator Rene's voice was irritating and grandiose to me and I wanted him to take a big step back away from the action rather than inserting himself and his point of view on an already complicated story. The Goldens were not much more likable and I found it slow to start and difficult to find purchase on this tale.

Both the appeal of and my concern with the ostensible premise of Rushdie's latest book was its expected Trump fixation. The Golden House, though, isn't really a book about our current president. Although 45 informs the central character in many ways, the novel is far from political satire (though some clear politics show through). Instead, Rushdie takes a look at the current US cultural landscape.

The magical realism of much of Rushdie's work is gone here, but the sense of mythmaking and grand narrative remains. When Rushdie's narrator Rene says that “the human ineffable invariably coexisted with the properly knowable, and that there were mysteries in men which explanations could not explain,” he reveals his own searching and the limits of that work (limits that Rushdie will push further than his filmmaker protagonist).

The book works around contemporary questions about truth and reality. How do we find the truth? How do we know who we are or, better, how do we invent ourselves? How do we tell our stories? It becomes a difficult issue in which fact and truth aren't always the same. As Rene makes a documentary of sorts, he tells this story, mixing what happened and what could have happened, talking at one point about “all of us, invited and uninvited, real and fictional.”

There's a falsity behind all of it. The Golden family has their made-up names and histories (which coming with the danger of winding back on them); Rene has his storytelling, both professionally and in his personal deceit; and no one quite knows who they are.

The novel, despite these demanding philosophical questions, stays readable and grounded in contemporary western culture (with some forays to India). The novel works best in the context of the “fake news” era, and it grapples with current politics, but in ways that make it likely to be relevant for ages. It also deals with personal identity in ways that fit the news cycle. In particular, one of the characters deals with gender issues, and neither Rushdie nor his other characters are willing to offer easy answers.

It sounds heady but, as always, Rushdie's a treat to read, mixing the comical in with the big issues, playing with allusions (especially to film, drawing on Rene's character to make those references a natural part of his novel's world). The book resolves well formally, without finding anything simple in its thinking. As story, as cultural commentary, and as epistemological quest, it's a valuable and entertaining read.

I really liked this book and it was better than expected. It's very well-written, and the characters are fascinating. Set during the Obama era, it tells the story of the Golden family living in New York City.

The wealthy Golden family have arrived from India to take New York City. There are four Goldens - the father, Nero Golden, his three sons, Petronius, or Petya, Lucius Apuleius, or Apu and Dionysius, or D. Petya is an agoraphobic who doesn't like leaving the house, Apu is an artist and D is a young man from a different mother than his brothers.

They move into an area of Greenwich Village called The Gardens, where they live near Rene, the book's narrator and observer of the Golden family. He's a filmmaker and sees a story in the Golden family. His narration tells the story of the rise and fall of the family over the 8 years of the Obama administration.

This book is astonishing to read. It can get difficult in places, because there are so many cultural and historical references thrown around that you can get lost if you aren't on your toes.

I highly recommend this book, and consider it an amazing work of fiction.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While this is not my favorite of Salman Rushdie's book it is a highly enjoyable story about the ridiculousness of American wealth and greed in the 21st century. It is filled with Rushdie's signature brand of scathing humor and satire that fans of The Satanic Verses will appreciate. As with all of Rushdie's books, he asks the readers to confront their own concepts of politics and wealth but most importantly, the concept of Americanism and what it truly means to call oneself an American. During this age of neofascism which has pitted neighbor against neighbor, the real question of the book is "who gets to call themselves an American and what are the values that we really think make an American?" With the Goldens, the reader is presented with a family of refugees that has been accepted as Americans, not because of the values that we publicly atribute to true Americans -welcoming and self reliant-instead that embody the values that we covertly want in Americans-wealth, greed and misogyny.

My former boss once interviewed Salman Rushdie. She's met hundreds of prominent people over her career, and she said he stuck out as a favorite because he was both brilliant and generous. 

For this, and also because it is ubiquitous in Books You Have to Read lists, I once packed Midnight's Children as my only reading option on an intercontinental plane ride. I ended up giving up about halfway through (it's a THICK book!). I found the writing brilliant, yes, but not really that generous — in fact, it almost read as if it were a vehicle to display Rushdie's brilliance, and that's why the book is so long). 

Actually, the truth may also just be that I'm not bright enough (or patient enough) to enjoy Rushdie's brilliance (I once also ditched the almost universally-lauded Wolf Hall mere chapters from the end, so I am serious when I say this is the likely explanation). 

For this reason, I was nervous to request an advanced review copy of The Golden Hour. I was afraid I'd have a hard time finishing it. But the blurb said this book is a scathing commentary on today's political and cultural climate (my paraphrase), so I was intrigued. (Also, I felt the need to finish a Rushdie sooner rather than later.) This time, I plowed through the book during a cross-country road trip. I finished in a few days — and I enjoyed it!

The Golden House is about privileged family, Nero Golden and his three grown sons. The Goldens are remarkable because of their wealth (they own a mansion in a private New York City neighborhood), but also because they suddenly appear in New York with nary a backstory. In fact, they are intent on obscuring their shared family history — we don't even know their real names or their country of origin. We are made privy to this family's secrets by a Nick Caraway-esque narrator, who initially tells us his job is to observe, but, of course, gets himself inextricably tied to each family member's fate all the way to the bitter end. The narrator, who gives himself a pseudonym (Rene — take a guess as to why a pseudonym is necessary), almost immediately excuses his obsession with the family by claiming he is writing a screenplay in which they are the subjects. And thus begins the tale.

What I liked about this book: Rushdie is not shy when using foreshadowing (is it foreshadowing if he tells us outright that something bad is going to happen?), but it worked for me. I genuinely wanted to know what would happen next, especially once Rene gets more directly involved. I also enjoyed the hyper-currentness of the piece, which I'm not sure I've ever experienced in a novel— Rushdie takes us all the way past Trump's victory to 2017. The way he paints the most recent election is fascinating and disturbing (Trump's character is The Joker, Clinton is Batgirl) — I was acutely aware of just how farcical real life seems right now. Rushdie also dips into a multitude of worlds within his narrative — we hear about the art scene in New York City, Indian mob culture, even the inner-thoughts of a Russian gold-digger. And the writing? It's clear as a neon sign that Rushdie is brilliant. 

Surprise, surprise. That brilliance is maybe my biggest beef with the book. Rushdie, like in Midnight's Children, is too smart for me — he drops names (and all manner of trivia, in various languages) with reckless abandon. He also has such a strong voice, which is excellent, except every character sounds like they are various versions of the same voice. (No one, including the younger characters, sounds like they actually live in current day New York City.) In fact, the setting is confusing — it's supposed to be now, in a world I recognize, but the portrayal of actual events is so stylized, it could be of any made-up place, in any made-up time. (I'm thinking now that perhaps that was the point!) The actual plot centering on the Goldens almost feels anachronistic. I found it jarring when there are current-day references — oh yeah, this is supposed to be happening in my world.

By now, this is sounding like a negative review. On the contrary, I quite liked this book and would recommend it. The plotting was, at times, delicious and Rushdie gives nice, satisfying pay-offs. (I found it terribly unfair but quite enjoyable that one character gets to have his cake and eat it, too.) Suffice it to say, The Golden Hour has made me want to give Midnight's Children another shot. 

I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.