Good As Gold | Joseph Heller

Good As Gold | Joseph Heller | Tarnishing Washington

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Good As Gold

	Good As Gold Joseph Heller Simon & Schuster, 1997 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Hailed as "one of the important books of our generation" by the Chicago Sun-Times, this hilarious story of middle-aged English professor Dr. Bruce Gold and his encounter with White House politics takes readers into the heart of the Jewish experience in contemporary America.

Classic Heller

Joseph Heller is probably the only writer who could always make me laugh out loud. This is a book about a college professor and writer who gets a chance to go to Washington to work for the President. An old friend of his works at the White House and invites him to come to work there, but won't tell him what the job is or when he can start. The friend tells Gold that they want to make a big announcement about the appointment, but want to keep it secret. Everything this guy says is an oxymoron.

Meanwhile, his family is driving him crazy. His father and step mother live in Florida during the winters, but come back to New York for the summer. The whole family is anxious for them to go back to Florida, but they keep stalling. Gold's brother makes idiotic comments, constantly badgering him and trying to get him into a fight. Gold is always being put into a position where he can either argue and look like he's showing off, or ignore the comment and be criticized for ignoring the mistake in his brother's comment.

If you've enjoyed any of Joseph Heller's other books, this is more of the same, so you should get a kick out of this one too.

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Tarnishing Washington

In "Good as Gold", Joseph Heller does for Washington what he did to the military in "Catch-22". As a fan of Heller's other works, I had high expectations for this book. While I thought there were a lot of humorous moments, it is a notch slightly below "Catch-22" and "Something Happened".

Welcome to Washington where if something is not working, try the opposite. In Washington, everybody has a job working for the government yet nobody knows what their job is. It makes far less sense than the politics of high school homecoming queen. Enter Bruce Gold. Bruce Gold lives a paradox like the one in Washington. His family lacks respect for him despite his achievements. He is a college professor and author, yet his father respects his high school dropout brother more. When the president likes his writing, Gold seems to be a shoe-in in the president's inner-circle. But first, Gold needs a wife that is not so dumpy. Other extra-marrital affairs might also help his career. Gold has his sights set on the Secretary of State, but he needs more connections and places more stress on his pressured integrity. At this point, Gold wonders if it is all worth the price he is paying. His family still hates him and his soon-to-be second wife is far inferior to the first wife. Is Washington really worth the trouble?

There were a lot of aspects of this book that I liked. I do not feel that the story engaged me in the same way some of Heller's books did. The story just seemed to go to long in some areas and lost me. Heller is a very gifted writer and one of my favorites. I would still recommend this book to others. 4 1/2 stars would be a more appropriate rating.

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A great read

More proof of what a great author Joseph Heller was. This book rivals Catch 22 and is highly recommended.

A novel that boggles the mind!

Bruce Gold, an apathetic professor, is offered the chance for success, fame and fortune in Washinton D.C. But, he must first reshape his life, which may mean cutting out his wacky family. Furthermore, he's faced with the task of writing about the Jewish experience in America, but isn't sure he's lived it and thus has to figure out what it is. So, starts Good as Gold.

The novel starts somewhat slowly, with sometimes tiring descriptions of Gold's get-togethers with his strange family. These are somewhat boring in the early part of the book, but do become more entertaining as the book goes on once they begin to become funny. The memembers of his family are strange, particularly his father, mother-in-law and brother. They bring the most entertainment to the family scenes as Gold faces the frustration of dealing with his father's incorrigibility, his mother-in-law's hostility towards him and his brother's prodding and teasing.

The story certainly has laugh-out-loud moments, particularly the scenes in which Gold is conversing with his friend in Washingtong Ralph, who is very vague in what he does and has a contradictory way of speaking. Moreover, is the strange Andrea Conover, a beautiful women in love who with Gold, yet wants to continue her relationships with other men and doesn't see why that would bother Gold. The sexual escapades of Gold are quite entertaining as he seems to have no trouble attracting beautiful women with strange behavior.

The problem with this book is that although it certainly has many funny moments, it doesn't exactly seem to go anywhere. The reader is exposed to quite a few scenes with Gold's family, but maybe a little bit too much. It would have been nice to see more events unfold in Washington D.C., as scenes dealing with politicians are probably the funniest. The story doesn't have much in the way of plot development, but rather numerous funny moments with family, politicians and women. Moreover, the worst parts of the book were the sections dealing with Henry Kissinger. Gold despises him and sometimes whole pages are boringly dedicated to discussion of Kissinger. It bogs down the book.

I've read Catch-22 by Heller and this certainly isn't as funny, but it does have its own hilarity and ridiculous moments worth of quite a few laughs. It isn't great, but I think it's worth reading if you're really interested. I actually give it a little above 3 stars, but not enough to warrant 4.

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Only some of this gold shines

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It is strongest in those parts where it most resembles Catch-22. Heller is extremely good at emphasizing the absurdity of bureaucracy, in any form. In this book he manages to take on politicians, higher education and big money, high society, all to great effect. The dialog in these portions of the book is a roller coaster of parody and cynicsm that "boggles the mind", to borrow a catch phrase from the book. This is Heller at his best.

However, the portions of the book that deal with Gold's family and personal life left me disappointed. While Heller seems to be trying to take aim as family dysfunction, I just couldn't bring myself to care enough for these characters to really connect with any of the family strife. While there were moments of dialog that showed spark, most of the portions delving into Gold's personal life simply felt flat and monontonous, and slowed the entire pace of the book down.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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