Just not for me.

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 👌🏽

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.

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...

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!

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.

This book made me feel intellectually nourished. Some fluffy page-turners, while enjoyable at the time, leave me feeling sluggish and remorseful. But this book was just so *dense*, and full of literary and mythological allusions. It was challenging but oh so rewarding to read. I'm doubly delighted because I failed to finish The Satanic Verses, and was a little bit fearful that I was just too much of a simpleton to be able to enjoy a Rushdie novel. Loving The Golden House has given me the courage to tackle Midnight's Children, once I can get my hands on my sister's copy.

I love him-what can I say?

Meh