The Golden House: A Novel: Salman Rushdie
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Description
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • PBS • HARPER’S BAZAAR • ESQUIRE • FINANCIAL TIMES • THE TIMES OF INDIA
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.
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. Meanwhile, like a bad joke, a certain comic-book villain embarks upon a crass presidential run that turns New York upside-down.
Set against the strange and exuberant backdrop of current American culture and politics, The Golden House also marks Salman Rushdie’s triumphant and exciting return to realism. The result is a modern epic of love and terrorism, loss and reinvention—a powerful, timely story told with the daring and panache that make Salman Rushdie a force of light in our dark new age.
Praise for The Golden House
“[A] modern masterpiece . . . telling a story full of wonder and leaving you marveling at how it ever came out of the author’s head.”—Associated Press
“Wildly satiric and yet piercingly real . . . If F. Scott Fitzgerald, Homer, Euripides, and Shakespeare collaborated on a contemporary fall-of-an-empire epic set in New York City, the result would be The Golden House.”—Poets & Writers
“A tonic addition to American—no, world!—literature . . . a Greek tragedy with Indian roots and New York coordinates.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Book Information
Posts
Hmm, also es ist ein Rushdie Buch, das heißt es ist schön erzählt, mit einem feinen Humor, und relativ mitreißender Handlung, aber am Ende sitze ich davor und frage mich, was er mir über die reine Handlung hinaus mitteilen wollte. Im Zentrum des Buches herrscht eine Leere. Oder eine Ratlosigkeit? Vielleicht ist er einfach ein Mann des 20. Jahrhunderts, der sich und mir versucht, das 21. zu erklären und es nicht kann. Aber immerhin fand ich die unzähligen Filmreferenzen dope, viele Filme die ich selber liebe oder schon immer mal schauen wollte. Shoutout to Luis Bunuel, The Exterminating Angel schwebt mir schon seit Monaten im Kopf herum, seitdem ich den gesehen habe.
Description
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • PBS • HARPER’S BAZAAR • ESQUIRE • FINANCIAL TIMES • THE TIMES OF INDIA
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.
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. Meanwhile, like a bad joke, a certain comic-book villain embarks upon a crass presidential run that turns New York upside-down.
Set against the strange and exuberant backdrop of current American culture and politics, The Golden House also marks Salman Rushdie’s triumphant and exciting return to realism. The result is a modern epic of love and terrorism, loss and reinvention—a powerful, timely story told with the daring and panache that make Salman Rushdie a force of light in our dark new age.
Praise for The Golden House
“[A] modern masterpiece . . . telling a story full of wonder and leaving you marveling at how it ever came out of the author’s head.”—Associated Press
“Wildly satiric and yet piercingly real . . . If F. Scott Fitzgerald, Homer, Euripides, and Shakespeare collaborated on a contemporary fall-of-an-empire epic set in New York City, the result would be The Golden House.”—Poets & Writers
“A tonic addition to American—no, world!—literature . . . a Greek tragedy with Indian roots and New York coordinates.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Book Information
Posts
Hmm, also es ist ein Rushdie Buch, das heißt es ist schön erzählt, mit einem feinen Humor, und relativ mitreißender Handlung, aber am Ende sitze ich davor und frage mich, was er mir über die reine Handlung hinaus mitteilen wollte. Im Zentrum des Buches herrscht eine Leere. Oder eine Ratlosigkeit? Vielleicht ist er einfach ein Mann des 20. Jahrhunderts, der sich und mir versucht, das 21. zu erklären und es nicht kann. Aber immerhin fand ich die unzähligen Filmreferenzen dope, viele Filme die ich selber liebe oder schon immer mal schauen wollte. Shoutout to Luis Bunuel, The Exterminating Angel schwebt mir schon seit Monaten im Kopf herum, seitdem ich den gesehen habe.