November 11, 2019 LAND OF CONFUSION

So my MIL asked me to read this book. She had just finished it and wasn't sure how she felt about it. She said she liked it but found it confusing AND wanted to know what I thought.  My MIL is a huge reader but I'll admit she's easily confused these day so I thought that was part of the problem. The author of this book IS VERY FAMOUS--pretty sure he's been knighted for his contributions to literature. Put it this way, he's won more awards than Michael Phelps. I was intrigued. So was it my MIL  or was the book actually confusing. Before I started it, I checked out a few reviews.  The Boston Globe wrote,  “A recognizably Rushdie novel in its playfulness, its verbal jousting, its audacious bravado, its unapologetic erudition, and its sheer, dazzling brilliance.”— That sounded a little SCARY'--verbal jousting--audacious bravado--unapologetic erudition--WTH? So I spent several minutes looking those words up in the dictionary  before plunging head first into The Golden House by Salman Rushdie. 
Rushdie is clearly a genius whose knowledge on a variety of subjects is on full display in this novel. Although this novel is set in Contemporary America, with oblique references to Trump, politics, morality issues, he somehow stirs in Greek and Indian mythology--a movie plot--and adds a pinch of popular culture, mystery, love and loss. There is A LOT going on--perhaps too much. IT'S AN ARDUOUS READ. I loved the basic plot but found the book 150 pages too long. In a nutshell--Nero Golden has left India with his three grown sons and settled in a lovely home in Greenwich Village. There is no mother with the family but Nero, in his seventies, meets and weds a young Russian clearly in it for his money. The three sons are clearly upset but they have their own set of issues --one has Asperger, one is agoraphobic and the other has gender issues. Much of the book focuses on their struggles and the struggles that unfold after Nero's marriage. Their neighbor Rene, the narrator of the story,  is an ambitious film maker who becomes obsessed with the Golden family. He becomes intertwined with the family and decides to make a movie about them. Why was the Golden Family forced out of India? What will happen in Nero's marriage and who is really the father of his new baby? What happens to the grown sons? These and many more questions will be answered by the end of this epic. Give it a try and let me know what you think. It's about 375 pages or a 7 mile run that felt more like 800 pages.