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Available again in paperback, Golden Days is a major novel from one of the most provocative voices on the American literary scene. Linking the recent past with an imagined future, Carolyn See captures life in Los Angeles in the 70s and 80s. This marvelously imaginative, hilarious, and original work offers fresh insights into the way we were, the way we are, and the way we could end up.
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About the Author:
Carolyn See, the author of Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America (California, 1996) and five novels, is a book reviewer for The Washington Post and an adjunct professor of English at University of California, Los Angeles.
From Publishers Weekly:
See, who is the author of three previous, rather quiet, sensitive novels, a partner in the authorship of blockbuster pop sagas (Lotus Land, 110 Shanghai Roadp and an admired Los Angeles Times book reviewer, has found an entirely new voice for her most current novel, a breakout if ever there was one. Her publisher mentions Joan Didion, Anne Tyler and Nora Ephron, but none quite evokes the wry yet deeply felt and devastatingly feminine tone she has caught in Golden Daysrather as if John Cheever had changed gender and moved to California. There is Cheever's intense sense of place (Los Angeles instead of exurban Connecticut), of the passage of time and of the enormities that gape just below the surface of life in this tale of a breezy middle-aged woman coming to terms with life, men and, ultimately, nuclear war. Some of the material sounds familiar: marriage in the early 1960s to dreadfully wrong men, the depth and power of female friendship over the years, the California self-realization movement (for once, not satirized but quirkily affirmed) and, finally, the darkening into the 1980s and the coping with unimaginable nuclear horrors. But it has all been felt and thought afresh, and with startling sudden insights on nearly every page: on the way childhood memories linger, why men make war, how favorite restaurants somehow attain symbolic stature. A chapter that inhabits the mind of a philandering husband is uncanny in its accuracy and sadness. And the closing pages offer a vision of nuclear apotheosis and human survival utterly unlike anything in contemporary literature. Golden Days offers the excitement of discovering what seems like a brand-new talent, but enriched by a sureness of tragicomic touch that could only be the work of an experienced writer striking into bold new territory. 30,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- PublisherArrow Books Ltd
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0099617609
- ISBN 13 9780099617600
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages208
- Rating
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Golden Days
Published by
Arrow Books Ltd
(1989)
ISBN 10: 0099617609
ISBN 13: 9780099617600
Used
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002264325
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Golden Days
Published by
Penguin Random House
(1989)
ISBN 10: 0099617609
ISBN 13: 9780099617600
Used
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. 208 pages. Cover very worn.Reviews See, who is the author of three previous, rather quiet, sensitive novels, a partner in the authorship of blockbuster pop sagas (Lotus Land, 110 Shanghai Ro adp and an admired Los Angeles Times book reviewer, has found an entirely new voice for her most current novel, a breakout if ever there was one. Her publisher mentions Joan Didion, Anne Tyler an d Nora Ephron, but none quite evokes the wry yet deeply felt and devastatingly feminine tone she has caught in Golden Daysrather a s if John Cheever had changed gender and moved to California. The re is Cheever's intense sense of place (Los Angeles instead of ex urban Connecticut), of the passage of time and of the enormities that gape just below the surface of life in this tale of a breezy middle-aged woman coming to terms with life, men and, ultimately , nuclear war. Some of the material sounds familiar: marriage in the early 1960s to dreadfully wrong men, the depth and power of f emale friendship over the years, the California self-realization movement (for once, not satirized but quirkily affirmed) and, fin ally, the darkening into the 1980s and the coping with unimaginab le nuclear horrors. But it has all been felt and thought afresh, and with startling sudden insights on nearly every page: on the w ay childhood memories linger, why men make war, how favorite rest aurants somehow attain symbolic stature. A chapter that inhabits the mind of a philandering husband is uncanny in its accuracy and sadness. And the closing pages offer a vision of nuclear apotheo sis and human survival utterly unlike anything in contemporary li terature. Golden Days offers the excitement of discovering what s eems like a brand-new talent, but enriched by a sureness of tragi comic touch that could only be the work of an experienced writer striking into bold new territory. 30,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/promo. (October 20) At 38, Edith Langley starts over in Los A ngeles, with two bad marriages behind her, two daughers beside he r, and the notion that money is power. She's soon a financial adv isor, dressing only in natural fabrics and buying gems and gold f or the future. But Edith is a woman in a man's world, as See make s abundantly clear. Older financier Howard ``Skip'' Chandler, who becomes Edith's friend, housemate, and eventual lover, puts toge ther the money for a bank and makes her its president. Young con man-evangelist Lion Boyce (whom she meets on assignment for her f inancial column) spouts a powerful brand of positive thinking tha t changes Edith's life. There are ``golden days'' among the rich and powerful, until nuclear disaster occurs (also courtesy of men ). See has a sharp eye for the California scene, and her smooth, dry style is a pleasure, but the plot is diminished by a lack of focus. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va. Seller Inventory # 2239b
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