I never really fell in love with Salman Rushdie, Midnights Children passed me by, The Satanic Verses I found underwhelming and I couldn’t understand the outrage or ovation that it received from different quarters. So I started Rushdie’s latest The Golden House with little expectation, which meant that I had a very pleasant surprise.
Nero Golden, a wealthy Indian, immigrates to New York from Mumbai with his 3 sons in curious circumstances. As the novel unfolds, the back story in Mumbai becomes clearer while the impending sense of disaster grows. The story switches between the challenges in adapting to New York life faced by Nero’s sons, the machinations around Nero himself and what happened in Mumbai. There are strong resonances with recent political events both in the US and India. The climax, while somewhat predictable, is compelling – this is a literary page turner.
If, like me, you haven’t read Rushdie for a while The Golden House is well worth giving a try – you might even want to go back to some of those old hits to give them a second read.
4/5