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The Golden Age

Joan London

3.78 · Rating details · 2,704 ratings · 354 reviews

This is a story of resilience, the irrepressible, enduring nature of love, and the fragility of life. From one of Australia's most loved novelists.

He felt like a pirate landing on an island of little maimed animals. A great wave had swept them up and dumped them here. All of them, like him, stranded, wanting to go home. It is 1954 and thirteen-year-old Frank Gold, refugee ...more

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Paperback, 256 pages

Published August 1st 2014 by Random House Australia

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Lists with This Book

Stella Prize 2015

12 books — 20 voters

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Books set in Western Australia

94 books — 33 voters

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· 2,704 ratings · 354 reviews

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Aug 05, 2016 Jill rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-of-age

If someone were to have told me that The Golden Age was written in 1954 – the time of its setting – I would have believed them. The book has the tone of a classic, with the potential of rediscovery upon future readings.

There are no bells and whistles here. The writing is spare but powerful, carefully calibrated to reveal but not lead the reader. I often separate books into warm (those that touch the heart) and cool (those that touch the brain). On that continuum, I’d place this book at “cool-ish If someone were to have told me that The Golden Age was written in 1954 – the time of its setting – I would have believed them. The book has the tone of a classic, with the potential of rediscovery upon future readings.

There are no bells and whistles here. The writing is spare but powerful, carefully calibrated to reveal but not lead the reader. I often separate books into warm (those that touch the heart) and cool (those that touch the brain). On that continuum, I’d place this book at “cool-ish”, not at all manipulative despite its theme.

And what IS the theme? In a word, it’s displacement. The Golden Age refers to an actual polio children’s convalescent home in Australia that existed between 1949-1959. Frank Gold (no coincidence, I think, that his name is similar to the home) is sent there just as he stands on the brink of maturity (he is 13 years old). There he meets Elsa, also on the cusp of adulthood, and according to the book jacket, they fall in love.

Still, the love story is not truly the focal point of the book. Frank considers this: “Every country had its rules. He had to learn them. How long would he be allowed to stay here? Was this the country where he could finally feel at home?” Frank and his family have already been displaced; they are Hungarian Jews who were forced to leave their homeland during the war and in Australia, view themselves as strangers in a strange land. Polio is a metaphor for this displacement and forces Frank, once again, to learn to adjust in a home with its own history and rules.

Frank’s illness and recovery are aligned, in ways, with that of his parents, Meyer and Ida. Ida was an esteemed pianist in Hungary and has not performed for a while; one might say she is dealing with her own form of paralysis. Meyer, who is more optimistic, must come to the realization that his new city “is its own place. It is not like anywhere else.” The entire family moves towards acceptance of a new reality.

There are many secondary characters here as well, and none of them receive short shrift. This is a gentle book and it requires careful reading to fully glean all its nuances. Consider it a parlor study of the progression from paralysis to movement.

...more

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Nov 11, 2016 Mary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-author, hungary, fiction, 2016, europa-editions

At the ferry jetty he turned right into Barrack Street, walked up past the Supreme Court Gardens, across St Georges Terrace. This was the city they’d been offered, and had accepted. They were safe here, but even now, at rush hour, the wide streets felt empty. That was the bargain. He’d left his city and would never return.

How short-lived gratitude was!

It was like this. Budapest was the glamorous love of his life who had betrayed him. Perth was a flat-faced, wide-hipped country girl whom he’d bee ...more

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Dec 04, 2014 Michael Livingston rated it really liked it

The second last book in my quest to read the 2015 Stella Prize longlist. I wasn't hugely taken by London's previous novel, Gilgamesh, so I wasn't super excited to tackle this. Somewhat surprisingly, I loved it - a gorgeously written evocation of a 1950s children's polio rehabilitation centre in Perth, The Golden Age has a lot to say about love, family, independence and coming to terms with the hand life deals you. The supporting characters are rich and memorable (Frank's parents in particular), ...more

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Jul 27, 2014 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: borrowed-from-library, 2014-release, aussie-authors, contemporary-fiction

Frank Gold, along with parents Ida and Meyer arrived from Hungary as refugees fleeing a war torn country. Their original hope was to go to America but an earlier ship was leaving for Australia from Vienna where they were waiting. They found it hard to settle into their new country, Ida especially – New Australians and their funny accents were the butt of many jokes. In 1954 when Frank contracted polio and was placed into isolation, their shock and devastation was great.

When Frank was transferre ...more

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May 08, 2015 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-womens-writers-challenge, librarybooks

‘Once you get used to your condition, he said, your imagination becomes free again.’

The Golden Age is set in a convalescent home for children who were victims of poliomyelitis in Perth, Western Australia in the early 1950s. (The Golden Age Convalescent Home for Polio Children which operated in Leederville from 1949 to 1959, really existed. It was once a hotel, and has since been demolished.) This novel tells the story of a twelve year boy, Frank Gold. Frank and his parents Ida and Meyer were Hun ‘Once you get used to your condition, he said, your imagination becomes free again.’

The Golden Age is set in a convalescent home for children who were victims of poliomyelitis in Perth, Western Australia in the early 1950s. (The Golden Age Convalescent Home for Polio Children which operated in Leederville from 1949 to 1959, really existed. It was once a hotel, and has since been demolished.) This novel tells the story of a twelve year boy, Frank Gold. Frank and his parents Ida and Meyer were Hungarian refugees who had wanted to go to America but had reluctantly come to Australia. Meyer has adapted, Ida has not. And when Frank contracts polio after they settle in Perth, she has even less reason to be happy. Ida was once a concert pianist, but once Frank became ill she no longer played.

‘Once you have tasted meaninglessness, you lose any idea of reward, or punishment, or conventional virtue.’

Frank has been moved from the adult polio hospital (where he was the youngest patient) to The Golden Age (where he is the oldest). At first he is not happy about this move, coming soon after the death of Sullivan (aged 18) whom he’d met in the iron lung ward. Sullivan had composed poetry, which Frank transcribed for him, and the two of them had become close.

At The Golden Age, Frank explores the corridors in his wheelchair, trying to catch a glimpse of Elsa, the only other child of his age. The two become friends. The reader learns more about each of them, about Elsa’s strength and sense of self, about Frank’s intense desire to belong and to write poetry. There’s an encounter which changes both their lives, and quite soon after the story moves (abruptly) to the present day and we learn a little about the intervening years of their lives.

The story is told in the third-person, and moves through a number of different points of view. I enjoyed this, as it gave an opportunity to see events through the lives of some of the other characters including Frank’s father, Elsa’s mother and Sister Olive Penny who is in charge at The Golden Age. Through Frank and Elsa, Ms London describes the onset, impact and isolation caused by polio. Through their parents (particularly Elsa’s mother and Frank’s parents) she describes the post-war world in Australia, the impacts of difference, disease and war. It’s a rich world, shaped but not destroyed by events. I read this novel accompanied by memories of my father, who contracted polio as a young man (in Tasmania) during this epidemic.

This is the kind of story that stays with you, long after you’ve finished reading it.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith ...more

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Dec 23, 2014 Carolyn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: emigration, relationships, historical

What struck me most about this book is that although it is dealing with children struck down by the terrible polio epidemic of the 1950s it is a quiet and joyous story. For Frank Gold, recently arrived in Australia from post WWII Hungary and on the cusp of adolescence it should be a horrific time in his life. But Frank is resilient and resourceful and relishes the sudden independence from his parents and the cares of the world. "The Golden Age", the children's convalescent hospital of the title
What struck me most about this book is that although it is dealing with children struck down by the terrible polio epidemic of the 1950s it is a quiet and joyous story. For Frank Gold, recently arrived in Australia from post WWII Hungary and on the cusp of adolescence it should be a horrific time in his life. But Frank is resilient and resourceful and relishes the sudden independence from his parents and the cares of the world. "The Golden Age", the children's convalescent hospital of the title as described by London was indeed a sanctuary for the children where they could be treated as normal children and be shielded from the stares and derision of the world until they were strong enough to go back to it.

It is while in hospital during the acute phase of his polio that Frank discovers the beauty of poetry from an older boy, Sullivan imprisoned in an iron lung and from then on he constantly writes down lines that come to him. When he is later moved to the the Golden Age he sees a girl around his own age, Elsa, and falls in love.

"Her light golden-brown hair was pulled straight back into a single-plait. Little gold wisps escaped and caught the low beams of sun around her forehead. Her skin was pale. She looked like a drawing done with a fine lead pencil. He noted the straightness of her nose, her delicate, grave mouth, the clear curve of her jawline, the length of her neck from the bottom of her earlobe to the hollow of her throat.There was a shadow between her eye and cheekbone. An aristocrat."

Elsa is from a different background to Frank. A solid middle class Australian existence in a big house near the sea, of tennis lessons and endless golden days riding her bike. They form a strong bond and although we never get a strong sense of her personality, she becomes Frank's muse and soul mate.

The prose is simple and beautiful. The themes of displacement and nostalgia (from childhood, from war torn Europe) are woven strongly through those of love and relationships. Through Frank's year long recuperation, his parents finally start to accept their new life in Perth and although it will never be the same as Budapest before the war there is hope for a good future together.4.5★
...more

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Mar 15, 2020 Rebecca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: medical, historical-fiction, newbury-library, reviewed-for-blog, wellcome-prize-longlist

(3.5) The Golden Age was a real children’s polio hospital in Western Australia, but London has peopled it with her own fictional cast. In 1953–4, Frank Gold and Elsa Briggs, polio patients aged 12 going on 13, fall in love in the most improbable of circumstances. “The backs of their hands brushed as they walked side by side on their crutches. Their bloodstreams recharged by exercise and fresh air, they experienced a fiery burst of pleasure.”

Frank is much the more vibrant character thanks to his ...more

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Dec 01, 2017 Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-books

*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
From time to time I like to read a book from my signed collection shelf. These are books that are on my ‘keeps’ shelf. The Golden Age is a book that has been sitting on my special ‘keeps’ book cabinet since I met the author Joan London back at a Stories on Stage author in 2015. I recall enjoying the author event given by Joan, to mark the release of her much anticipated third book, The Golden Age. What struck me most about the author talk and the book itself ...more

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Sep 20, 2016 Peter Devenish rated it it was amazing

I seldom comment on why I rate a book, probably because I'm basically lazy, but I feel I must comment on this beautifully written story by the Western Australian writer, Joan London. It is set in a tragic time when the blight of a polio epidemic struck. But it is not a tragic story, rather one of love and hope - love in its several forms and hope for the future, varying with each character. The locale I know intimately; the era is my own; and I relate to the polio epidemic personally because a l ...more

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Jan 21, 2015 Kaylene rated it it was ok

Shelves: cannot-finish, e-books, book-club-2015, read-2015

Meh... I'm abandoning this book half-way through as it wasn't holding my interest and was a bit blah for me. I kept going long after I wanted to stop as the reviews have been glowing. I began to think is there something wrong with me, am I not getting something here?? But it has not put me off reading any of her other books. ...more

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May 19, 2017 Lisa rated it liked it

Shelves: australian-reads

An extremely easy read. Gorgeous prose.

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Nov 25, 2014 Dillwynia Peter rated it really liked it

This book was for my local library book club.
The main theme for me in this one is all the main characters change to become “new” Australians. In the case of Frank & his parents, they are Hungarian migrants that escaped the Jewish extermination thru deception. They were professionals in Budapest & are now doing menial jobs in their new life in Perth. In the case of the children, they are all severely affected by polio & are learning to walk again. The active lifestyles they once had are gone, and This book was for my local library book club.
The main theme for me in this one is all the main characters change to become “new” Australians. In the case of Frank & his parents, they are Hungarian migrants that escaped the Jewish extermination thru deception. They were professionals in Budapest & are now doing menial jobs in their new life in Perth. In the case of the children, they are all severely affected by polio & are learning to walk again. The active lifestyles they once had are gone, and it is interesting that all the children become quite cerebral. Even the baby Fabrio, croons when he is on his own, making his own songs during his enforced inactivity. Sullivan sees snow on the white hospital ceiling, while in the iron lung & composes poetry. MOst of the children become active readers, and mature sooner than normal.
The determination of these children will be fierce as they try to rebuild their lives as young adults in a world that will stigmatises them. Elsa’s aunt suggests a typing college where she can be of service to a charity, because she is now deformed & not fit to pursue an active career like medicine. Patients will be turned off by someone scared by Polio. How our two main characters become adults in an afterword at the end. In some ways, I didn’t feel it was necessary, but I remember the ending to Gilgamesh was also weakened by a similar device.
Sister Penny is a dynamic character: a lusty woman, her husband is a war casualty and she is stigmatised by both her sister-in-law and daughter. I felt the daughter was a cruel person, pandering to her new “family” that gives her some sense of social superiority against her mother who works long hours to pay for her earlier education. She enjoys men & we see her being a pragmatist with her sexual encounters; she doesn’t expect a lasting, permanent relationship- to the extent that she shrugs off a possible long term lover.
The strength in London’s writing is in her ability to write good, strong, multidimensional characters. All of them are believable & as such the story carries along well. There was no incident that didn’t feel true. You discover that much is a result of her interviewing patients that attended the hospital during this period. I also suspect she visited the hospital as a child, for whatever reason.
Again, like Gilgamesh, the main themes are relationships & displacement & resolving issues thru strength of character. My complaint is the sense of nostalgia that flows through the book. For me, this was a problem, and I see it creating a problem with this book lasting the test of time.Who cares about ChooChoo Bars, or the leading brand of soft drink in Perth. With books such as this, will we care what happened in 1950s Australia?? So many people now have forgotten the Polio epidemic, that I doubt it will resonate with younger readers.
...more

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Apr 22, 2015 Amanda rated it did not like it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

I don't think I've ever given a book such a low rating, but I can't even pretend to have liked this book and am abandoning it before finishing.

London is a WA writer and has won a healthy swag of gongs for her work. I read this novel as part of my quest to get to know some of the authors in Adelaide for Adelaide Writers Week, otherwise I might not have picked it up - pity, that.

I have no issue with the dreamy pace of the book or the setting and sense of place, but I have loads of issue with plent ...more

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Jan 30, 2016 Shannon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, australian-women-writers, 2016

Joan London's The Golden Age came highly recommended by reviewers taking part in the Australian Women Writers Challenge, it's a short, quick read at a mere 240 pages, but I think it's a book that needs to be read in just a sitting or two; with my constant interruptions, The Golden Age failed to connect with me. I loved the premise, about children struggling to recover from polio in Perth in the 1950s - a sense of time and place is something I always look for, and found it here. But I think the a Joan London's The Golden Age came highly recommended by reviewers taking part in the Australian Women Writers Challenge, it's a short, quick read at a mere 240 pages, but I think it's a book that needs to be read in just a sitting or two; with my constant interruptions, The Golden Age failed to connect with me. I loved the premise, about children struggling to recover from polio in Perth in the 1950s - a sense of time and place is something I always look for, and found it here. But I think the author's way of chopping up the story into small pieces and shifting the perspective from thirteen-year-old Frank Gold and twelve-year-old Elsa to Frank's parents and a nurse at the Golden Age Children's Polio Convalescent Home was somehow disruptive for me. While the parallels between the children's stories and that of their parents and other adults helped structure the novel and develop some of the ideas here, it made it increasingly hard for me to build up a sense of flow and momentum, and to really care for any of them.

The fate of migrants in Australia, of the drift between children and their parents, of class divides and ethnic divides, of misunderstandings small yet profound, and the suffering felt by all during the polio epidemic makes this a rich and heartfelt historical novel. Poetry plays a role, and the ability of art - be it words or music - to convey emotion and help people connect to others. So it is possibly ironic that London's own art, her own words here, didn't quite manage to connect with me. Sometimes, that third-person omniscient narrator has an alienating effect on me, in which you are both told too much and not enough. I've always been turned off by stories told this way, in which my own engagement is an unnecessary thing, superfluous to the story. London writes mostly in this style, telling me what is deemed important, what characters are thinking and feeling, but she does at times drift into a more poetic style, holding back on the omniscience. This uneven quality didn't help matters, and at the end of it I was left feeling only mildly sad at the outcome of Frank and Elsa's lives.

A sense of nostalgia helped, and the most strongly written part for me was the dip into the past, in Poland during the Nazi occupation, and how Frank lived for a time with his mother's piano teacher, hiding in the ceiling when a client came. I think I might have loved this had it been longer, more drawn-out - not to make it self-indulgent, I do hate that with a passion, but just to make the characters more alive, more human, and less like sketches of people. ...more

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Sep 01, 2014 Julie rated it really liked it

Glows with beautiful language
Sharp edged nostalgia but a nebulous narrative

There was a lot to love. London is a poetic, visual writer. Her prose is sharp. Without waxing lyrical, she sets the scene vividly. I loved her commentary on the Royal Visit (the photographed flowers, the framed letter). I felt I could see and breath-in the Perth of the '50's that she pictured so clearly for me. Many memories from my own golden childhood were tickled in the narrative from Argonauts to Choo Choo bars (thou Glows with beautiful language
Sharp edged nostalgia but a nebulous narrative

There was a lot to love. London is a poetic, visual writer. Her prose is sharp. Without waxing lyrical, she sets the scene vividly. I loved her commentary on the Royal Visit (the photographed flowers, the framed letter). I felt I could see and breath-in the Perth of the '50's that she pictured so clearly for me. Many memories from my own golden childhood were tickled in the narrative from Argonauts to Choo Choo bars (though shame on Frank for being a little dismissive of Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopedia - my treasure trove of trivia!).

The backstory was deftly woven : comparing Old World Europe and provincial Perth; setting nostalgia for what was against hope for a new life; showing family as belonging and family as isolation.

But I was disappointed. I am a big fan of Gilgamesh (pushing it on anyone interested in Australian literature). I so wanted to love this one. My husband is a polio survivor, still haunted by his time in hospital as a child, so there is a personal context. Unfortunately there was little substance woven within the beautiful prose.

The story of the emerging "first love" between Frank and Elsa wasn't enough to make the Golden Age anything more than a mellow, nebulous embrace. All the niceties were there, but you were left wanting so much more : something as sharp-edged and unsentimental as the characterisation. We have a series of poignant vignettes without an emotional investment in the characters.

I love this quote from towards the end (and well done to an author who has done her homework)

"Polio is like love, ... years later, when you think you have recovered, it comes back."

A small, almost meaningless point : I wasn't taken by the cover before I even started and, now that I am finished, I see it as questionable and irrelevant. It shows a young man on a train - something that doesn't pertain to the narrative at all. This is meaningless stock photography, a cheap letdown for the author and the reader.

(Having just finished reading, I will see how it settles in my memory and may come back and change this to a 4 star review ... so I guess it is a 3-and-a-half review.) ...more

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Dec 31, 2015 Kimbofo rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016-reviews

It seems remarkable that poliomyelitis (otherwise known as polio or infantile paralysis), which has almost been eradicated from the world thanks to the development of a vaccine in the 1950s, was so prevalent just a few generations ago. In the 20th century, there were major outbreaks of this incurable infectious disease, which caused paralysis in infants and children, in Europe, the USA and Australia.

One of those outbreaks was in Perth, Western Australia, in the early 1950s. The outbreak was so b ...more

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Nov 01, 2016 Toni rated it it was ok

This book/story was way too weak/shallow for me. There were no good character build ups nor story lines that were very much interesting which made the book almost boring. This was a 'translation' from Australian to English so I can't imagine that a lot was lost on the translation. The ending seemed to the last thought up for the novel - a quick tie up with no substance to it. It was supposed to be a love story between two young teens who were in a polio rehab in the early 50s but the love story ...more

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Oct 28, 2016 Irene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: library-book

Walt Whitman's words on page 186, distinctly resonate throughout The Golden Age. Historically inspired fiction at its best.

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.” ― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass ...more

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Jan 28, 2017 Jennifer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, softfruit

I'm so surprised to see that this is a recent release. It reads like a classic. The story centers around a convalescent home for children with polio in 1950's Australia. The writing is excellent and the characters are fully formed. I loved that Frank would walk into a room and feel that a poem was there as if poetry was in the air around us but you have to coax it on to the page. I will definitely be looking for more from Joan London. ...more

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Oct 13, 2018 Erin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, australian, yprl-book-club-2018

I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. It was perfectly enjoyable while reading it, but it wasn’t earth shattering, and I’ve barely thought of it in the time since I finished it.

I did enjoy the pace though, it actually made me feel like I was right there in Perth on a lazy hot summer’s day in the 1950’s.

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Aug 25, 2016 Lesley Moseley rated it really liked it

Not sure why this book showed as unread, as I clearly remember reading it. I too suffered from Polio in the early 50's and the descriptions brought back strong memories. Very real emotions, and all I can say, I loved it. ...more

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Jan 28, 2016 Benjamin Farr rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2016

One of the most mediocre books I've read in a long time. How it won so many awards is beyond me. The ending was just pitiful and somehow made a pretty ordinary book even worse. ...more

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Jan 26, 2017 Chris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-reads, fruits-doux

Do like what I did, go into this book not knowing a thing. You won't be sorry. Beautifully written. ...more

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Oct 21, 2020 Kim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: abc-bookclub, aus-women-writer, act-library, historical-fiction, australian, australian-women-writers, australian-fiction, literary-fiction, stella-longlist, australian-author

In the midst of the Perth polio pandemic in the early 1950s, a young Hungarian WW2 refugee contracts polio and discovers within himself the heart of a poet. In the unlikely place of a rehab hospital called The Golden Age, he finds his delicate muse and becomes devoted to her with all the intensity that young love musters from shaky beginnings.
More heart warming than heart breaking, surprisingly compelling and told so incredibly clearly that I felt I was there.
A must read.

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Feb 26, 2015 Jillwilson rated it liked it

Maybe our memories of childhood are more sensory than memories of adulthood. Maybe they are more fragmentary, minutely focused. Time seems unbounded, endless. I think this idea is part of the reason the book is called “The Golden Age.” It’s not about nostalgia but about looking back on a time that no longer exists. Perth in the 1950’s is the setting of most of this novel. The main characters are Frank and Elsa, on the cusp of adolescence, both afflicted with polio and living in The Golden Age, a Maybe our memories of childhood are more sensory than memories of adulthood. Maybe they are more fragmentary, minutely focused. Time seems unbounded, endless. I think this idea is part of the reason the book is called “The Golden Age.” It’s not about nostalgia but about looking back on a time that no longer exists. Perth in the 1950’s is the setting of most of this novel. The main characters are Frank and Elsa, on the cusp of adolescence, both afflicted with polio and living in The Golden Age, a pub in Leederville that has been converted into a convalescent home for children. This should be a narrative of struggle, of pain and fear. Conversely, for these two, they form a relationship, they fall in love, it is a very sweet time. When I think about the novel, I imagine the classic old Victorian pub, bathed in the warm light of dusk, the two kids finding a sense of themselves and their identities, away from their families. “The velvety dusk, the lights appearing, the penciled clarity of roofs and trees. Softening, the city seemed more grown up, more itself, with its own mystery and potential.” It’s about the growing interiority of kids this age as they think things through and attempt to make sense of themselves.

The adults in the novel are struggling with issues related to the period. Meyer and Ida are the parents of the boy in the novel and have exchanged the devastation of post-war Europe for sleepy Perth. Being Jewish, they have both lost much of their immediate families. Here’s Meyer: “He saw the watermelon clouds piled up above the dark breast of the river and he smelt the weedy flow of its depths. A fresh water breeze found him and, like a puppy, licked his face and neck, breathed cool life back into him. Water and summer evenings: ghosts of his past. The natural world, which was all he allowed himself to miss. Balaton. The lake, childhood. His brothers. He always felt better near water.”

The Golden Age for this couple is a far-distant thing. And while Perth is a long way away from Europe, characters such as Sister Penny are impacted by the events of WW11. But, as one reviewer notes: “The world that London summons in these pages soon exceeds a certain simplicity of plot.” (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/...) I suspect that the extent to which you might like the book depends on how much you agree with this statement. Certainly, the plot is fairly simple. I wanted more out of the world that London created. Maybe more friction. More sparks. Each time I read a bit of this novel, I expected that something would happen that would pull me in more strongly. And the end is disappointing.

Having said this, she writes very well. I just kept expecting more…
...more

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Aug 16, 2014 Kate rated it it was amazing

“What had been temporary had become settled. What had seemed like the end of the world had become the centre.”

I described Joan London’s The Golden Age to a friend as a ‘quiet’ book. And it is. Quietly brilliant.

This isn’t a book with a plot that knocks you over or language that demands your attention. Instead, the characters creep into your heart, win your admiration. London’s words are plain but poetic – I found myself re-reading passages and thinking, “Isn’t that just perfection?”.

“His parents ...more

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Oct 23, 2014 Lisa rated it really liked it

Shelves: australia, c21st

There is an elegiac, melancholy tone to this novel. It was one of those books that I looked forward to reading each night, and yet I hesitated too. Joan London’s story-telling is both vivid and unsentimental and I feared that a character I had come to care about might not survive the pages left to read.

I think that I felt this uncharacteristic anxiety because the book is set in a polio hospital and it brought back childhood memories of other – slightly older – children that I knew who had fallen ...more

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Jan 13, 2015 Maureen Helen rated it really liked it

In this gem of a novel, Joan London has captured a microcosm of life in Perth Western Australia at the height of the poliomyelitis epidemics in the 1940s and 1950s.

The novel is mostly set in a convalescent home for children who had been victims of polio and who could not return to their families for a variety of reasons. The home, the Golden Age, actually existed as an annex of the Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth.

Joan London's writing depiction of the lives of the children and their parent ...more

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Nov 29, 2014 Jenny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle-paperwhite, 2015

From SMH best reads of 2014.
This book lived up to my expectations. A most interesting read about a period of history that I knew very little about.

This story has stayed with me throughout the year. It's the one book I've recommended more than any others in 2015 thus I've up graded it to 5 stars. Resonance rewarded. ...more

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May 02, 2020 Mack rated it liked it

This was a quiet novel I reflected on deeply. It is set in a home for victims of polio in Perth and I enjoyed the familiarity of Newcastle street in the 1950’s. Frank Gold is a 12 year old boy who contracted polio in Australia, the child of Hungarian refugees, Ida and Meyer. The book tells you a lot about the aloneness of victims of polio at that time and what people don’t understand about having a disability. It is what is inside that truly matters.

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Play Book Tag: The Golden Age by Joan London - 5*	7	16	Jan 22, 2021 01:27AM

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Genres

Historical > Historical Fiction

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Fiction

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Cultural > Australia

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Historical

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Literary Fiction

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Book Club

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Academic > School

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Adult Fiction

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Literature

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Young Adult > Coming Of Age

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About Joan London

Joan London

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Joan London is an Australian author of short stories, screenplays and novels.

She graduated from the University of Western Australia having studied English and French, has taught English as a second language and is a bookseller.

She lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, with her husband Geoff.

Joan London was the youngest of four sisters.

A baby boomer, she and her husband, Geoff, did the mandatory ...more

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Quotes from The Golden Age

“I have to find myself
A place where I can breathe.
That's where poetry lives
In the oldest part of us.” — 2 likes

“Something had been taken away from him in the war, against his will, and he would never be the same. Years in labour camps, in mountains, in salt mines: only solitude was natural to him now. Some part of him was terminally tired. He was beyond intimacy. The pretence at normality, the weight of the past, the unreality of the days here had exhausted him.” — 2 likes

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