The story of Nero Golden and his family is told by a character in first person omniscient point of view. It is a pedantic rant against those who believe that wealth puts them above the law. It is a relevant story for us today which society has historically chosen to ignore. It compares and comments upon the present day political scene we are watching unfold daily in the media. That commentary kept me reading. I would recommend this book to those who like reading slowly through historical, cinematic, and literary references.

Nero Golden a billionaire with a past, is the father of three motherless son's Petronius (Petya), Lucius Apuleius (Apu), and Dionysus (D) all of whom chose their names upon immigrating to the US after they have to escape their homeland. Their story is told by Rene an aspiring film maker that blends fact and fiction with layers of social commentary throughout.
This book was not only entertaining in the way it approaches certain topics, one of the funniest is the way Rushdie decides to characterize the 2016 election (I won't spoil), or the serious complexity of gender identity, autism, gun violence, self censorship, truth, etc...
The story is entertaining, but for me the reason this gets 5 stars is because it made me look at things a little differently in some places, and let me know I wasn't alone in others. Not sure how to review the story itself without spoiling so I will conclude by saying this is definitely a book of the times told by a master storyteller. Well done.
Thank you Random House for providing me with this arc through netgalley.

Set in current day New York City (starting in 2009 and proceeding forward) Nero Golden and his three sons relocate from India, keeping their past shadowed, able to start with a clean slate to be who they present themselves to be. Their true origins and history have been conveniently left behind in a place far from NYC, both in distance and opportunities.
The narrator is a young friendly neighbor, Rene, who, while working on his great film project, ingratiates himself into the Golden family. His personality is inquisitive, refreshing and comical at times, but as the novel progresses, his thought and speech processes tend to morph into a platform for some nefarious purpose.
The writing is detailed and elegant, very descriptive and easy to read. Many times I felt that I was listening to the conversation, being in an active environment as the events unfolded. The downside of this is I was unable to get up and walk away when the topics evolved into the same melodramatic thrumming and senseless belching I hear all day, every day in today’s troubled society of Left vs. Right. I try desperately to have “no dog in that fight” each day in real life, so I was a bit saddened that it crept into my recreational time of relaxing reading. I say “crept” in the same manner the blood “crept” from the elevator in “The Shining”.
Although I enjoyed the lyrical writing, the plot was a bit slow. It would be better suited for people who enjoy poetry and don’t expect the normal layout of your cookie-cutter novel. I was a bit let down with the ending; I felt I had worked hard and deserved better. But I can surely see that this would be a very enjoyable, relaxing and intriguing read based on current-day America for other readers with varied tastes. I would have trouble recommending it to people I know, but I highly recommend it to the legions of audiences in reader-land who have finer tastes than mine.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for making it available.)

This book is very well written. For fans of satire and political books.

A delightful family tale in which the house and current politics play as big a role as the characters.

4.5 Stars

“The Golden House” was my first book from Salman Rushdie, his thirteenth novel to date. It begins 20 January 2009, with Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, setting the stage by reminding us of the economic ruin following the mortgage crisis that President Obama inherited.

On the same day, Nero Golden, his three sons, Petronius, or Petya, Lucius Apuleius, or Apu and Dionysius, or D, arrive in the US from an unnamed country of origin, moving into a new abode in the “Gardens,” an exclusive area of Greenwich Village where all of the 22 houses are linked connected by their garden hidden away from the city.

Petya, 40, an agoraphobic, and an alcoholic, and Apu, 41, an attention-seeking artist, were born slightly less than one year apart, they share the same mother, and even the same zodiac sign. Dionysius has no recollection of his mother, and is still a relatively young 22. Eventually, Nero Golden, in his early 70s, brings into their new home a new wife, Vasilisa, a Russian expatriate.

Their neighbor, René, who loves the gardens, all things of beauty, is drawn to the Goldens; in them he sees a story that needs to be told. His passion is filmmaking; he sees himself as the artist painting their murky lives as he sees them, so that others will see them clearly, as well.

”He leaned forward when standing or walking, as if struggling constantly against a strong wind only he could feel, bent a little from the waist, but not too much. This was a powerful man; no, more than that—a man deeply in love with the idea of himself as powerful.”

Relatively early on in this novel, the era of Obama at the helm draw to a close, and the elections for the 45th President are on everyone’s minds, including the media.

”He was dangling his wickedness under our noses, reveling in it, challenging us to see it, contemptuous of our powers of comprehension, convinced of his ability easily to defeat anyone who rose against him.”

Rushdie’s observations from our past political election are quite accurate, if perhaps coloured by his personal vision. His many thoughts, regarding this man who would become President, with his “colored hair” and bearing, leaving no doubt of his opinions on this topic.

”Sometimes, watching him, I thought of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, a simulacrum of the human that entirely failed to express any true humanity.”

I would not describe reading this as a challenge, but rather a story you can’t really allow your attention to wander, or get sidetracked. Every sentence seems to carry more importance than most contemporary fiction, and Rushdie isn’t an author who injects wide spaces, long pauses between thoughts, so this book feels more extensive than most, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.


Pub Date: 05 Sep 2017

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House

When the opening sentence in a book takes up almost half a page, my usual reaction is, “How pretentious.” When I encountered such a sentence in The Golden House, I thought, “What a beautiful opening.”
My admiration did not diminish as I avidly followed the story of The Golden Boys and their enigmatic father as narrated by their neighbor, aspiring young filmmaker Rene, who hopes to turn the lives of the Goldens into a film but through circumstances finds himself playing a crucial role. This is a highly complex novel, but through Rushdie’s genius it is very accessible, and the reader does not have to “work hard” to become totally immersed and thoroughly enjoy it.
The setting is a rich brocade of history and place. The Macdougal-Sullivan Gardens District of New York is a real neighborhood, and the history provided is genuine. The book opens as Barak Obama takes office, which seems a bit too recent to be called “history”, but few Americans probably remember much about the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in November, 2008, and Rushdie provides a forceful picture for us. Even ancient history becomes relevant, since Golden not only takes a Roman name for himself (Nero Julius) but also saddles his sons with classical names, against which they rebel. Petronius becomes Petya (which we are told suggested Dostoyevsky and Chekhov); Lucius Apuleius insists on being called Apu; and Dionysius simply becomes D.
The quantity of allusions to literature, both ancient and modern, and movies could be intimidating, but Rushdie does a masterful job of giving the reader enough context to understand the reference without doing a “data dump”.
Rene envisions the scenes of his movie as he tells his story and uses appropriate cinematic terms. This is a very nice technique that helped make them especially vivid.
So let’s talk about the story. After all, that is why we read novels. A great deal of the first part of the book is devoted to background and letting the reader get to know the very unusual characters, but my interest never flagged, and I just became more immersed and more interested in what would eventually happen. The suspense kept building, and then Rushdie threw me for a loop with some surprises and a very satisfactory ending. The careful attention to the other aspects of the writing craft did not come at the expense of the plot.
The Golden House is prefaced by an epigram from filmmaker Francois Truffaut, “La vie a beaucoup plus d’imagination que nous” (Life has more imagination than we do.) . Maybe not, but in The Golden House Salman Rushdie does a good job of challenging that observation.

Seriously, Rush die is just not my kind of writer. Every book of his that I pick up is just waaaay over my head, or whatever the problem is, I cannot figure it out. Just a truly all over the place chaotic book that makes me thunk either people.lie about his work when they review it, or something is wrong with ME.

Lukewarm best describes my experience with The Golden House. I had high hopes for this book and it never grabbed me the way I wanted it to. While there were fleeting moments of brilliance, they weren't able to do more than keep me reading, hoping for more.

Skillfully written in charmingly ornate and clever sentences, interestingly peopled and plotted, this novel is nonetheless rather bloodless, as I find much of Rushdie's work to be. Something about the act of reading it becomes a chore, as if the author were assaulting you with his enormous brain on every page, never letting you settle in with the story.

This is some serious, epic Greek tragedy. At its heart is the question of "Can a man be both good and evil?" and yet it is also about the role of the storyteller and the unmasking of America. As always, his wordplay is a twisty, tangled delight, filled with a myriad of literary and cinematic references that gladdened the heart of this lifelong reader girl and degree holder of a Masters in Film Theory.

This is a long book, over the top in many ways, but so so clever. I was totally caught up in the lives of the Golden family - Nero and his three sons all cloaked in mystery that the intrepid Réné is hellbent on unraveling for his own artistic pursuits. And so, the narrator becomes part of the story.

And Rushdie's commentary on American politics was brilliant. I suspect this book will earn him as many enemies as fans, but I adored it.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

**This review will be posted on Goodreads and Booklikes on September 10 as well as being featuring on my Curl Up With a Good Book Sunday that day.

Rushdie is at his best with this latest novel. Turning his critical eye toward the Trump era.

Politics, culture, a mysterious neighbor who moves into a posh neighborhood...riveting.

I wanted to read this book because I heard a lot of talk about it. I must admit that I lost interest just as fast as I started reading. I just could not get into the story. I really feel like it is lacking something. Overall, I was not happy with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House and the author Salman for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow – I didn’t expect to be reviewing an author of this standing in my first six months of being a book reviewer!

I won’t give you chapter and verse or any spoilers, I also haven’t read any of the authors other books to compare this to, but this was an interesting read to say the least! This isn’t my normal genre of book and this book didn’t really warm me to wanting to read any more from it. I probably won’t read any of his other books either.

I do have a massive amount of respect for the level of detail in this book, it’s obviously took a long time to write and is very intelligent read. I was not expecting what I got with this book!

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.

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