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Summary: This is Great! I don't think his recent books are this good
Review: The Gold Coast is a story of two very different worlds. The ultra rich Long Island WASPS and the Mafia. The Mafia is a subject that has been covered copiously in a variety of media. It is, however, within the lifestyle of the residents of the Gold Coast that DeMille does his thing introducing the mob world and its values through the back door. To this add a narrator undergoing a middle life crisis, nasty in-laws, hateful parents, a crazy-looking-for-revenge IRS agent and a tax lawyer in the city's biggest criminal prosecution and you have a great read . DeMille's protagonists sizzle with sardonic wit. His most recent work is good but not this good. Do yourself a favor and get this one.
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Summary: Love those loooong Italian lunches!
Review: This book is overly long, thinly plotted, and all of the character are hard to like (which may have been the author's intention), but the description of the three-and-a-half-hour lunch that the mafia don and the Waspy protagonist share at a little Italian restaurant is priceless. Capisce?
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Summary: WORTH ITS WORTH IN GOLD
Review: DeMille is a master at keeping you riveted to a book while thewhole world continues functioning without you. While I've only readthree or four of his books, he has yet to disappoint me. I wasparticularly drawn to this book because of the locale -- the gold coast of Long Island where old money rules and the descendants of this old money, who have inherited these estates, can't even afford to live in them. You can just imagine what happens when the don of the largest Mafia family in New York moves in next door to one of Lattingtown's long time residents. This is my favorite DeMille so far. END
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Summary: The Mold Coast
Review: This is my first and last DeMille book. After plodding through 630 pages where very little happens, I am left wondering how DeMille became such a blockbuster author. Are his other books better? I am stunned by the number of 5 star reviews here. The writer seems to think that a regional history lesson and overstuffed descriptions compensate for unbelievable characters and a thin story. Athough DeMille tells us it's a satire, I suspect that's just his way of trying to repackage a boring, unsuspenseful thriller.The pompous, self-congratulatory foreward by the author doesn't help either. If you're going to compare yourself to Tom Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald, you'd better have the goods to back it up. Gatsby must be rolling over in his grave.
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Summary: Disturbingly hypnotic
Review: This is a haunting story about seduction and betrayal. I could not stop thinking about it for weeks after I finished. Rather than describe the story as fascinating, I would classify it as disturbing. It is a testament to Demille's skill that he makes the reader care about two people who are not particularly likable. John Sutter, a blue-blooded Wall Street attorney, treats most of the people in his life with very little respect. He gives most a curt dismissal. This is often delivered with a humorous comment that betrays a deep arrogance and a thorough dislike of the people in his life. In a display of childlike judgement, this supposedly intelligent man and his aristocratic wife befriend the mobster, Frank Bellarosa, who proceeds to systematically destroy their lives. Susan Sutter is absolutely pathological. On the one hand she is a hot-blooded vixen; on the other she has to be one of the most cold-blooded women I have encounterd in literature. It is her actions, especially in the last hundred or so pages, that I found so disturbing. For a well developed story about a relatively happy family's descent from social prominance to total disintegration, this is the best I have ever read. The only flaw is minor. Demille often tosses out facts that are really myth. For example, someone should tell him that the FBI is not composed mostly of attorneys and accountants. In fact only a small percentage of agents are either. This is a small issue and only obvious if you know it is an error. I highly recommend this book, but be prepared to get a little depressed.
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Summary: My favorite!
Review: This is the first book I've read twice and will very soon read again for a third time. Its a book that you will never ever forget, it will always be on your personal top ten list. So stop wasting your time and reading all of these reviews (it will only ruin it for you) and go order this book, then come back and vote on whether or not this review was helpful to you. Trust me on this one!
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Summary: Absolutely incredible
Review: I have read most of Nelson Demille's works, and although all of them are terrific and without peer, The Gold Coast, soars above all other novels. This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read. As odd as this sounds, I felt like I had developed a relationship with the characters of The Gold Coast, and was saddened when it finally had to end. I am reluctant to start another book for I know that it will pale in comparison to Gold Coast. I feel very fortunate to have begun reading Demille's novels. He has given me hours of enjoyment, and never a feeling that I have wasted my time at the conclusion of the novel. Anyone out there that has not read Demille, or not read this book, I recommend picking this up NOW! You wont be disappointed. Thanks, Mr. Demille --- Keep 'em coming
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Summary: 5 Stars Is Not Enough
Review: I have read many books in my lifetime but this is my favorite one of all. I have re-read it at least a half dozen times and it has ruined me for other books. I had the good fortune to meet Mr.DeMille at a book signing in New York a few years ago for General's Daughter. But I, of course, didn't want to discuss General's Daughter, I only wanted to rave about Gold Coast and the way he interwove humor with a very serious topic - the Mafia. DeMille was John Sutter-esque (funny and engaging but minus the sarcasm).I implored him to write a sequel and he said he always thinks about doing just that. A note to the naysayers: Are you sure you read the same book as everyone else? A sense of humor is needed to "get" this book. Maybe that's why you didn't enjoy it.
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Summary: The Gold Coast
Review: The Gold Coast was a captivating novel. Fitgerald left us at the beginning of the end of this world of unimaginable wealth that is the Gold Coast, Demille takes us inside the ruins. He touches a nerve that is peculiar to the American psyche: the idea that we somehow feel saddened to see the fall of 50 room mansions and 200 acre estates. Although most of us will never know anything even resembling that kind of wealth, something inside us, nevertheless, feels sad to see it vanish. Although I grew up on Long Island's more modest South Shore, it is still depressing to drive through places like Lattingtown and Locust Valley and see dozens of recently built contemporaries, dotting the acres of what was once a grand estate. While many of the Gold Coast institutions described by Demille, like the Creek and Piping Rock counrty clubs, are still holding the line, one gets the feeling that the old way of life is fighting a losing battle against the forces of subdividing real estate developers and new money. To those who have read the book and are familiar with the area, or to Demille himself if his eyes should ever see this, I would be interested to know if the Stanhope Hall and Alhambra were based on real Gold Coast mansions. It is obvious from looking at a map of Lattingtown, that the road described in the book as "Grace Lane" is really called Sheep Lane. I have passed it many times yet have always heeded to the no tresspassing sign. Is this where Stanhope Hall and Alhambra once stood, or are perhaps still standing?
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Summary: Kinky
Review: I loved it, all of it. The kinky fantasy fullfillment of man & wife on a galloping horse in the wealthy region of Long Island made me smile, in more ways than one. A modern F. Scott, Demille gives a great look into lives of the old money families, including the maffia, with much wit and intrigue.
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