Golden Hill - BookWyrm

302 pages

English language

Published Dec. 20, 2017 by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-1-5011-6387-6
OCLC Number:: 986202780

"New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat arrives at a countinghouse door on Golden Hill Street: this is Mr. Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion shimmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge sum, and he won't explain why, or where he comes from, or what he is planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him? Rich in language and historical perception, yet compulsively readable, Golden Hill is a story "taut with twists and turns" that "keeps you gripped until its tour-de-force conclusion" (The Times, London). Spufford …

"New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat arrives at a countinghouse door on Golden Hill Street: this is Mr. Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion shimmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge sum, and he won't explain why, or where he comes from, or what he is planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him? Rich in language and historical perception, yet compulsively readable, Golden Hill is a story "taut with twists and turns" that "keeps you gripped until its tour-de-force conclusion" (The Times, London). Spufford paints an irresistible picture of a New York provokingly different from its later metropolitan self but already entirely a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love--and find a world of trouble"--

1 edition

Kathrin Passig reviewed Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

Review of 'Golden Hill' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Hat großen Spaß gemacht wie alles von Spufford. Kein fünfter Stern wegen der Frauensituation: Eine niedliche Pappfigur, eine widerspenstige und eine sexuelle – und ein 24-jähriger Protagonist, der sie bei jeder Gelegenheit an seinen Einsichten teilhaben lässt: "Du bist in Wirklichkeit so und so, das sehe ich! Du willst es nur nicht wahrhaben! Komm mit mir, nur ich kann dich retten!" – "Lass mich, ich möchte jetzt ungestört hysterisch sein!" Später tut es ihr dann leid. Aber der Rest ist ganz gut.

Materialien zu einer Automatischen Romankritik: Minuspunkt "Am Ende der Geschichte stellt sich heraus, dass der allwissende Erzähler das treue Kutschpferd ist, das die ganze Zeit vor dem Haus gewartet und alles mitbekommen hat."

Wagburger

rated it

Dec. 17, 2017

Subjects

Fiction
History

Places

New York (State)