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Book Description
A third-rate academic gets set for a glittering life in politics, but nothing goes as planned...
--This text refers to an alternate
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edition.
Product Description
For the millions of readers who have been waiting for a book to make them laugh as did Catch-22, Joseph Heller has produced a new masterpiece. Good as Gold combines the probing insight into anachronistic America of his last novel, Something Happened, with the biting, side-splitting brilliance of Catch-22.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
GOLD had been asked many times to write about the Jewish experience in America. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
GOLD had been asked many times to write about the Jewish experience in America. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Good as Gold' is Heller in superb form. The protagonist (Bruce Gold) is another of his classic male leads, both overbearing and distant yet simultaneously insecure and very afraid. Gold is jewish, and the book brilliantly juxtaposes his family life and his attempts at climbing the social and political ladder in Washington. He would be happy to leave the former behind, and desperately craves the latter, but Heller shows that they are not so different. At home he is bullied by his father, bewildered by his brother and fails to understand his relationship with his wife. In Washington Pugh Connover, Ralph Newsome and Andrea Connover fulfil these roles. The affairs and dealings he covers up with his family are lauded in DC, and Gold is equally lost in both worlds.
The centrepiece of the book is Gold's attempt to write a book about the Jewish experience in America, something he doesn't know how to begin to do, despite the fact he is currently living it out. The book is not really an indictment of anti-semitism, which is presented as being rife in government, but also an examination of how some jewish figures (notably Kissinger, and Gold himself) have happily embraced this anti-semitic world through their ambitions. The references to kissinger and the Nixon-era administration seem a little dated now, perhaps distracting from the import of the book.
Like all Heller's work, there is much humour, though always mixed with bile. Gold's interactions with his father and step-mother are funny and frustrating in equal measure, while his conversations with the deeply unpleasant Pugh Biddle Connover are both monstrous and hilarious, with the senator refusing to acknowledge Gold's name, replacing it instead with random jewish epithets.
Like all Heller's works, this book is brilliantly written, very funny yet very painful. Its accessibility is perhaps diminished by time and the subject matter (i.e. the jewish experience in American politics) will perhaps not interest everyone, but it is simply a book about people and their failings, and just how hard we can make life for ourselves.
The centrepiece of the book is Gold's attempt to write a book about the Jewish experience in America, something he doesn't know how to begin to do, despite the fact he is currently living it out. The book is not really an indictment of anti-semitism, which is presented as being rife in government, but also an examination of how some jewish figures (notably Kissinger, and Gold himself) have happily embraced this anti-semitic world through their ambitions. The references to kissinger and the Nixon-era administration seem a little dated now, perhaps distracting from the import of the book.
Like all Heller's work, there is much humour, though always mixed with bile. Gold's interactions with his father and step-mother are funny and frustrating in equal measure, while his conversations with the deeply unpleasant Pugh Biddle Connover are both monstrous and hilarious, with the senator refusing to acknowledge Gold's name, replacing it instead with random jewish epithets.
Like all Heller's works, this book is brilliantly written, very funny yet very painful. Its accessibility is perhaps diminished by time and the subject matter (i.e. the jewish experience in American politics) will perhaps not interest everyone, but it is simply a book about people and their failings, and just how hard we can make life for ourselves.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Once again Heller entices you into a world of paranoia, inexplicable conversations and wonderful characters just on the edge of reality. Gold is a jewish professer living in New York finding himself drawn into Heller's outrageous Washington whilst the family around him frustrates and scares him. The book, as all Heller's, is wonderfully crafted and through small episodes the characters flourish. Subtely it is the book which Gold is planning throughout
on ' the Jewish experience'. Gold is always left unsure as to whether he has had one. A wonderful book and dark as it is light.
on ' the Jewish experience'. Gold is always left unsure as to whether he has had one. A wonderful book and dark as it is light.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
While it is undisputed that Heller is our greatest writer, there are some who would rate Catch-22 as his greatest work. Those people better take a second look at this book. The Gold family is unparalleled in our literature. Sid Gold is the perfect parody of Melville's Ishmael. Social commentary in the guise of comedy. While others have tried, only the true master Heller does it justice.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The President is still asleep.
Very funny, particularly the contradictory uttering of Ralph Newsome and the almost crazy conversations at family get togethers. Read more
Published on 1 April 2009 by Mark Dickens
Synopsis
Dr. Bruce Gold, a forty-eight-year-old Jewish professor of English, faces the possibilities of being appointed to a high State Department position and being disowned by his family.
Published on 11 Sep 2008 by Javaslublu Books
longwinded and spirit-crushing with some brilliant moments
Good as Gold is at its best in the family scenes, but elsewhere slides off the rails by mixing realistically-portrayed characters with parodically-portrayed ones, offering minute... Read more
Published on 7 July 2007 by Horselover
The book is funny, humerous, and the details seem true!!!
Dr. Bruce Gold, the youngest male in the family, with an older brother, four older sisters, and a younger sister, is slated for a high-placed government job. Read more
Published on 23 Nov 1998
The book is funny, humerous, and the details seem true!!!
Dr. Bruce Gold, the youngest male in the family, with an older brother, four older sisters, and a younger sister, is slated for a high-placed government job. Read more
Published on 23 Nov 1998
Amazing
I read this book 10 years ago, and it still remains vivid in my mind. I can't open a damn fortune cookie without laughing like a fool because of Heller. Read more
Published on 24 Sep 1998
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