California Golden
A Novel
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3.8 • 28 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Two sisters navigate the thrilling, euphoric early days of California surf culture in this dazzling saga of ambition, sacrifice, and the tangled ties between mothers and daughters from the New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife.
“A shimmering rendering . . . pairs the surf culture of the Beach Boys with the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll of Daisy Jones & The Six.”—Entertainment Weekly (“Best Books of the Summer”)
Southern California, 1960s: endless sunny days surfing in Malibu, followed by glittering neon nights at Whisky a Go Go. In an era when women are expected to be housewives, Carol Donnelly breaks the mold as a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport—and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, bear the weight of Carol’s unconventional lifestyle.
The Donnelly sisters grow up enduring their mother’s absence—physically, when she’s at the beach, and emotionally, the rare times she’s at home. To escape questions about Carol’s whereabouts—and to chase her elusive affection—they cut school to spend their days in the surf. From her first time on a board, Mindy is a natural, but Ginger, two years younger, feels out of place in the water.
As they grow up and their lives diverge, Mindy and Ginger’s relationship ebbs and flows. Mindy finds herself swept up in celebrity, complete with beachside love affairs, parties at the Playboy Club, and a USO tour in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Ginger, desperate for a community of her own, is tugged into the dangerous counterculture of drugs and cults. But through it all, their sense of duty to each other survives, as the girls are forever connected by the emotional damage they carry from their unorthodox childhood.
A gripping, emotional story set at a time when mothers were expected to be Donna Reed, not Gidget, California Golden is an unforgettable novel about three women living in a society that was shifting as tempestuously as the breaking waves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Benjamin (The Children's Blizzard) sets this attuned if cluttered story of a frustrated woman and her striving daughters against the backdrop of California's emerging surfing scene. Carol Donnelly, a onetime prospect for the Olympic swim team, struggles with her role as a housewife in the 1950s, having scuttling her dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer. While raising two daughters, she becomes a champion surfer, often leaving home for long stretches. In 1962, when her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, are teens, they take up surfing in hopes of winning their mother's affection. By 1967, Mindy is a successful surfer and tours Vietnam with the USO. Ginger takes another path, leaving home to live with an abusive boyfriend who drags her into the violent world of a drug-dealing cult. The story slips into melodrama after Ginger shows up at Mindy's doorstep to drop off her unwanted daughter, whom she had with Mindy's surfer ex, and the sisters bring the baby to Carol, hoping to reconcile with their mother once and for all. The core family story is moving, but Benjamin loses focus amid the many themes—Vietnam, the 1960s counterculture, and domestic violence being just a few. These women can hang 10, but the novel doesn't quite hang together.
Customer Reviews
A beautifully written, step back in time!!
“California Golden” takes us back in time to sunny and laid back Southern California when life was simpler, the ocean breezes were mesmerizing and dreams were chased by the young at heart. The Donnelly family dynamic was somewhat dysfunctional and went against the societal norms of the 1960’s. Carol and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger lived a carefree life, where surfing all day was much more important than family dinners, dance classes and homework. For Carol, surfing was her life and she often left her young daughters to fend for themselves. The oldest, Mindy, was an old soul who watched over her wayward mother and her sister, Ginger. I felt sorry for them because at first, all they wanted was a normal life, until Mindy caught the surfing bug and began riding the waves alongside her mother. Ginger wasn’t as adept at surfing but she went along with their plan to get closer to their mother, so they could finally be a family. As with any plan, things could go wrong and unfortunately, the sisters went their separate ways, to lead very different lives.
I was impressed with the attention to detail the author used to create the backdrop for our characters. The music, the movie and TV stars, and the tragedy of the Vietnam War, were what the 1960’s were all about. I very much felt a part of the story as I listened to The Beach Boys on the transistor radio while watching the surfers balance on their boards, cheering when they had a good run. All the characters changed as the years went by, and I cried along with them when their lives were turned upside down by the decisions they had made, and laughed when they basked in the warm sunshine, wishing they could stay this way forever. I read to escape, and this trip back in time was the perfect vacation.