Name: Good as Gold
Rating: 3.5 (267 reviews)
Author: Joseph Heller
ISBN: 9780684839745

[PDF] Unlimited Æ Good as Gold : by Joseph Heller

Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM By Joseph Heller

Bruce Gold, a middle aged, Jewish professor of English literature, finds himself on the brink of a golden career in politics and not a moment too soon, as Gold yearns for an opportunity to transform a less than picture perfect life His children think little of him, his intimidating father endlessly bullies him, and his wife is so oblivious that she doesn t even noticeBruce Gold, a middle aged, Jewish professor of English literature, finds himself on the brink of a golden career in politics and not a moment too soon, as Gold yearns for an opportunity to transform a less than picture perfect life His children think little of him, his intimidating father endlessly bullies him, and his wife is so oblivious that she doesn t even notice he s left her As funny as it is sad, Good as Gold is a story of children grown up, parents grown old, and friends and lovers grown apart a story that is inimitably Heller.

Title: Good as Gold
Author: Joseph Heller
ISBN: 9780684839745
Page: 153
Format: Paperback

Comments

David Lentz Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Good as Gold is pretty much as good as Heller gets in the rarefied air of Catch 22 and Something Happened Clearly, this novelist ranks among the finest American satirists and performs a great service to readers insofar as satirists not only speak truth to corrupt power but diminish it by rendering it laughable One is apt less to fear and consent to sinister forces which become imbecilic The premise for the narrative is about a Jewish intellectual named Gold who is invited to become Secretary of [...]

Click to Replay

Vit Babenco Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

There is no way to create another Catch 22 so Good as Gold isn t as good as gold, probably it is as good as tin at best Gold had little doubt he would succeed in Washington if once given the chance, for he was a master at diplomacy and palace intrigue He was the department s deadliest strategist in the conflict now raging to attract students to subjects in liberal arts from other divisions of the college and to subjects in English from other departments in liberal arts Should a professor and aut [...]

Click to Replay

1.1 Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Heller can do no wrong This book is funny in all the right ways It may prove reminiscent of Catch 22 but is really quite different The plot, for instance, is way mundane and easy to follow, so you would not be worth your salt at all if you gave up reading a masterpiece like this The writing is top notch, the characters and situations are simultaneously hilarious and piquantly sorrowful It s got a playful edge to it, as well Heller puts in references to himself, and it seems like this is a book [...]

Click to Replay

David Eppenstein Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

I have mixed feelings about this book I read Catch 22 in college in the late 60 s and thought it was one of the best books I had ever read Now some 50 years later I still regard Catch 22 as a great book but never knew anything about Heller s later work I recently discovered this book and when I learned it was a political satire I purchased it I thought this book just might be what I needed to put all of vehemence of our current election into a proper humorous perspective Sadly, I have been disap [...]

Click to Replay

Logan Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

I was definitely not a fan of this book Heller s writing style is fine, but I did not care for the story It was vulgar and had only one character with any redeeming qualities, who was basically the victim The main character is selfish, immoral, petty, and just about any other bad attribute you can think of He s a jerk His family is a bunch of jerks His peers are a bunch of jerks Only his wife is kind and decent, yet, he lies and cheats on her repeatedly The book was supposed to be a humorous loo [...]

Click to Replay

Rachel Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Far from being as good as gold, this book was bad Very bad It might have been readable if you like reading about annoying Jewish families, don t care if no one in the book is likable, and find contradictory politicians endlessly amusing I only finished it because I wanted to see if it could possibly get worse It did Heller broke his narrative near the end to make a meta statement about what he should have his character do Later, he writes several options for a sentence and doesn t clear up which [...]

Click to Replay

Richard Kramer Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

So far loving this Heard Heller s daughter interviewed on NYT Book Review podcast Tanenhaus said something about this being laugh out loud funny and after twenty pages he s been proven right The first scene is an excruciating Jewish family dinner Now Kissinger is somehow in the mix I want to take the phone off the hook or turn it off or whatever you do these days I want to get into bed with some kugel and read this and laugh and wince I haven t read Heller since SOMETHING HAPPENED came out and I [...]

Click to Replay

Mark Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Heller takes on the government and the Jewish experience in America Heller knows how write about the mundane interactions between people, find the irony, and make it an involving story This may be Heller s most autobiographical work Good as Gold is Heller at his acerbic, sarcastic and flippant best.

Click to Replay

Sherrie Gingery Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

I loved this book There were several times I laughed out loud I rate Good as Gold as good as Catch 22, albeit the plot is not nearly as complicated as some of Heller s earlier works.A must read for anyone likes satire and sharp dialogue.

Click to Replay

Emma Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Joseph Heller is superb The writing is satirical, the characters are awful people and the situation is all too familiar If you ve ever felt stressed out and annoyed by your family, if you ve ever felt mislead and confused by your government, this book is for you I laughed the whole way through.

Click to Replay

ElizaBeth Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Everything Joseph Heller ever wrote, other than Catch 22, is utter crap I m beginning to believe the theory that it was plagarized

Click to Replay

C. Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Could not be bothered finishing this.

Click to Replay

Karn Kher Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Follows the same path as Something Happened Satire filled to brim with pathos, cynicism and humor One man s life as he interacts with a specific industry politics Washington while being Jewish It s fun, funny and funnily factual Heller is great as the grand absurdist drawing out the illogical nature of human relationships This is no Catch 22 It had far memorable characters This is no Something Happened It had a far sadder ending This by virtue of its context, is a funny sad look into the Jewish [...]

Click to Replay

Agnes Kelemen Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Some parts are fantastic, but on the whole there is too much alienation and repetition in it and there are so much better books on the same contradictions of American Jewish life by Philip Roth

Click to Replay

Chad Bearden Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

I now have three Heller novels under my belt, and I swear it seems like each time I ve cracked one his books, I m reading a different author There are some tell tale mannerisms that give him away, but each work is very distinct.The first was Catch 22 , and as the first, now feels to me like Classic Heller, where obliviously dense characters talk around in circles to demonstrate the senselessness of war Next came Something Happened , which felt like Updike Heller, in which we follow around a midd [...]

Click to Replay

Simon Mcleish Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Originally published on my blog here in April 2003.Heller s third novel reads almost as though it were the book of a Woody Allen film It is about the Jewish experience in the US in the late seventies, and contains much of the same kind of bitter sweet humour so common in Allen s work Good as Gold centres around a second generation American Jew, Bruce Gold, who is entering middle age and who is desperate to be taken seriously as a writer, as a family member particularly by his irascible father an [...]

Click to Replay

Rick Seery Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

or The Pains of Not Being Saul Bellow This is such a mess of jarring modes from overly conspicuous satire to outraged liberal arts polemic to Jewish family saga The satire is second fiddle Terry Southern Diet Southern which appears to re iterate the same one note gag all too numerously The anger Heller mounts towards Henry Kissinger is just too obvious it takes a classical, outraged liberal perspective that we could get anywhere file next to Philip Roth and Oliver Stone under obvious liberal pol [...]

Click to Replay

Girish Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

This book is a typical Heller in its absolute atypical writing style Heller brews a powerful concoction of a humor, wit, family, sentiment, tragedy, politics, deception and outright crazy This tale is about Washington DC, the Jewish Experience, Family ties, Aspirations and somewhere about Henry Kissinger Bruce Gold is the protagonist a jewish professor author, in a high position with the Govt though not sure what , part of a big family that he doesn t understand and constantly in wonderment abou [...]

Click to Replay

Mark Speed Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Oh dear The plot is about a middle aged Jewish academic Erm, notice any similarity to the author at the time he wrote it The protagonist s offer of a high profile job Secretary of State could be seen as an event somewhat similar in impact to one s life as publishing a classic like Catch 22.I remember talking with Jonathan Myerson about this in class He said that he and his wife have a pact she shoots him if he starts writing about a middle aged writer.According to , the novel is well regarded by [...]

Click to Replay

Getout Ofmybookcorner Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

SPOILER This book is shit.Dear Joseph,I wanted to like this book I REALLY wanted to like it but I just couldn t The characters are about as forgettable as a new years eve hook up, and with about as much depth and endearment I.E none a point of note for the sobre types C22 is, rather standardly, one of my favourites but this has completely put me off Heller Throughout the book I couldn t help thinking that the jokes were all so forced, obvious and just plain unwitty.The Good as Gold running gag a [...]

Click to Replay

James Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

I started out thinking that this book was okay, definitely not one of Heller s best, but witty and insightful in parts That opinion changed when I was nearly two thirds through This book is 500 pages long, but I swear it only has three of four ideas jokes that it repeats over and over and over and over and over AND OVER to nauseating effect Jokes that were funny the first twenty times became depressing after the five thousandth repetition And then there were all those digressions about Kissenger [...]

Click to Replay

Riley Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

To me, this book was a fairly loving portrait of a Jewish family, even with all of Joseph Heller s satire, and the obnoxiousness for which he portrays almost of its characters.But if you loved Catch 22, you ll probably be disappointed by this novel The highest rating it gets probably is that it is not bad.

Click to Replay

Anne-Marie Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Did I love it Nah.Did I hate it Nah I was left wishing I knew a lot about Henry Kissinger, and feeling like I was on the outer of a lot of jokes A lengthier review s over on my blog.

Click to Replay

Ed Larkin Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Gave it 2 stars because I can t rate Heller lower but this was a disappointment The main character is a jerk, his family and friends are idiots and the plot is neither believable nor amusing and if it can t be one it should be the other.

Click to Replay

Greta Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

All I can think about is that line from Hannah and Her Sisters How am I supposed to know why there was a holocaust I don t know how the can opener works

Click to Replay

Peterboh Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

This is one of my favorite Heller s books It is really funny, I especially liked the White House politics It is way better than Something Happen.

Click to Replay

Joseph Schlesinger Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

It had its moments of beautiful Hellerian irony absurdism However, there were also segments where I felt the narrative dragged due to being bogged down in political ranting details of social commentary Overall, I liked Catch 22 better, but am satisfied that I finally had the opportunity to read this Wouldn t read it again, tho.

Click to Replay

Sebastian Ek Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

en blandning av tre delar politisk satir som catch 22, roligt familjedrama som bara r irriterande och f r mig helt verklighetfr mmande judesk mt boken r bitvis s uppblandad med jiddisch att det r helt ol sligt.

Click to Replay

Joseph Ozias Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

Bruce Gold feels like the renewed Yossarian and that s fine The family scenes carry you through this novel, and while you don t necessarily need to care about the plot to enjoy it, the plot might be too simple and strange for the average reader.

Click to Replay

Eddie Apr 15, 2021 - 07:41 AM

almost as enjoyable as Catch 22, but takes on resonance with the current political climate.

Click to Replay

Good as Gold By Joseph Heller Bruce Gold, a middle aged, Jewish professor of English literature, finds himself on the brink of a golden career in politics and not a moment too soon, as Gold yearns for an opportunity to transform a less than picture perfect life His children think little of him, his intimidating father endlessly bullies him, and his wife is so oblivious that she doesn t even noticeBruce Gold, a middle aged, Jewish professor of English literature, finds himself on the brink of a golden career in politics and not a moment too soon, as Gold yearns for an opportunity to transform a less than picture perfect life His children think little of him, his intimidating father endlessly bullies him, and his wife is so oblivious that she doesn t even notice he s left her As funny as it is sad, Good as Gold is a story of children grown up, parents grown old, and friends and lovers grown apart a story that is inimitably Heller.

Share this article...

[PDF] Unlimited Æ Good as Gold : by Joseph Heller

Joseph Heller 153 Joseph Heller

Comments

Leave a Comment

Share this article...

New Post

Latest tweets