TITLE: The Fall of Princes
AUTHOR: Robert Goolrick
GENRE: Literary Fiction, General
PUBLISHED: August 25th, 2015
RATING: ★★★★
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon
MOBILISM LINK: Mobilism
Description: In the spellbinding new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Goolrick, 1980s Manhattan shimmers like the mirage it was, as money, power, and invincibility seduce a group of young Wall Street turks. Together they reach the pinnacle, achieving the kind of wealth that grants them access to anything--and anyone--they want. Until, one by one, they fall.
With the literary chops of Bonfire of the Vanities and the dizzying decadence of The Wolf of Wall Street, The Fall of Princes takes readers into a world of hedonistic highs and devastating lows, weaving a visceral tale about the lives of these young men, winners all . . . until someone changes the rules of the game. Goolrick paints a magnificently authentic portrait of an era, tense and stylish, perfectly mixing adrenaline and melancholy.
Stunning in its acute observations about great wealth and its absence, and deeply moving in its depiction of the ways in which these men learn to cope with both extremes, the novel travels from New York to Paris to Los Angeles to Italy to Las Vegas to London, on a journey that is as startling as it is starkly revealing, a true tour de force.
Review: As noted in the summary above, this book is definitely for those who enjoyed The Wolf of Wall Street, and maybe even American Psycho, assuming we subtract the "psycho" out of the book.
The story centers around Rooney as he graduates from college, already privileged, who scores an opportunity as a trader on Wall Street in the 1980's, when such a thing was much more glamorous than it is now, the money was endless, and the excesses in Manhattan were infinite. He tells of the tempering of this - just a bit - by the onset of HIV/AIDS, and how it affected him and those close to him. Then slowly, as all things do, it comes to an end. But this novel isn't written in that order.
So says Rooney, the protagonist of The Fall of Princes."When you strike a match, it burns brighter in the first nanosecond than it will ever burn again. That first incandescence. That instantaneous and brilliant flash. The year was 1980, and I was the match, and that was the year I struck into blinding flame."
Actually, Goolrick chose the best format for this novel: not linear by any means, which would have bored the reader, we would have drowned in excess and 80's glitter and cocaine. No, instead it was a slow unraveling of a story, with glimpses of him walking through present day. Goolrick wrote the novel from the end looking back, telling each short glimpse of past and future one by one in a rather unorganized manner until both came together and we understood Rooney's life, both where he was before, and the man he is now.
Not that the book is perfect; at times I rolled my eyes at its excesses, as I did when I read American Psycho. The constant mention of the price of things was probably the trigger for my eye-rolling; that, or just the endless description of excesses. But I believe this is part of the genre: to give the general vibe of what it was like to be that type of man in Manhattan in the 1980's. Also, I was at turns intrigued and doubtful of the assumption that most of the appallingly rich, as Rooney was, were bisexual. Another point that bothered me was the circumstance behind Rooney's sudden decline. His behavior at the time hardly seemed out of line with similar behavior by himself or others - it hardly seemed worthy of the shunning he got. You'll have to read the book to see what I mean.
In general, I am a great fan of Robert Goolrick. His novel, A Reliable Wife seems to have gotten some dismal reviews from some, but it was one of my favorites when I read it. But I think that Goolrick's protagonists are original and daring, his stories full of irony, wit, and emotional depth. Still, as you are reading this book, you might grow weary, thinking it's all been done before. Just like books about the Holocaust, it's difficult to write a good book about the excesses of the 1980's - especially the excesses of the 1980's in New York City - without being reminded of the numerous fine novels that came before it. But, dear Reader, I think this novel is very special, certainly superior to the brazen, bullying tones of The Wolf of Wall Street - and far more literary. Also you have to read The Fall of Princes to the very last chapter to get the full effect, and there you will find some beautiful writing: painful, bittersweet, self-reflective, intimate, and deeply moving.
The rest is just slow diminution and loss. A waning of the full and effulgent moon of my youth. Not that the bright light of my youth was anything to be proud of. I was a terrible person. I did unkind and sometimes illegal things. I treated women abominably. The remembrance of it causes me to flush with shame and to feel a tightening in my groin.
It was a radiance without warmth, and I thought of nothing but myself in the brightness of the light. Now I try never to think of myself. I try not to think at all, not to dwell, but, sometimes, late at night, it all comes back to me, and I lose myself in the life that might have been, the wife of twenty years, her comforts and distractions. The fractious children, raucous at the holidays, with their tattoos you asked them not to get and their lacrosse sticks they play with in the house, stringing and restringing them, the trips to Paris to stay at the Lutetia. Photograph albums of a life that never quite came to be. It doesn’t last long when it comes, but it is vivid, and I am there, not here, not here where I belong. When you lose everything, you don’t die. You just continue in ordinary pants with nothing in your pockets.
Then, just as you stay in your seat for the credits after a good movie hoping for hidden scenes, please keep reading to the acknowledgements at book's end at which point you will learn that The Fall of Princes is a very personal book for Goolrick, almost a memoir; some of his friends seem to walk through the pages...
This book was intended as a paean to a city that no longer exists, and a tour of a magical and lethal landscape for those who never knew it. It was marvelous, rich, and dynamic, and in it lived the sweethearts and the darlings of my youth. Some were destroyed, but most were not, and to all, both living and dead, I offer this scrapbook of our youth. It would not have been written had their memories not stayed so clear and cherished in my heart. I embrace them all.
Because of this, I am now reading Goolrick's memoir, The End of the World as We Know It, as I would like to know more about the author on a personal level. But as regards The Fall of Princes: Highly recommended. 4 stars.
