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Apr 01, 2011

Jessica rated it:

Forced and disjointed. The storylines for Leland, Hugo and the Golod clan were forced on the reader. And the very few parts with Chaplin were way too disjointed.

I'm still struggling with why the characters above were included. Was it to show how the non-Hollywood folk lived? Was it an attempt to give depth to an otherwise bland story? Or was it simply, as is my belief, an attempt to add substance to a thin plot?

I struggled mightily with every character introduced (with th More...

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Aug 24, 2010

Judy rated it:

The production of illusion, the competitive spirit of creative people, the magnetic appeal of the truly adept; these are the themes of David Glen Gold and also his techniques as a writer. Carter Beats the Devil, his amazing first novel, was about a magician. Sunnyside takes us into the early world of motion pictures through Charlie Chaplin.

It is a long novel and in my opinion it is as long as it needs to be, though some critics disagreed. Gold takes a good 75 pages to get it al More...

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Dec 06, 2009

Charles rated it:

Sunnyside pops and crackles with cleverness. Which probably won't surprise anyone who read Glen David Gold's debut novel, Carter Beats the Devil. Like that novel, Sunnyside is rooted in the popular culture of the American past – the earlier book in the heyday of vaudeville, the new one in the formative days of the American film industry.

The central character in Sunnyside is Charlie Chaplin, whom we first see (or think we see) on November 12, 1916, in a boat off the Northern Californi More...

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Jun 23, 2009

jordan rated it:

What is one to make of Glen David Gold’s second act, “Sunnyside,” which comes more than seven years after his much praised first novel, “Carter Beats the Devil”? As with Carter, Gold again demonstrates his extraordinary gifts – characterization, humor, and perfectly metered prose, as well as exceptional research – are not for this author tricks but sheer magic. Yet where Carter followed a story that was linear and easily deciphered, “Sunnyside” follows not one track but several. And if More...

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Jun 10, 2009

Darrenglass rated it:

I should start by saying that I loved Gold's previous novel, "Carter Beats The Devil", and so I was very excited to see this book on the shelf of my local library.

After the first couple chapters of this book, I was in love with its sprawling narrative featuring several stories all of which centered on Charlie Chaplin in some way or another, but which featured a variety of interesting characters. Unfortunately, as the book went on my enthusiasm faded and the book went fro More...

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Apr 26, 2009

Jana rated it:

I received an ARC for "Sunnyside," and expected big things since the author had a bestseller with his first novel, ""Carter Beats The Devil." I was taken in, as were/are many readers by all the hype surrounding "Sunnyside's" publication. It does not make for a good read. I was determined to finish it, however, despite the book's 555 pages. Yes, I had to skim over parts - but I didn't skip anything, hoping for a page or two or ten, which would bring the narrativ More...

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Dec 27, 2009

Shawn rated it:

Sunnyside, Glen David Gold’s second novel, starts off with the type of magic that one might expect to find in his first novel, Carter Beats the Devil. That is a roundabout and inelegant (did I really just use ‘one’ instead of ‘you’?) way of saying that at the start of the novel, Charlie Chaplin is seen in over 800 places at the same time. Despite its supernatural start, Sunnyside is, lamentably, not a novel about Charlie Chaplin and his awesome powers of duplication/teleportation. While the no More...

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Jun 01, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine rated it:

Starting with a bizarre, real-life occurrence of mass hysteria, Gold opens with a bang, and skillfully merges fact with fabrication in this overflowing, pulsating novel. Some critics wished he'd had a more ruthless editor, and others were annoyed by some of his too-clever whims. (For example, the novel's layout mirrors an old-fashioned silent film, with a newsreel, a travelogue, a short comedy, and the feature presentation.) However, others quickly became caught up in the spectacle of pre-1920s

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Jul 03, 2009

Mike rated it:

Just under 3/5 of the way through this speaking-of-it-in-fractions-makes-good-sense-sized book, British military officer Edmund Ironside muses that "war was like opera: the plot could be as complex as a spiderweb, but if you could not explain the point in a heartbeat, you were lost." Hmmm. Sunnyside is _______ . . . .

A grand, cliffhanger-addled doorstopper of event and Event. Weaving a seamless blur of historical Event and plot-twisting event, Gold follows three primary More...

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Nov 27, 2009

Margaret rated it:

Wow. I wanted to like this. I really enjoyed "Carter Beats the Devil," Gold's first book. So I was excited for this one. But I just couldn't get into it, and gave up a few chapters in.

Gold weaves in millions of period details and facts, and characters, which is great. But the writing is just so dense, and he seems to have a deep antipathy to clearly identifying *which* of the myriad characters is speaking, or thinking, or being discussed. I kept flipping back and forth goin More...

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Jun 23, 2009

Lori added it

I read this book because I kept coming upon reviews that just raved about it. One thing they all said was how much stuff Gold managed to cram into this book. Amen. I will be honest and say that I had trouble getting into it at the start. Clearly, Gold is a talented writer, but I wasn't sure I cared about the players. That quickly changed and I found myself unwilling to put it down and looking forward to picking it up again. It is fun, haunting, sad and masterful. It is about war, Charlie Chaplin More...

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Feb 16, 2010

Angela rated it:

Sigh. I love Carter Beats the Devil (Gold's previous novel) so much. It's on my top five list of books I recommend to others.

Sunnyside is a similar concept - mixing real people with fictional characters, and it's also beautifully written. With CBtD, it was like a movie playing out in my head, complete with overbright colors and vignetted edges. But Sunnyside ... oh, I just didn't care about any of the characters, but the story shifted between the characters (and their only-very- More...

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Aug 04, 2009

Miina rated it:

I would give this 3.5 stars if I could. Despite being emotionally engaged in parts of the book, the author did not write his characters in such a way that I was thoroughly engaged for the (long) length of the book. It's not that they were incompletely written so much as that I just could not bring myself to care about what happened to them. I ended up caring more for the animals in the story than I did the humans.

I will say, however, that as far as being a work of historical fiction, More...

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Jul 26, 2009

Mr. Brammer rated it:

You cannot blame Gold for lacking ambition: this novel attempts to sum up the state of America during the late 19-teens, and in doing so he goes off on narrative tangents that seem tenuously connected. The two major events portrayed here are the birth of the Hollywood film industry and America's entry into WWI; both are important in that they are the beginnings of the U.S. as the dominant military and cultural power in the world, a state that we have become accustomed to in the modern era. So More...

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Apr 09, 2011

Ben rated it:

A very good book that falls short of greatness, but not for lack of trying.

It doesn't get much more ambitious than this until you start talking about the all-time great novels. But ambition and success are not synonymous. Gold is a very good writer, but he's at his worst when he tries his hardest to entertain. This book's most successful moments (and a "moment" in this tome can be 40 or 50 pages long) come when he relaxes and lets the story do the work. The crowning achievem More...

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Sep 26, 2009

Christine rated it:

This is exactly the type of book I really love, one which interweaves real people and real history with fictional characters and events, and I especially was looking forward to enjoying the involvement of Charlie Chaplin as a real character (since I've become a real fan since seeing the movie "Chaplin" in film class last spring). Alas, a disappointment -- one of the several books I have not been able to bring myself to finish this month. I'm not even sure I can say why I was having a More...

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Sep 11, 2009

Anna rated it:

I truly enjoyed this book. It's kind of like Mrs. Dalloway and Steven Milhauser. Chaplin in early Hollywood- and all the characters, really- were so well rendered, and put you in this interesting place. Hard to describe. I really didn't know what to expect, picked it up at the library and had never heard of this author or the word "Sunnyside," nor did I know anything about Charlie Chaplin. Now I have a huge crush on a dead actor, and a ton of questions about WW1 and our engagement in N More...

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Aug 19, 2011

Peter rated it:

I wanted to love this as much as his first book Carter Beats the Devil but unfortunately it's a big mess. Like Carter this is an epic book that mixes history with fiction. It has a ton of characters including Charlie Chaplin who is easily one of my favorite historical figures. When the focus is on him it's quite good however the book splits its focus between at least 10 other people and it become jumbled. Some of the characters stories have a nice progression and ending and some are just forg More...

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Aug 02, 2009

Lars rated it:

Following up on his magnificent 'Carter Beats the Devil,' Gold seems intent on proving that he can do himself one better: more plot lines, more important characters from history, more history, more big words. He does it, but I didn't like it quite as much, maybe because he was trying to prove something. Instead of a story that pulls the reader along, 'Sunnyside' requires a reader who is willing to spend time and effort pulling herself or himself through the story's nearly 600 pages. Not that More...

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Nov 02, 2009

Aaron rated it:

I was a huge fan of Carter Beats The Devil when it first came out and waited with anticipation for this next novel. Gold did not disappoint.

Three stories here: the story of Leland Duncan, wanna-be actor somewhat screwed into joing in the military; the story of Hugo Black, American soldier forced to fight alongside Ironside against Russian armies for reasons that the American government can never quite articulate; and the story of Charlie Chaplin, as he deals with the public's opinio More...

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Mar 27, 2011

Dot rated it:

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected to. To begin with, I found the first chapter thoroughly confusing but fortunately, a quick read of the 'blurb' set me straight. I was interested in the life of Charlie Chaplin and the interactions between him and other Hollywood luminaries such as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks as imagined by this author, but I found that long passages of the book were less engaging and could have done with some editing. All in all, the book was too long and More...

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Aug 19, 2009

Kelly rated it:

It took me nearly the first 100 pages to get into this novel, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. This historical fiction based on the early career of Charlie Chaplin and the shifting world around him is like travelling back in time. Gold colors the scenes with such rich detail that I felt like I really was in 1918, whether in the early phase of American motion pictures to fighting in Russia and France in the war. It's confusing because the novel jumps between several characters and settings, but t More...

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Jun 21, 2009

Alan rated it:

The massive scope of this book begins with a day in 1916 where hundreds of Chaplins are simultaneously imagined around the world. It focuses on the other two main characters witnessing this bizarre event, a lighthouse keeper with Hollywood dreams and a brash young Texan, both of which will end up in the middle of World War One. Gold brilliantly blends fact and fiction (and as a film historian, I can attest to a lot of the early Hollywood stuff) to a point where the reader vicariously experienc More...

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Apr 28, 2010

Melinda rated it:

This book is a beautiful mess. Yes, it is deftly written. Yes, it has no plot. So, if you can stand that for over 550 pages, then read it. But if you need a plot, then I would not recommend it for you. I went to see Mr. Gold at an author's appearance and he's charming and funny. I have not read his other book, but I think it is much more loved. Sometimes I can handle a beautifully written book without a plot (The Stone Diaries comes to mind in this category) but because this book is so long and More...

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Sep 05, 2011

Kay rated it:

Another great book by Glen David Gold. If you're a fan of early moviemaking (like me) you probably won't have to be told twice to read this book. But even if you've never heard of Frances Marion, Zasu Pitts or Mary Pickford there's plenty here to keep you interested: a great cast of characters, the whole of World War I (French, Russian and home fronts) and plenty of dogs. What more could you want?

This book gets off to kind of a slow start but is well worth the wait. The incident o More...

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Jul 06, 2010

sarah t rated it:

I adored Carter Beats the Devil - the first book by GDG. Early in Sunnyside, I thought that I would like it just as much; there were lots of really great moments and images and it was funny. But by the end, I found it just a bit too sprawling - the connective tissue between the really great parts seemed too thin. But perhaps I have a softer spot for magicians than I do for Charlie Chaplin. Or perhaps my expectations were just too high because of Carter Beats the Devil. In any case, it was still More...

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Sep 05, 2010

Chris rated it:

In short: Amazing, but recommended cautiously.

How does he do it? Gold's book is a masterpiece, delivering an incredibly deep experience in humanity that ranges from the front lines of World War One to a barely-formed Hollywood to the private tragedies and comedies of life. The line between tragedy and comedy is ambiguous throughout, and I do not know which the book is. Perhaps that's the point--that life is never simply one or the other. His characters are even deeper and more comple More...

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Jan 27, 2010

Graceann rated it:

I love Glen David Gold. I love him as a witty, personable man, and as a witty, engaging author. I adored CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL and found it to be lush and intricate, with numerous plot points that somehow, "magically" reunite for a satisfying novel. Perhaps it was wrong for me to set such a high standard for SUNNYSIDE, but I know what Gold can do at his best, and I waited a long time for this novel. When I heard that it was based (at least in part) on an era I love - that of Holly More...

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Dec 08, 2010

James rated it:

Sunnyside has 3 story lines: Charlie Chaplin and the making of a film called Sunnyside, a soldier on the Western Front during WWI, and a soldier who's part of the Allied intervention at Archangel following the Russian Revolution. The thread holding these 3 seemingly disparate parts together is Hollywood and the beginnings of celebrity culture. We're reminded more than once that California became the center of the film industry because Europe was at war during the industry's adolescence and be More...

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May 28, 2011

Lindz rated it:

In many ways this is a really good novel. It is really well written, metaphores are sometimes inspired. Images flow off the page like oil paint onto a canvas. The characters are interesting and generally do keep the pace going. Gold has a real affection for Charlie Chaplin, and the loving farce of the invasion of Russia is great until the tragedy of the ending, not ending in a marriage but death, as predicted by Chaplin himself. Though I have a feeling Gold tired of his Leeland Wheeler char More...

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