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librarino's review against another edition
2.0
Though I love Salman Rushdie's creativity and his twists, I do not like his writing style. There is way to much exposition. The main character describes everything rather than having actual action. It just wasn't my favorite.
jbingb's review against another edition
4.0
54: The Golden House by Salman Rushdie...one of four new hardcovers I splurged on one day recently, having listened to him speak briefly of this newest novel of his on public radio. I've enjoyed his writing in the past, and I was not disappointed by this read. I really enjoyed the timeliness of this contemporary novel, presenting a story that was extremely current, right through its addressing of the recent Presidential campaigns, the election, the outcome, the response. And I enjoyed the narrative voice, which at times prompted me to hear Garrison Keillor's, commenting objectively on the state of things in a situation, a list, following that, of details and facts to support it. I further enjoyed the multiple layers of the story and its many motifs--characters' questionably ambiguous histories, tragedy and its related allusions, filmmaking, transgender/identity issues--to create a valuable complexity and intertwining of stories and their value overall. I especially appreciated the narrator making a film all the while, but also, as I saw it, being filmed, as he is as much a part of the story as he is its teller. At times, the book plodded, but some of the very best do! I think many of you will enjoy this one.
cmjustice's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful writing: challenging, informative, densely detailed and intimate. Great contemporary reflective device.
rhyalized's review against another edition
4.0
It’s a very cool experience to read a book set in modern day with references to modern political movements and history. Rushdie’s political commentary is heavy handed, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t be. The story that goes along with it is a ride—I’ll admit, similar in feel to Gatsby, but also so different. Definitely worth a read. I also feel specially connected to this book because there’s a character with the same name as me. Not only does that never happen for me, but she’s also badass, so thanks for that too, Rushdie 👌🏽
beeblebroxm's review against another edition
3.0
It's difficult to not like a Salman Rushdie book. The turns of phrase, the colorful language, a complex understanding of human nature. It's all there. And yet, there is just something about The Golden House that feels very off. Very different from what one has come to expect in a Salman Rushdie novel.
This is a contemporary novel. It feels like it has been constantly updated, reacting to the news cycle even as it was going into print. This seemed somewhat unusual to me, perhaps because I have been used to Rushdie's more abstract, magical realism based work set in distant times.
As far as contemporary considerations go, there is plenty of name dropping. It seems like Rushdie was sitting with a list of contemporary references close at hand, ready to be plugged into the narrative wherever possible. And this is subject matter that Rushdie is clearly uncomfortable and unfamiliar with.
For instance, when he clumsily shoehorns in a reference to the Gamergate controversy, it is with the grace of a dolphin driving a stick shift. That is to say, highly distracting and entirely ineffective. Rushdie is clearly more adept at swimming through the muddied depths of the human psyche, and of course he continues to do that well.
At the end of the day, I don't know how much of this book will remain with me. I did not quite care for the characters who seemed mostly unlikable and interesting only in a generic way. Autism, gender fluidity, amorality, these are all fascinating ideas in their own right, but they don't necessarily make for fascinating characters.
I guess there was a larger point being made about the slow unraveling of our times and our collective impending doom, but there's already so much of that everywhere, that I guess at some point one becomes numb to it.
Yes, the world as we know it does not make sense anymore. We are in a time of rapid decline, and staring once more at horrors we thought we had left behind. I just didn't want to read about them for a change.
This is a contemporary novel. It feels like it has been constantly updated, reacting to the news cycle even as it was going into print. This seemed somewhat unusual to me, perhaps because I have been used to Rushdie's more abstract, magical realism based work set in distant times.
As far as contemporary considerations go, there is plenty of name dropping. It seems like Rushdie was sitting with a list of contemporary references close at hand, ready to be plugged into the narrative wherever possible. And this is subject matter that Rushdie is clearly uncomfortable and unfamiliar with.
For instance, when he clumsily shoehorns in a reference to the Gamergate controversy, it is with the grace of a dolphin driving a stick shift. That is to say, highly distracting and entirely ineffective. Rushdie is clearly more adept at swimming through the muddied depths of the human psyche, and of course he continues to do that well.
At the end of the day, I don't know how much of this book will remain with me. I did not quite care for the characters who seemed mostly unlikable and interesting only in a generic way. Autism, gender fluidity, amorality, these are all fascinating ideas in their own right, but they don't necessarily make for fascinating characters.
I guess there was a larger point being made about the slow unraveling of our times and our collective impending doom, but there's already so much of that everywhere, that I guess at some point one becomes numb to it.
Yes, the world as we know it does not make sense anymore. We are in a time of rapid decline, and staring once more at horrors we thought we had left behind. I just didn't want to read about them for a change.
marialauradibello's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
fictionfan's review against another edition
Nope! 30% and I can't bear to read any more. Plotless (so far), stuffed so full of references to art, culture, religion and mythology there's no room left for humanity or empathy. Intellect without soul, and sadly largely without wit or charm either, unlike his last book. And oh, I'm weary, weary, weary of the liberal world of high literature's current obsession with gender identity. I think this is the third major new literary book in a row I've read (or abandoned) that focuses on transgenderism - The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Days Without End, now this - 4 if you count Scott Turow as literary, which I've sometimes been known to do. Literature has become as trend-ridden and cliché-filled as pulp fiction. Does a memo go round each January telling them which subject is compulsory for the year? If so, I vote that next year it's something wider, like, let's say, life, the universe and everything - the way it used to be before one had to prove one's liberal credentials everytime one speaks or writes...
gonza_basta's review against another edition
5.0
By far one of the best novel that Rushdie wrote recently and one of the best stories I read this year, comparable only to 4321 by Paul Auster. The epic story of the Golden family told by a neighbor, director and screenplay writer wannabee, that since from the start gets involved in this Indian's family affairs, very obscure affairs: love, death and everything in between for the tale of the rise and the fall of a legendary man who decided to call himself Nero.
Uno dei migliori romanzi di Rushdie e sicuramente una delle storie migliori lette ultimamente, paragonabile soltanto al 4321 di Paul Auster. L'epica storia della famiglia Golden, immigrata dall'India, raccontata dal loro vicino di casa, scrittore di copioni e regista in erba, che perde da subito la sua imparzialitá, per venire condotto sempre piú a fondo nelle drammatiche vicende familiari, oscure e perverse. L'amore, la morte e tutto quello che sta nel mezzo per raccontare l'ascesa e la caduta di un uomo che aveva scelto di chiamarsi Nerone.
THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!
Uno dei migliori romanzi di Rushdie e sicuramente una delle storie migliori lette ultimamente, paragonabile soltanto al 4321 di Paul Auster. L'epica storia della famiglia Golden, immigrata dall'India, raccontata dal loro vicino di casa, scrittore di copioni e regista in erba, che perde da subito la sua imparzialitá, per venire condotto sempre piú a fondo nelle drammatiche vicende familiari, oscure e perverse. L'amore, la morte e tutto quello che sta nel mezzo per raccontare l'ascesa e la caduta di un uomo che aveva scelto di chiamarsi Nerone.
THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!
gerryds's review against another edition
3.0
This is probably one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read. It’s challenging, because it isn’t an inherently bad book. Weird, but not bad.
The writing is stream of consciousness meets some kind of odd acid trip.
The characters, basically all of them, aren’t good people. This makes the book more difficult to read. You read to get to the one paragraph in the chapter that’s actually brilliant. Which makes me think if Rushdie did something non-fiction I’d probably enjoy it more. He is a good writer, but he needs to reign in some of his side talk that he gets caught in.
Also, this book could have been much shorter.
The writing is stream of consciousness meets some kind of odd acid trip.
The characters, basically all of them, aren’t good people. This makes the book more difficult to read. You read to get to the one paragraph in the chapter that’s actually brilliant. Which makes me think if Rushdie did something non-fiction I’d probably enjoy it more. He is a good writer, but he needs to reign in some of his side talk that he gets caught in.
Also, this book could have been much shorter.