David Golder

By Irene Nemirovsky

In 1929, 26-year-old Irène Némirovsky shot to fame in France with the publication of her first novel David Golder. At the time, only the most prescient would have predicted the events that led to her extraordinary final novel Suite Française and her death at Auschwitz. Yet the clues are there in this astonishingly mature story of an elderly Jewish businessman who has sold his soul.

Golder is a superb creation. Born into poverty on the Black Sea, he has clawed his way to fabulous wealth by speculating on gold and oil. When the novel opens, he is at work in his magnificent Parisian apartment while his wife and beloved daughter, Joy, spend his money at their villa in Biarritz. But Golder’s security is fragile. For years he has defended his business interests from cut-throat competitors. Now his health is beginning to show the strain. As his body betrays him, so too do his wife and child, leaving him to decide which to pursue: revenge or altruism?

Available for the first time since 1930, David Golder is a page-turningly chilling and brilliant portrait of the frenzied capitalism of the 1920s and a universal parable about the mirage of wealth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 5, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307370709

Reviews for David Golder

[blackhornet_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

You'd only really read this if you'd read 'Suite Francaise'. It's not nearly as good, focusing as it does on one character, dislikeable businessman, David Golder, rather than on a cast of many. That said, it's still worth a read, especially as it sheds light on how Nemirovsky chose to portray Jewish identity, something she totally shies away from in her recently unearthed classic. She gives a warts and all portrayal, but I don't think she gives a caricature. In a way what happens to Golder is what happens to her. He tries to distance himself from his humble past once he attains great wealth, but in the end approaching death returns him to his roots; Nemirovsky did everything to assimilate into French society, even converting to Catholicism, yet her ethnic roots made it impossible for her to escape death.

[starbox_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rich, greedy, unplesant....the eponymous Jewish businessman wheels and deals and shows no mercy.And yet his wife and child are so vastly much worse that we feel for him, as - on his last legs with heart disease- they only bother with him if they want a hand-out.Short, punchy and sad...the futility of worshipping wealth.

[squeakychu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One thing that struck me right from the beginning of this book was how nasty all of its characters were! The story begins with David Golder, a wealthy Jewish businessman living in Paris, telling his former colleague that he no longer wants to do business with him nor help him financially in any way. David Golder loves money and the power that money brings. David’s wife Gloria loves the jewels that David’s money can buy but pretty much doesn’t like anything else about her husband. David’s daughter likes …you guessed it…David’s money! Now what in the world would make anyone want to read this book? First of all, it’s by Irene Nemirovsky, the author of the highly acclaimed Suite Francaise. She has a way of describing characters that make you want to keep reading. This is the issue, though. The main characters in this book are pretty much annoying if not outright despicable. They’re all Jewish. Interestingly enough, Irene Nemirovsky was a born Jew who later converted to Catholicism. While reading this book I kept wondering why the author made all of the Jewish characters so hateful.The story read like a fairy tale. Each of its characters was so predictable that, as a reader, I was urged along to see what would happen in the end. Would they all perish from greed? Would they meet a horrible fate to befit the way they treated each other? That was the grab. It simply pulled me along because I wanted to know.

[pokarekareana · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book left me a bit cold; I thought Suite Francaise was beautiful, and so I had high expectations for this one. It was very well written, and I don’t think it helped that I recently read Pereira Maintains; this reminded me of that, and I was constantly comparing the two. I feel that this book was put there to teach me a lesson; just because an author writes one superb book, this doesn’t mean that it is helpful or satisfying to assume that all their work will move you to the core of your being in the same way. Consider me told!

[diefledermaus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a good book about horrible people. I knew what it was about and picked it up because I enjoyed Nemirovsky’s other stories but was somewhat worried that it might be anti-Semitic (despite Nemirovsky's well-known history). I would say that anti-Semitism makes an appearance but it’s not as bad as I was thinking. David Golder is a wealthy Jewish speculator whose life takes a turn for the worst. Though there are some business concerns, the main conflict is between him and his family. Pretty much all the characters are unpleasant people and they are not fully developed as well-rounded individuals. They represent archetypes, but Nemirovsky fleshes them out and shows how their lives, while filled with the trappings of wealth, are empty, pathetic and tragic.Although Golder is a greedy businessman - the common negative Jewish stereotype – we see the story through his eyes for the most part and though he is not sympathetic, he has flashes of sad, understandable emotions. Golder, his wife Gloria, and his daughter Joyce have become so twisted by their empty, money-obsessed life that even their genuine emotions are tainted with material, grasping concerns. For example, Gloria and Joyce both have more pleasant relationships with other men, but they must pay for them. Joyce, beautiful and vivacious, is a selfish spoiled brat. Her love for Alec at least seems to be real (though tempered with adolescent dreams about getting a title and being a princess) but we still think Golder is correct when he says she’ll be tired of him in a couple months. She begs her father several times to give her money to ‘buy’ Alec since he is being paid for by another, older woman. Gloria’s feelings also invite understanding like in the scene where she abuses Golder for neglecting her and showering Joyce with presents and money. On one hand, Nemirovsky does show that even early on Golder valued making money over her and mother-daugher competition is something that is recognizable in Gloria. On the other, she has piles and piles of jewels and clothes yet is not satisfied and her anger towards Golder is mainly based on money, not emotions.Golder himself will have these flashes of true feeling, in his genuine anger at being used as an ATM and his persistent love of his daughter. His feelings for Joyce undergo constant changes – occasionally he’ll recognize her essentially spoiled nature – but he generally finds himself won over in spite of her faults. Equally powerful is his fear of the future and death. The fates of his acquaintances and business partners suggest an unhappy ending for him. He also wonders if anything he did was worth it. His pursuit of money does seem endless – Gloria’s criticism that he’s not happy unless he’s working is true – and futile since he doesn’t love material things the way his family does. Being wealthy means he has to constantly maintain everything but there is no longer the goal to survive and become rich like he had when he was young and starving. Golder is briefly lulled at a Jewish restaurant and when he goes to his hometown – he wonders how life would be if he had stayed there – but the poverty and emptiness there, as well as the squalor from memories of the past, suggest that this isn’t a solution. The anti-Semitism in this book shows up mainly as a societal fact but Golder harbors some anti-Semitic ideas himself. Gloria and Golder throw Jewish insults at each – another sign of their distance from the past as well as their shallowness. Sometimes it was unpleasant to read – there are many heated, bitter confrontations between the characters and lengthy descriptions of Golder’s physical and mental pain – but overall it was a worthwhile read.