What a layered book The Golden House by Salman Rushdie turned out to be. It is a story filled with literary, movie, political, historical and mythic references. It is contemporary but the past constantly echoes throughout. The story wants to be a tragedy but can’t quite make it because of the absurdity of it all and Rushdie is slyly aware of this. Or maybe the absurd is actually part of the tragic and if so, it succeeds brilliantly, and Rushdie knows this too. The story plays with big questions — good and bad, truth and lies, reality and fantasy, identity, choice, destiny/fate and probably a bunch of other things that I am leaving out.
At the beginning it seems like it is going to be a straightforward narrative but then it begins to play tricks. Not crazy tricks just to show off and bedazzle, but structural and narrative tricks that add to and deepen the story.
And what is the story? It is about René Unterlinden, son of academic parents, who is a filmmaker working on the masterpiece of a project he is making about the Goldens. It is also about Nero Golden and his three sons, Petya, Apu and Dionysus. Golden is not their true name nor are their first names originally theirs either. They left Mumbai in a hurry, escaping, we don’t know what, and in order to hide their past and start fresh in America they all arrive with new names. Eventually we learn the story of that past and as the past does, it catches up to them.
The Golden House is a smart book. While sometimes Rushdie intrudes to make political commentary, it never gives the feeling of showing off or lecturing, more like editorializing. And on occasion it is difficult to tell whether Rushdie is making snarky fun of something, tossing in a bit of everything to try to be relevant, or is being genuine. It can be annoying but not so much that it ruined the story for me. There is abundant humor and astute observation. And the writing itself is beautifully smooth with hardly a false note — the man knows how to write a sentence!
When I finished the book I thought that it was pretty good. After a couple days have gone by, I like it even more. I keep thinking about it and various parts of it and it just keeps getting better and better. A book that slowly blossoms while reading and doesn’t reach full bloom until a little while after you turn the final page.
There are so many excellent quotes I could bombard you with but I will leave you with this conversation between René and his girlfriend Suchitra:
‘Now so many people in Australia state their religion as ‘Jedi’ in the census that it’s an official thing.’
‘Now the only person you think is lying to you is the expert who actually knows something. He’s the one not to believe because he’s the elite and the elites are against the people, they will do the people down. To know the truth is to be elite. If you say you saw God’s face in a watermelon, more people will believe you than if you find the Missing Link, because if you’re a scientist then you’re elite. Reality TV is fake but it’s not elite so you buy it. The news: that’s elite.’
‘I don’t want to be elite. Am I elite?’
‘You need to work on it. You need to become post-factual.’
“Is that the same as fictional?”
‘Fiction’s elite. Nobody believes it. Post-factual is mass market, information-age, troll generated. It’s what people want.’
‘I blame truthiness. I blame Stephen Colbert.’
I definitely felt like there were ways in which this book was ideologically not great, but God it was good to see Rushdie back on form with his insane wordiness. His last book seemed weirdly restrained and I didn’t like it at all — this one it’s back again to being EVERYTHING RUSHDIE HAS EVER HAD IN HIS BRAIN on the page. it was immensely satisfying, though imperfect.
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Jenny, I haven’t read Rushdie in ages so I didn’t even know his last book was not so good! I did enjoy that he seemed to dump his brain in the book and do it so very artfully that it seemed almost completely plausible. I thought his trans/gender fluid commentary verged on condescending sometimes and felt he might have been snickering, ridiculous! while writing. But overall as you say, immensely satisfying.
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I haven’t read any of his books for years too, but I think I’ll give this one a go. I so agree with him about so many people thinking they are the experts when in fact they know nothing about the subject. I’m especially thinking of that Charlie Gard (bash the NHS) debacle.
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Piningforthewest, if you liked that quote then you will like the book and all the political commentary on the US presidential election that was going on while he was writing the book. Now that we have Google and the internet, everyone is an expert, right? 😉
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I have never read Rushdie before (gasp!) I’ve thought about Midnight’s Children, though. That selection you shared made me chuckle (ruefully.)
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Laila, don’t feel bad about never having read Rushdie because we can’t read everything as much as we might want to. Midnight’s Children is amazing but I bet you would really love his book Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
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Your review has really made me want to read this book, now. Looking forward to it in some down time in December.
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wanderwulf, I hope when you get to it that you enjoy it!
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thanks!
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I love Rushdie though there are some books that are better than the others. This however sounds like one those good ones and I love the quotes you have been sharing from this book….think I will get hold of this one asap!
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cirtnecce, I haven’t read a lot of Rushdie but I think I must have been fortunate to so far only read the ones on the better end of the continuum 🙂
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I’m thinking this might be my first Salmon Rushdie novel–I like your review and also the fact that it grew on you after you’d finished it. I like books that have that kind of staying power. And beautiful writing wins me every time!
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I must read this….those quotes are rather delicious!
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Ian, yes, there are many delicious passages like this one throughout. they gave me little shivers of delight 🙂
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Jane, it was a satisfying read. I hope you enjoy it if you get the chance to read it!
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I like the sound of this one! Haven’t read a Rushdie book since The Enchantress of Florence, which was a while ago now. That conversation you quoted Sounds more like one between Salman Rushdie and Salman Rushdie than between René and Suchitra, but I like it anyway!
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Andrew, it is a good one and it’s like Jenny commented, it is as though Rushdie dumped everything in his head onto the page and into a story. Heh, yeah, you are right about that conversation sounding like Rushdie talking to Rushdie!
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I haven’t read Rushdie for a while either , but your quote has certainly got me in, particularly that idea of being “post-factual” and fiction being elite. My it’s a scary world we live in.
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whisperinggums, well you know in the US pretty much anything that requires you to know something or think that you didn’t get from Fox news or Breibart is elitist. Definitely a scary world right now.
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Hah: love that quote! Perhaps more than anything else, that makes me want to make this one my first of his books. Although I’ve eyed Haroun closely, too. (Besides the splashy prize-nominees, that is.)
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Buried, oh Haroun! That one is so magical. May I suggest you read that one first?
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That quote is pretty funny. I have never read any Rushdie–he is one of those intimidating authors for me, but maybe I could start with one of his older books. Of course he made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Bridget Jones’s Diary, so he must have a good sense of humor!
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Yes, Rushdie is a very gifted writer. I’ve enjoyed several of his books and so glad to hear this is a good one. Thanks Stefanie for an excellent review.
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