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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
Loved this book. It has a mythic quality and explores identity including gender identity in a subtle and intelligent way
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this. It took me far too long to read, but I think that it was such a dense read that I couldn't simply skim through any of it. Tiny side conversations or the occasional political diatribe were central to the narrator's experience if not to the story itself. Rushdie throws so many elements together here- there's politics, gangs, art as art, identity, autism, the quest for knowledge, film as art... in a way the Golden House is a massive structure built of so many disparate things that it's hard to see how the blueprint fits together. Even the narrative arc is constantly blown apart or expanded by interaction between the ostensibly separate pieces of the story. Is this all a fiction of the narrator's mind? What pieces are real and beyond him? Where is the separation between the art and the fantasy, the film-maker and the film (which in the course of the novel goes from a mockumentary to a full-blown fiction). I'm not sure what I'm left thinking, but I was blown away by the casual elegance of the language, and the cohesion that kept most of the parts together. Not my favorite book by the author, but it is so very of this moment that I found it a delight to read.
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I usually don't mind Rushdie, but for some reason I just couldn't get on with this book. I thought it might have something to do with the narrator or the source material (although I have started reading the Brothers Karamazov and much prefer it), but I thought it was a fine example of the kind of lit fic that went out of fashion due to alienating readers by being overblown and pretentiously intellectual. To me, modern litfic is accessible to readers who don't have a comprehensive knowledge of obscure lit, cinema and culture. I also didn't appreciate what I saw as the token autistic video games programmer and the miserable gender fluid person. If you are going to introduce these characters, for the sake of all that is decenct explore them in a meaningful, fresh way. Two stars is a harsh rating from me, but it ends up reserved for books that waste their potential, because that is what makes me angry, when underneath all the intellectual posturing and failing characters is a better book waiting to emerge.
I've spent quite an unusual amount of time reading this and it was only partly due to my busy schedule. I've had mixed feelings throughout the story, loving some of the characters and relationships, hating the movie related references and interior monologues of the narrator.
I could not let myself give it only three stars, because it is Rushdie and I do love him. However, I am left a bit disappointed and a tiny bit bored by this new novel and by its melodramatical tragedies.
I could not let myself give it only three stars, because it is Rushdie and I do love him. However, I am left a bit disappointed and a tiny bit bored by this new novel and by its melodramatical tragedies.
There were moments when I was enjoying the story but most of the time I was bored/confused.
In short: I loved it. This is one of the books that I didn't simply race through to get to the end and actually took my time to savor.
The longer commentary:
The important thing to keep in mind when reading this: the narrator is the most important character.
I skimmed through the reviews here and noticed that some people complain about not much happening and the whole book being just a lot of foreshadowing and hyperbole - my response to that would be: well, yeah... that's because the narrator, René Unterlinden is a bit of a privileged, pretentious p***k and while he pretends that the story is about the Golden men and it is their mystery that he uses to lure the reader in, The Golden House is actually a story about René, his skill as a storyteller, his tragedy, his opinions, his "coming-of-age".
And René, as a narrator, is so beautifully unreliable that it's funny. So much of what he tells the reader, he has no way of knowing actually happened and that bit about the three Golden brothers standing at the beach in the wind looking like Czech intellectuals on the shores of the Bohemian sea actually made me giggle.
The longer commentary:
The important thing to keep in mind when reading this: the narrator is the most important character.
I skimmed through the reviews here and noticed that some people complain about not much happening and the whole book being just a lot of foreshadowing and hyperbole - my response to that would be: well, yeah... that's because the narrator, René Unterlinden is a bit of a privileged, pretentious p***k and while he pretends that the story is about the Golden men and it is their mystery that he uses to lure the reader in, The Golden House is actually a story about René, his skill as a storyteller, his tragedy, his opinions, his "coming-of-age".
And René, as a narrator, is so beautifully unreliable that it's funny. So much of what he tells the reader, he has no way of knowing actually happened and that bit about the three Golden brothers standing at the beach in the wind looking like Czech intellectuals on the shores of the Bohemian sea actually made me giggle.
His writing has always been one that can be difficult to digest but when you do he takes you on a wild ride.
Discussing taboo topics within the story about the golden... Honestly what I took away is him calling Trump the joker I. E Batman..
Then a continued rant about trump.
I take it he isn't a fan:)
Discussing taboo topics within the story about the golden... Honestly what I took away is him calling Trump the joker I. E Batman..
Then a continued rant about trump.
I take it he isn't a fan:)