The Golden Hour: A Novel - Hardcover

Weinstock, Nicholas

3.24

25 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060760869 ISBN 13: 9780060760861

Publisher: William Morrow, 2006

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Hfter nineteen years of marriage, two roaring decades as an investment banker, and forty-six years in the bustle of upper-crust Manhattan, Bill Schoenberg has lost it all. He has made a mistake, regrettable and unspeakable, and now finds himself fleeing to his newly purchased country house in Harristown, New York, with no plan and no ability to blend in with the locals and the foliage. His French-cuff shirts must be traded for flannel, his luxury apartment for the rural mini-mansion he bought for his wife; yet when he runs across the town's rag-tag volunteer firefighting company, he realizes he's stumbled onto the possibility of redemption.

As Bill sets about learning to knock down brush fires and pry free the victims of car accidents, he has the chance, for the first time in his halfhearted life, to save the day. But he is dogged by darker forces: pursued by his lawyer, loathed by his wife, and quite possibly stalked by an angry local vandal. Darkest of all may be his own secret, which is coming closer to the surface the longer he stays in Harristown.

Thoughtful and suspenseful, hugely entertaining and beautifully constructed, The Golden Hour is the story of one man's power to ruin and regain his life.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Nicholas Weinstock is the author of The Secret Love of Sons and the novel As Long As She Needs Me. His writing has been featured on National Public Radio and in publications including the New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Vogue, Nerve, Ladies' Home Journal, and Poets & Writers. He is a member of the council of the Authors Guild, and he works as vice president of comedy development for 20th Century Fox Television and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the writer Amanda Beesley, and their three children.

From Publishers Weekly:

A former master-of-the-universe must test his mettle against local yokels in this deft first-person literary comedy from Weinstock (As Long As She Needs Me). At 46, William "Bull" Schoenberg surrenders his seven-figure salary and Park Avenue trappings along with his adulterous wife, Pippa, after "having disappointed her for 19 years of marriage." With her parting shot, "You're no man," replaying in his gin-soaked brain, Bull plops down cash for a shiny BMW and blows up the Hudson to the sanctuary of their country house (a turreted castle, natch). But Bull finds no comfort there: signs of Pippa's lover mark the house, and Bull's domestic helplessness compounds his midlife misery. When Bull accidentally sets fire to the place with a fifth of gin, the Harristown Volunteer Fire Company arrives to douse the flames. Though the firefighters' contempt for Bull is absolute, the town is strapped for volunteers (and cash), and the firemen let Bull know that they could use a big guy like him—once he passes a training course. Bull, eager to find the real man behind the guy who earned his nickname sitting at a computer, agrees. Besides, what else has he to do, other than figure out which of the locals (a firefighter, perhaps?) was bedding his wife? Weinstock's latest is smart, refreshing and great schadenfreude fun. (On sale Jan. 31)
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.