The Gold Coast is social satire at its best. The plot, deliciously foreshadowed at several points along the way, is so captivating that you won’t find yourself able to put the book down, the characters are very well drawn, and the dialogue is witty and hilarious. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud many times.
The author himself, Nelson DeMille, describes it as “The Godfather meets The Great Gatsby on the Gold Coast.” And that about sums it up. John Sutter, a lawyer and the self-deprecating narrator of the story, lives a posh if somewhat boring life with his rather independent and fiery wife on her inherited estate on Long Island’s Gold Coast, where old WASP families have owned vast tracts of land since before the Roaring Twenties. But everything tilts out of balance when Frank Bellarosa, a notorious Mafia boss, moves into the mansion next door and befriends the couple. Soon enough their lives are inextricably linked and John, as well as his wife Susan, find themselves descending into more and more questionable circumstances, yet unable to break it off with Frank, who has charmed them both.
What immediately came to my mind when I started reading, and indeed what DeMille himself compares his story to, is Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. However, I actually like this one much better. I remember finding Bonfire utterly depressing, leaving you without many good thoughts about human nature, whereas The Gold Coast is a much more cheerful book. While it takes many stabs at the ridiculousness of upper class pretensions, like the distinction between new money and old and all the levels of hypocrisy, the main protagonist in this case is a likeable guy who you cannot help but admire for his actions and principles. And you also cannot help but like the Mafia don, even though you know he is dangerous and manipulative, because in some ways he is a much better and more loyal person than most of the snobbish upper-class society around him.
If you’ve read other books by Nelson DeMille, don’t expect more of the same. This is a very different (and in my opinion much more masterful) book than his usual fare of mysteries and thrillers. The cover art might fool you, as it looks like just another one of the same sort, but it most decidedly is not. Nevertheless, it’s a great and fast-paced read, and one of the best I’ve read this year. I feel like immediately returning to the start and reading it all over again.
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