Reviews for As good as Goldie

The average rating for As good as Goldie based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-04-08 00:00:00 Harley Whipkey Early 1970s was a great time to be a novelist. Lady Chatterley and then Tropic of Cancer had broken the censors, and we writers celebrated - gloried, actually - in writing a lot of graphic sex. We called it a commentary on culture and society and great weighty issues, but really it was fun to write - and read - about sex. And of course, we all thought we knew a great deal about the subject. They say you should write what you know. Alan Lelchuk was no exception. Here's something else Alan Lelchuk knew: the academic writer game. He received his B.A. in World Literature in 1960, his M.A. in English in 1963 and his Ph.D. in 1965. He began teaching at Brandeis in 1966. He got a Yaddo Foundation Grant in 1968, 1969, 1971, and 1973, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship in 1969. So he wrote an academic novel of highbrow porn. And, yeah, a commentary about culture and stuff. But honestly, it's fun for the first 150 pages because it's mostly about a narcissistic college professor screwing lots of women and making comments like this: A playful knowing cunt - a pair of agile lips that could expand and contract, bite and nip, plus a little protrusion of flesh, all set like a guerrilla hideout into a camouflaged mound and firing off special salivas and smells - this infinitesimal house of pleasure had toppled kings, altered history. Not bad for a body circumference of a few inches. After 150 pages, the novel becomes more self-consciously a commentary about culture and stuff, and kind of wearying. Five stars for the first third. Two or three stars for the rest.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-10-01 00:00:00 Benoit Legare Nice use of details and an interestingly unapologetic voice used to depict Hugo's life from the times he's a child until his death. The content runs the full gamut of his debauched life, and although you can feel how sordid his life becomes, the narrative never asks you to feel sorry for him. Interesting use of letters used to break up the time line.