The Gold Coast

Rating:
Summary: Simply the best book I have ever read.
Review: I loved every word in this book, every wry one-liner delivered by the hilarious protagonist, and my new hero, John Sutter. I felt like I know the characters in this book and now that it's over I miss them. This book kept me absolutley enthralled from its opening sentence to its hopeful and endearing ending. As came to the ending I started reading slower and as I finished I felt as though I was burying a friend. Read this book, you will be exposed to people and places that you normally never would.

Rating:
Summary: extremely engrossing ...
Review: Having never read demille before I was pleasently surpised at the great depth of this novel. This novel is truely a modern classic ...

Rating:
Summary: amazing book
Review: This is the first book I have read by Nelson DeMille and it most certainly wont be the last. I have to admit that once I started reading this book I could not put it down. I actually read the entire book in one sitting on a Sunday. I have to admit though you prob would need to be familiar with Long Island to fully appreciate this book but this is prob. one of the reasons I loved this book because I am very familar with Long Island. Anyone living or familar with LI will love this book and those not familiar rest assured it is an excellent story. Bottom line is Read this Book.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite Demille; by the author of PRESSURE POINTS
Review: I've read 'em all, and loved them all with varing levels of passion. This was my second Demille read, and my favorite because of the narrative tone. Just when you thought the man only wrote about Vietnam and CID stuff, here's something completely fresh. I've heard from other Demille readers that this one didn't click with them... to each her/his own, I guess, but what's not to like? It'll make you laugh (nobody argues that), and it's suspenseful in a this-could-be-you sort of way. Check it out -- if you read for entertainment, then you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: The Gold Coast
Review: I really enjoyed this book..its made me a Demille's fan.reading other reviews ,many mentioning The great Gatsby...has inspired me to buy this book hoping the story and characters are as good.
read it slow...savor the words...it will all be over before you know it...and you will want more....

Rating:
Summary: What a fun book.
Review: That's the best description I can give of this book. It was a true joy to read. The characters are great from the Mafia Don to all the East Coast "Stiff Upper Lips". You are truly brought into a world most of us will never know of, but now you may understand a little better after reading. The banter between John and his wife and everyone else is great and probably the best dialect I have read in a book. It really is the Godfather (With less violence) mixed with the Great Gatsby (With better character development). I noticed some complain of the lack of action but to me the descriptions of the Gold Coast and it's eccentric dwellers mixed in with a great and fast growing plot between John (The main character), his wife and the new neighbor (The Mafia Don) make this one of my top 20 novels.

Rating:
Summary: Great character development and a hilarious main character
Review: I really enjoyed this because it had really good characters. I found myself doubting their actions, but not understanding them made them interesting. I thought John Sutter was hilarious.

Rating:
Summary: Best Novel I've read
Review: The Gold Coast was a fabulous, unparalleled novel about the complexities of relationships and the joy and sorrow that comes with them. I personally have always been interested in the Mafia, and what Demille has done with this book cannot even be matched by my favorite movie "The Godfather."
Throughout the story and even now I cannot decide who I like better, John Sutter or Frank Bellarosa. Sutter kept me laughing the entire time from the very first page, yet Bellarosa kept me captivated with his cool, yet evil personality as well as his motives. I highly recommend this book to people who want something more than a simple story with lots of explosions and killing and little room for imagination. Definitely not a book for people who don't like reading into the characters on their own.
However, if you're looking for a dynamite story that has absolutely everything! Love, hate, friendship, betrayal, and great sex, purchase the Gold Coast!

Rating:
Summary: Long Winded Novel With Little Action
Review: "The Gold Coast" was my first Nelson DeMille book and I found it to be a chore to read. That is because the first half of the book is basically a long-winded description of the main characters and in particular, about the extravagence of the Gold Coast, with little plot development. Page after page of thoughts, feelings, descriptions of rooms in a mansion or a restaurant, thoughts about friends or so-called friends must be thumbed through before there is any action to get excited about. It wasn't until about Page 400 or so before DeMille gets into the meat of the story, which is the purpose of the relationship between the protagionist John Sutter and his neighbor, Mafia don Bellarosa. From that point it gets interesting, but winds up with a less than satisfying finish, so it's a hard book to get excited about and recommend to others.

I have since read DeMille's book "The Charm School", which is a much better book. I attribute this to the fact that "The Gold Coast" is written in the first person while "The Charm School" is written in the third person, the former lending itself to much more rambling. I also think that DeMille is probably a serious researcher of the subjects of his books and feels he has to incorporate that knowledge whenever he can, whether it advances the story or not. This book could have easily covered the same material in 200 less pages and not missed much as far as telling the story.

I won't give up on DeMille because he can be funny and he writes dialog well, but he needs to tighten things up a little more. I also will be interested to see how Hollywood treats "The Gold Coast" as a movie is being made with Al Pacino already cast to star (as the Don, I assume).

Rating:
Summary: The absolute best!
Review: This is one of those books that stays with you long after you have read it, however I find myself rereading it every so often. I catch myself making references to it and recalling favorite lines and scenes.

Gold Coast has everything. It is suspenseful, poignant and surpisingly witty. The protagonist John Sutter has a great dry humor that is actually laugh out loud funny. It helps to live on Long Island and spot landmarks such as Hicks Nursery, CW Post College, and Oheka castle, but the themes are universal.

This is truly a modern Gatsby. DeMille borrows imagery from that previous Long Island classic. Most notably the hauntng image of a green light that represents all that could be. I have read all of loved most of DeMille's other work (Lion's Game and Plum Island are wonderful action novels), but Gold Coast is truly literature. The suspense growns and you wonder when Sutter truly got caught up in the world of the mafia.

The finely woven dicotomoy of two fading worlds is complex, as is Sutter's own growth in the spring and summer of his own diasastrous mid life crisis.

I recommend this book to every person I meet. When I spent a summer working in a public library I asked countless patrons, Have you read Gold Coast. I wish I could give it more than five stars as it surpasses every other book I have read!