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November 17, 2017 November 2017 No Comments

The Golden House

I have found this Salman Rushdie book difficult to read but on the other hand hard to put down. The story line is straight forward enough and covers the time between the inauguration of Barrack Obama and that of Donald Trump. A clearly rich man and his three adult sons arrive from an unnamed overseas country to live in an expensive house in New York’s Manhattan.
The family do not speak about their former home country or how they had made their obvious fortune and had changed their surname to Golden. The air of mystery surrounding the family attracts the attention of a young neighbour, a would be screen writer who decides to use the family as a basis for a screen script.

He gradually gains the family’s friendship and becomes the son’s confidant; so the story unfolds. A story of intrigue, sibling quarrel, high life, art, money, film making, terror and lies.

The story is told by this neighbour, Rene, however it frequently suddenly changes from a narration to a piece of screen script he has written. Or at other times to what one of the sons is thinking, or again to a piece of philosophy and once a long third person soliloquy. The reader certainly needs to keep his (or her) wits about them.

All major American events and cultural changes over the eight years are cleverly worked in. As is a ruthless, ambitious media savvy villain and a beautiful mysterious lady. There are no light moments as this realistic novel follows the gradual undoing of the House of Golden. It’s quite long but very good, dare I say great? It certainly kept me hooked.
If you are a Rushdie fan this is one for you.

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