Press
-
“Intricately plotted and anecdote-packed, Jennifer Gilmore’s debut novel, “Golden Country,” details the complex history of two intertwined families: the Blooms and the Brodskys. Both are Jewish, both touched with genius and dishonesty, as they strive toward the twin goals of material success and social acceptance in America.”
-
“Early in Gilmore’s high-spirited debut novel, Mae West makes a cameo appearance, returning home to Brooklyn and showing off the mirrored ceiling above her bed to her neighbor’s rapt six-year-old grandson.”
-
“Golden Country is a likable and surprising debut novel from a young writer who has turned to the generations of her grandparents and great-grandparents for fictional inspiration.”
-
In a powerfully moving and ambitious debut, Gilmore follows the lives of three immigrant families, the Brodskys, the Verdoniks and the Blooms, who all begin their American journeys in shtetl-like Brooklyn and end up somewhere unexpected between the 1920s and the 1960s…Talented and compassionate, Gilmore is a writer to watch.”
— Publishers Weekly( Starred Review)
-
“With a voice at turns wise and barbed with sharp humor, Gilmore warns: be careful what you wish for, the American Dream can sometimes be a nightmare.”
—Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair
-
“Gilmore’s chapters are jam-packed with historical facts about the mid-20th century interaction of business, the arts and technology. But the novel’s heart beats with the pulse of human interactions and the missed connections of its well-drawn characters.”
—Liza Nelson, People Magazine
-
“…her lively prose captures both the exuberance and disillusionment of the immigrant experience.”
—Entertainment Weekly
-
“Jennifer Gilmore might just be the Jewish answer to Jhumpa Lahiri. Her absorbing novel, Golden Country, captures the sadness and wonderment of the immigrant experience, following the intertwining lives of three new-to-America Jewish families,from the tenements of 1920’s Brooklyn to fabulousness and fortune.”
—Jenny Comita, W Magazine
-
“Even Goyim will be charmed by Gilmore’s ambitious debut novel—an interwoven epic about Jewish immigrant families that captures the shtimung of early 20th-century New York. Think Ragtime without the wasps.”
—Details Magazine
-
“Gilmore, publicity director at Harcourt, should consider leaping full time to the other side of the publishing table. She has written a thinking person’s family saga that showcases the immigrant experience amid the growth of this country’s largest city.”
—Ellison Weist, Portland Tribune
-
“For a first novel, Jennifer Gilmore’s “Golden Country” (Scribner, 315 pp., $25) is a real winner. This is a relaxed and expansive unfurling of the stories of three Jewish immigrant families in New York during four decades.”
-
“Her ability to suspend multiple generations of three families over fifty years in only three hundred pages is a testament to her skill and energy – Golden Country is a good read and a great start from a promising new writer. “
—Brien Michael, Quarterly Conversation
-
Gilmore’s poignant debut set in mid-twentieth century Boston and New York begins with the news that twentysomethings Miriam Brodsky and David Bloom have become engaged…Readers who enjoyed E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime (1975) and Tova Mirvis’ The Outside World (2004) will embrace Gilmore’s tale of individuals who test their mettle in a bittersweet era suffused with sorrow and success.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)
-
“[An] affecting debut … While assimilation, from nose jobs to New England colleges, comes into play, Gilmore’s sweeping narrative goes much further, covering the political and social markers of almost five decades. Gender relations, as well as the impact of class ascendance on both individuals and families, are deftly and sensitively covered…the novel’s historical backdrop—the lure of the Mafia in Brooklyn’s impoverished Williamsburg community, the Great Depression, the 1939 World’s Fair, the invention of television, the magic of Broadway musicals—makes this a memorable and often powerful book. Highly recommended.”
— Library Journal (Starred Review)
-
“Although Jennifer Gilmore didn’t set out to write a historical novel, she’s surely succeeded marvelously with Golden Country, creating a sweeping multigenerational tale about Jewish immigrants in New York City. “I wanted to write something large in scope that couldn’t be contained in a single week or year or decade,” she says. “I hadn’t realized that a historical novel, however we define it, can be personal and even funny because it’s not just about a time and place.” The book chronicles the lives of three Jews who are defined equally by the evolution of the city and their own American dreams, from the turn of the century into the 1960s. Seymour Bloom dabbles with equal panache in crime and Broadway; Joseph Brodsky is a peddler of cleaning products; and between the two men is charismatic actress Frances Gold, who connects the families. Gilmore, director of publicity for Harcourt Books, worked diligently to maintain her connection to a story partially inspired by her family. “I wanted to write a book that was large in terms of history and ideas but also managed to be funny and somehow emotionally intimate,” she says.”
- 35 HOT DEBUTS/Kirkus Reviews