The Gold Coast

DeMille's best, or so they say, and a great book--but not one of my all time favorites. Very clever and sarcastic, I felt like John Corey was in that book...must be the author? Demille is a great storyteller. Well researched and set on Long Island's Gold coast -- everyone in America is expected to understand that, right? Never been there, never wanted to go; but, the book piqued my interest. It was a bit heavy on the Italian. Great characters--the manipulating mafiosi, the mid-life crisis lawyer and his strange wife. The Great Gatsby meets The Godfather!

On second read and more than ten years since the first, my impression of this story has improved. Layers of complexity are more recognizable. It's not simply a tragedy of three characters, but the under current is the erosion of all the life styles, cultures represented.

Having grown up in the area (Centre Island, Oyster Bay), I have first hand memories of the locales, but more importantly, the types of people being depicted. The WASPs of the Creek Club and Seawanhaka Yacht Club, are real and still there, but in smaller numbers, and the Italians are as well - perhaps in larger numbers, but hardly distinguishable as a separate culture today among the tony villages of the area. They too own "mini-mansions" on the gold coast as do their show more Episcopalain (and Persian and Jewish) neighbors. A ten acre estate - let alone two hundred acres - is a distant memory known only in movies, and archives from the times - or in the ruins very well described in this book.

There are many references to Roman antiquity - Caesars. Perhaps the most telling is the realization that the people - while loving and revering Caesar (Bellarosa), envied and despised him - leading to his demise. In the Gold Coast, his demise is similarly depicted - first an attempt by his "people" (Mafia), and finally done in by a slightly deranged woman - with "Gatsby"-ending similarities.

My one main gripe with the story is that not a single character is likeable. The protagonist, John Sutter, is at heart a selfish, smart-ass jerk, and the antagonist, Frank Bellarosa, a psychopath once you carve through his charm. Susan Stanhope Sutter and others are lesser characters, but all without many, if any, redeeming qualities. show less

Even though this book does not star John Corey, its protagonist, John Sutter, indulges in the same sardonic wit and wisecracks that endeared Corey to me. This may also be one of the best books written about the Mafia, better, I think, than The Godfather. Two disparate worlds collide when Frank Bellarosa, a famous underworld chief, buys the Long Island [b:Gold Coast|33813|The Gold Coast|Nelson DeMille|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168465640s/33813.jpg|1603282] estate next to John Sutter, wealthy Wall Street lawyer, husband to Susan Stanhope, whose rich, arrogant family owns the property they live on. (There is a great scene toward the end, when John tells off his father-in-law.) John wants to be a good neighbor, but will have nothing show more to do with the seamier side of Bellarosa. He refuses to do any legal work for him, won’t meet him for lunch, does nothing that might jeopardize his reputation as an honest lawyer. Before he knows it, however, Frank has done him a favor, one that he really could not refuse. It involved moving the horse stable, an old stone building, and having it exactly reconstructed in a different location on the property. John realized that the estimate he was given by the Bellarosa contractor was ridiculously low, and he did not want to accept it, but the contractor made it clear that life would be very difficult for him (the contractor) if John refused. Soon, Sutter has been trapped into being Bellarosa’s lawyer in a murder case. He realizes that Bellarosa has been framed by a publicity-seeking state’s attorney whose real motive is to precipitate a gang war among rival families in New York. Before long, Sutter discovers that he is being manipulated by both sides: Bellarosa and the state using a trumped up IRS charge to put him in a difficult legal situation that John can only escape with the help of a shady Bellarosa lawyer. He wonders if Bellarosa’s purchase of the estate and seduction of Susan hadn’t been part of a strategic plan to ensnare Sutter’s legal assistance, because Bellarosa knows only a seemingly incorruptible lawyer can get him out on bail and prevent the state’s attorney from succeeding in his quest for setting the various mobs against each other. DeMille explores many contrasts in this book: the sexual vs. the sensual, rural vs. city, rich vs. poor, corrupt vs. so-called honest. Sutter, in his cynical way, reveals the hypocrisy in much of what we label “high society” even as he is sucked, quite unwillingly, into a maelstrom of corruption that he wonders if he can ever control. This is a really fun read. show less

DeMille has the uncanny ability to spin stories that include a wise cracking character that often makes you laugh out loud (presuming you appreciate sarcasm that is). While no Hemingway or Steinbeck, his stories are fun, and often surprising and keep you glued to what comes next. The balance of action, thrills and comedy is a lovely equation and this is one of my favorite DeMille books due to the laughs!

This was the first novel that I read by Nelson DeMille and, several novels later, I think it's his best. This tale of the clash of cultures among the uber-rich on Long Island's North Shore (the so-called Gold Coast) has all of the ingredients that you need for a high-octane soap opera: infidelity, the Mafia, a fading American aristocracy, pulse-quickening drama, and laugh-out-loud humor (or at least some audible snickers). It isn't great literature but it doesn't pretend to be. As mass-market fiction it's at the top of its class.

Nelson DeMille is a master at what he does! At over 600 pages, this one took a while to read, but it was well worth it. I have the paperback, and read the authors foreword after the novel, and was glad I did. I got a very Gatsbyesque feel from the beginning of the book, and then he started making Gatsby references, so I knew my mind was in the right place, haha. Then after reading the authors foreword, he describes this book as The Great Gatsby meets the Godfather on the Gold Coast, which was really right on!
All in all, this novel wasn't what I expected going in, as it is pretty different from all the other DeMille's I have read. But different doesn't always connote negatively, and this book proves that. John Sutter is a wonderful show more character, and Mr. DeMille always provides his main characters with a razor wit, which I love. Excellent excellent read by an excellent excellent author. Reinforces why Mr. DeMille is one of my favorite authors, hands down. show less

A more pompous jerk such as John Sutter has not graced many books. John has all the pluses of life-wealthy wife, prestigious job, community status; but that is not enough. John and his wife, having expended all their sexual fantasies, turn to the head of the Mafia, Frank Bellarosa, for more excitement. Nelson DeMille plants exotic sexual scenes throughout the novel that could have been omitted. The passion between Frank and Susan, explains Susan, is a meeting of the minds and not the bodies. Such extremes in one book. John loses his ganache and becomes a raging lunatic who insults family and friends. The book runs on and on and gets nowhere with John's disillusionment with life and work. Maybe men enjoy this type of novel, I did not.