The Golden House: A Novel

This is a very interesting read but beware, Salman Rushdie is very erudite and it's not a breezy, easy read. You do have to concentrate. While it's fiction, you can't help but feel you're reading about Donald Trump. Certainly much of what's in the book is accurate in terms of news of the day, politics, issues and even all the weather disasters we experienced in 2017. I suggested it for my book club and we will be discussing it in a few weeks; and so far, it seems everyone is really enjoying it and looking forward to the discussion. There is lots to discuss...lots of symbolism and poignant messages about us as a people, our priorities and the face we put out to the public. I'm really glad I read it.

As a typical Rushdie novel, this book is a brilliant literary showcase. This is not a political satire. Don't go by the description of the book. Sure, it's set around the American elections of 2016 but that's just a thread on the sideline. This is the story of a family that's shrouded in mystery. The characters are intriguing. The plot is not too difficult to follow like some other Rushdie novels. However, the language is absolutely beautiful. The mood throughout the book is fluid. Sometimes gay and sometimes sombre. That's Rushdie playing with the reader.Overall, I'd highly recommend this book for Rushdie fans. Definitely not for someone looking for a political satire.

To me, Salman Rushdie novels are kind of like opera- you don't go for the story, you go for the way the story is expressed. You either love it or you hate it. But the bones of the story just function as a container for the expression. (I hope that makes sense.)"The Golden House" is no different. The story is about an international family - father, three sons- and their move to a little cloister of houses in New York City. One of their neighbors takes it upon himself to chronicle their experience and the novel is told from his perspective.To be completely honest, the story didn't interest me at all and I wasn't that invested in the characters, but I *was* invested in the writing. I'm usually a stickler for empathetic characters and solid plot but when the writing is wonderful, it can make up the difference.To me, Rushdie is a powerful novelist, not content to stick to any sort of genre or format within his writing. Some passages contain quotations marks to indicate speech, some do not. Some events are told in screenplay format, others in long winded speeches given by the oldest brother (who is on the autism spectrum and can recite details with ease.) The novel is dense, but it all sort of flows off the page effortlessly.This isn't a book you dip in and out of, I don't think. I usually am forced to read pages of books when I get a little free time here and there. However, I had the time this past week to sit down for a couple of hours in the afternoons, and I found myself instantly drawn into the book and Rushdie's writing. I can't consider myself a Rushdie fan, simply because I don't think my reading style (grabbing pages when I can, a few minutes here, a few minutes there... sometimes not being able to read for a few days) suits his writing style, so I can't really compare how "The Golden House" compared to many of his other novels. But compared to what I've been reading the past few years, I'm pretty impressed.This is the kind of book that makes me want to change my reading habits and spend more time reading good books instead of just dipping in and out of whatever is on my bedside table whenever I have some time.

The author of The Golden House, Salman Rushdie, and I have lived through the same decades, but his life has been global and large; mine provincial and small. Mr. Rushdie was born in Mumbai, however his influences were both British and Indian. Everyone remembers that he lived in fear of his life as a Muslim under a fatwa because of his book, The Satanic Verses.In The Golden House, Rushdie writes as a New Yorker. He tells a tale of a Mumbai family, hiding with new identities, under a mysterious veil of danger in New York City. Our narrator is a young American man raised by professorial and loving parents on the edges of the MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens. (They’re real, look it up.) The Golden family lives at the other end of the Gardens and these recent arrivals are endlessly fascinating to René, the son of Gabe and Darcy.The Goldens were “reborn” when they left Mumbai to live in America with their adopted Roman names. The father claimed the name of Nero, with all its end-of-empire symbolism. His first son took the name Petronius, the second chose Lucius Apuleius (Apu) and the third became Dionysus or D. The names were perhaps a bad idea.René had always wanted to be a film maker but his life seems too prosaic until it becomes entangled in the low key, but rather tragic, lives of this family with no mother and, seemingly, no past. This novel is, among other things, an homage to great movies/films – European, Hollywood, Bollywood. Salman Rushdie, bursting still with crackling intellectual energy pulls into his story references to the movies he has loved, the same movies we love, except for a few so highbrow they may never have been available in the hinterlands I have inhabited. These movies still live vividly in his prodigious memory and in the minds of many a film buff.As the Golden family comes apart, because you really cannot escape the past, a politician known as the Joker, guess who, a clownish grafter, is running for the American Presidency. (The parallels between American Democracy and the fall of Rome are hardly subtle.) As we know the Joker wins the election.This is a very readable novel, without the Muslim/Indian baseline which is foreign to most Americans and makes some Rushdie novels seem somewhat dense. The Golden House is a tour de force by a man who is comfortable in cultures around the globe and does not mind splashing around in his literary bona fides for our enjoyment. Eliot’s “Prufrock” and Shakespeare get cameos among the films – “I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” Not yet, Mr. Rushdie, not yet.Those of us who are shell-shocked with worry for American Democracy can find some comfort in the decision this British/Indian man made to put on his New York/American persona in order to help us through these chaotic days (and nights, and months, and years). What began as a comedy could easily become a classical tragedy. However, I think you will read this tragedy with a great big old smile on your face (at least some of the time).

I really enjoyed this novel as I have all of the authors books. But I have to say I was turned off by the thinly disguised digs aimed at our President and voters of which I am one. His opponent as a comic book superhero was laughable. It is a beautiful book and engaging but I would have enjoyed it much more without the politics. They were unnecessary to advance the plot and will not age well

I hesitated to buy this, as I'd been less than impressed with last offering or two and there are a lot of negative reviews from critics and on here.Finally I was persuaded by a review on here titled "His best since Shalimar the Clown", I got it and I really enjoyed it. I couldn't agree more. The prose is so addictive, every sentence is a joy to read, and a very contemporary and up to date setting.It's maybe a bit less highbrow than you would expect, for example when he uses the term "bardo" he explains what it means, I wonder whether his readers need that kind of handholding. On the other hand I counted at least 4 examples of him quoting Paul Simon lyrics which would go straight over your head if you didn't know those songs.Ultimately if you are familiar with his previous books, you need the opinion of someone in the same boat to decide whether this one is worth your time. There's no point paying attention to critics, who are in a world of their own, or first time readers, who might just not like Salman Rushdie's style in the first place. So take it from me it's a return to form.

After a poor first half, a dreary chronicle of personal reminiscences and conceits, by which time you begin to imagine the school report reading ‘Salman is capable of much better than this’, Salman Rushdie engages gear, and his peerless literary genius, to deliver a gripping story which is part thriller, part social commentary, part consideration of human vice and virtue.It’s not clear whether it really is autobiographical or simply adopts this genre, but Rushdie succeeds in his declared aim of showing that humanity in general, and any one person in particular, can be both good and bad.His ire is immensely stirred in his outpouring of what is possibly the most literately endowed condemnation of the Trump phenomenon. America has lost its heart, its nature, its dignity, and its soul. It’s doubtful whether his rebuke will reach its target, or be understood if it does, but it’s worth the effort, and galvanises us all.Movingly, Rushdie allows redemptive human love and forgiveness to survive the blasts of evil and vice. We can only hope he’s right.

There's no one quite like Sir Salman. This was an absolute joy from start to finish. Contrary to what I had thought, The Golden House (or gilded cage) is not simply a satire on Trump, but a glorious Rushdiyan tragedy where every thought references some delicious piece of popular culture from points throughout history. In fact Trump appears only as a background distraction.Rushdie is having enormous fun even while his characters are wrestling with weight and fate. In one memorable paragraph, Rushdie gets from classical Greek myth to The Tempest via a complete lyric from Lieber and Stoller's "Stand By Me". When an author is having this much fun, it doesn't always translate into fun for the reader. Not so here. The Golden House is everything I could have hoped for from a Salman Rushdie novel, which is to say everything anyone could ever hope for from a work of new fiction.

I thought the subject matter may be interesting..wrong..narratted in the most irritating way imaginable, his voice is jarring. The story is the most boring, smug, patronizing heap of claptrap. I kept listening but it got worse and by disc 5 which I have to eject unfinished.. my one delight will be to dump the lot in the bin...at the cost of 40 quid...live and learn

For me, this was the best Salmon Rushdie book since Midnight’s Children. The story, the image making, the use of metaphors and so much side information make the book a real joy. Rushdie is like a confident performer on a stage showing off his art of language, well worth experiencing.