The Golden Hour
A Novel
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- ¥1,200
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- ¥1,200
発行者による作品情報
After forty–six years in upscale Manhattan, after two roaring decades as an investment banker and after nineteen years of marriage, Bill Schoenberg lost it all and ran for the hills. He made a mistake, regrettable and unspeakable; and having fled to his neglected country house in rural New York State to gather his wits, he found a chance to reacquire his self–respect as well – and possibly even redemption.
To a man for whom flames existed solely in the kitchens of four–star restaurants, and who had volunteered for nothing in his life, the Harristown Volunteer Fire Company represented an unlikely pursuit – until a fire in his house convinced him otherwise. As Bill struggled to trade his French cuff shirts for flannel, to learn to dress in the back of a moving fire truck and to knock down forest fires, he was also forced to navigate the darker recesses of his mind and dying marriage. His wife may have been having an affair with one of his colorful country neighbors; an angry intruder seemed to be preying on his property; and his own unmentionable secret came closer to the surface the longer he stayed in Harristown.
Intelligent and entertaining, funny and frightening, THE GOLDEN HOUR is a unique novel of manhood, neighborhood, and saving the day.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A former master-of-the-universe must test his mettle against local yokels in this deft first-person literary comedy from Weinstock (As Long As She Needs Me). At 46, William "Bull" Schoenberg surrenders his seven-figure salary and Park Avenue trappings along with his adulterous wife, Pippa, after "having disappointed her for 19 years of marriage." With her parting shot, "You're no man," replaying in his gin-soaked brain, Bull plops down cash for a shiny BMW and blows up the Hudson to the sanctuary of their country house (a turreted castle, natch). But Bull finds no comfort there: signs of Pippa's lover mark the house, and Bull's domestic helplessness compounds his midlife misery. When Bull accidentally sets fire to the place with a fifth of gin, the Harristown Volunteer Fire Company arrives to douse the flames. Though the firefighters' contempt for Bull is absolute, the town is strapped for volunteers (and cash), and the firemen let Bull know that they could use a big guy like him once he passes a training course. Bull, eager to find the real man behind the guy who earned his nickname sitting at a computer, agrees. Besides, what else has he to do, other than figure out which of the locals (a firefighter, perhaps?) was bedding his wife? Weinstock's latest is smart, refreshing and great schadenfreude fun. (On sale Jan. 31)
