Natasha Solomons' House of Gold has so much promise that's unfulfilled. It's a big sprawling story based on the real-life Rothschilds, who once controlled great swaths of the world's wealth and money markets. It sweeps through the early part of the twentieth century through WWI, taking the reader from Vienna to Paris, Switzerland, England, the U.S., the North Atlantic, and the German front. Solomons also offers considerable information about money - how it is made, traded, and used. While the story moves along at a nice clip for the first three-quarters of the book, ultimately Solomons fails to deliver. Several flaws keep the book from being all it could be. Although it is heavy on plot, it is very thin on character development. The reader is invested only in Greta, and even her motivations and deepest thoughts are elusive at times. The other characters are either stencil-like portrayals or flit in and out of the story without leaving much trace behind. The fates of many characters are also left unfinished; swept up and separated by WWI, several are never heard from again. I had to read the last chapter twice because I could not believe that such a soap opera-ish ending, presented without explanation, passed an editor's muster. One of the book's most prominent themes is fertility. Solomons sparkles when she describes flora and fauna, butterflies and insects, and gardening. The natural life is renewed beautifully time and again. And yet, even in 1910, Greta seems to be totally ignorant of birth control methods that were available by the end of the nineteenth century. She was a woman of means, a woman with access to doctors and others who might know of these methods. That she remained unaware of them is not credible. This book will appeal to readers looking for a family sage and will lend itself to book club discussions.

I loved Natasha Solomons earlier work, especially THE GALLERY OF MISSING HUSBANDS, but this book surpassed her prior novels. It even made me a fan of a genre I generally don't like. Yes, this is a sweeping novel of love and death during WWI, but her writing is lush and beautiful. She has managed to create several memorable characters within a large family.

This is the story of the wealthy Goldbaum clan, inspired by the history of the Rothchilds. The central character is Greta Goldbaum. She is forced into marriage with a cousin, forced to move away from her beloved home and family to England. Nothing about Greta is predictable including her marriage to the aloof Albert. The reader gets to watch the couple grow and see their children born.

From a young displaced woman, we see Greta's growth into a woman of passion and involvement in the life of unfortunate women. She is indeed a "woman of valor."

On the sad side is the war, again beautifully described (despite the fact that it is very disheartening) and the story of Greta's brother, Otto, an unfortunate soldier. When a family is scattered all over Europe, the war can quite literally pit brother against brother and cousin against cousin.

The role of the Goldbaum fortune is also described, including the influence of bankers on government. Solomons also manages to involve the reader in the never-ending strands of anti-Semitism which were strong in Europe, especially depicting the treatment of Jews by the Russians.

Though I generally hate sagas, I must say, that I hope Solomons will consider writing about Greta's daughter, Celia and her experience in England during the years of WWII. Yes, I did the math, she will be at a perfect age to enchant readers in the 1930s-40s. Forgive me for seeing this as Jewish Downton Abbey, but I could not help but see the similarities.

This is a great read and a fine choice for book clubs with so many aspects of social history to examine.