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A review by xennicole
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
2.0
I was excited when I started this book in August, now it’s mid-October, and I am plowing through it – as in I am fast-reading/skimming because I am bored but so closed to finish. I realized that on my Kindle, my “time left in book” was turned off and then disappointed by how much was left.
Rushdie who I always like in principle but then I start reading I realize why I am still skeptical of his writing outside of “The Satanic Verses.” The writing in “The Golden House,” is bloated due to the complete fullness of elitism, pop culture and literature references that people with Masters and Doctorates or who are autodidactic will know. I am surprised that only a few references I have had to stop and look up. Rushdie mentions Stephen Colbert just after a sentence referencing P.G. Wodehouse.
“The Golden House,” is a Trumpian, Gatsbyian and Mythican story. It feels like Rushdie threw everything into this account including the kitchen sink and that is where it gets bogs down. Every sentence could be majestic by itself, and then he continues long paragraphs to which the writing lost in the magnitude of the 400 pages.
The story is about a family with the patriarch deciding to relocate to NYC and change their names to Roman gods for himself and his three sons. About the lies, fables, and truth they choose to tell. Joseph Campbell would be proud of the anti-hero arch that happens. Fitzgerald, if he would be alive today would either love or hate the work compared to his tightly written story (with is flaws). Fitzgerald would be happy with just being recognized.
As Rushdie is the author, I can't tell if he is writing in the moment because it feels like it or that he is writing about himself and about his time in America in the past twenty years. I can’t tell where the narrator because the author or the author becomes the narrator. Is he looking at his life or the life of Democracy to its death, much like Rome? I don't know.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC.
Rushdie who I always like in principle but then I start reading I realize why I am still skeptical of his writing outside of “The Satanic Verses.” The writing in “The Golden House,” is bloated due to the complete fullness of elitism, pop culture and literature references that people with Masters and Doctorates or who are autodidactic will know. I am surprised that only a few references I have had to stop and look up. Rushdie mentions Stephen Colbert just after a sentence referencing P.G. Wodehouse.
“The Golden House,” is a Trumpian, Gatsbyian and Mythican story. It feels like Rushdie threw everything into this account including the kitchen sink and that is where it gets bogs down. Every sentence could be majestic by itself, and then he continues long paragraphs to which the writing lost in the magnitude of the 400 pages.
The story is about a family with the patriarch deciding to relocate to NYC and change their names to Roman gods for himself and his three sons. About the lies, fables, and truth they choose to tell. Joseph Campbell would be proud of the anti-hero arch that happens. Fitzgerald, if he would be alive today would either love or hate the work compared to his tightly written story (with is flaws). Fitzgerald would be happy with just being recognized.
As Rushdie is the author, I can't tell if he is writing in the moment because it feels like it or that he is writing about himself and about his time in America in the past twenty years. I can’t tell where the narrator because the author or the author becomes the narrator. Is he looking at his life or the life of Democracy to its death, much like Rome? I don't know.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC.