Goldberg Variations
Susan Isaacs, 2012
Scribner
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451605914
Summary
Imagine King Lear as a comedy...
Elegant, amusing, and profoundly nasty tycoon Gloria Garrison, nee Goldberg, has a kingdom to bequeath to one of the grandchildren she barely knows. They’re all twentysomethings who foolishly believe money isn’t everything. Just shy of eighty, Gloria doesn’t wish to watch the minutes tick by while the three dither over the issues of their generation—love, meaning, identity. She has summoned them all from New York for a weekend at her palatial home in Santa Fe. She has a single question to ask them: “Which one of you most deserves to inherit my business?” Gloria never anticipates the answer will be “not interested” times three. She created a brilliant, booming beauty business, Glory, Inc., that not only does well, but does good. And they say “no”? What’s so grand about their lives that they would reject such a kingdom?
Daisy Goldberg is not only mad for movies, she’s part of the film industry: East Coast story editor for one of the biggest studios. Her brother, Matt, the uber–sports buff, has a great job in public relations with Major League Baseball. And their cousin Raquel Goldberg, half-Latina, all Catholic, is a Legal Aid lawyer. They may like their work, but do they really like their lives? Would they be so foolish as to hold against their grandmother the pain she inflicted on every member of the family? As far as Gloria is concerned, this isn’t about tender feelings. It’s about millions of dollars; it’s about living a life the ninety-nine percent dream of and the one percent know.
The weekend is full of surprises, not only for Daisy, Matt, and Raquel but also for Gloria. Memories have a way of intruding at the most inopportune times. And is Gloria’s tough hide as impenetrable as she has always believed? Susan Isaacs is at her formidable best in Goldberg Variations, a novel that is both wickedly witty and a deeply moving tale of family and reconciliation. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 7, 1943
• Where—Brooklyn, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Queens College
• Currently—lives on Long Island, New York
Susan Isaacs is an American novelist and screenwriter. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, educated at Queens College, and worked as a senior editor at Seventeen magazine. She married Elkan Abramowitz, a lawyer, in 1968 and in 1970 left work to stay at home with her newborn son, Andrew. Three years later, in 1973, she gave birth to her daughter Elizabeth. She freelanced during this time, writing political speeches and magazine articles. She now lives on Long Island with her husband.
Her first novel, Compromising Positions, was published in 1978. It was chosen as a main selection of the Book of the Month Club and was, like all of her subsequent novels, a New York Times bestseller. Her fiction has been translated into thirty different languages all over the world. In 1985, she adapted her own novel for the screenplay of the film Compromising Positions, which starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. She wrote and co-produced Touchstone Pictures’ Hello Again, a 1987 comedy starring Shelley Long and Judith Ivey. In addition to writing books, essays, and screenplays, Isaacs has reviewed books for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Newsday. Isaacs has also written about politics and First Amendment issues.
Isaacs serves as a chairman on the board of Poets & Writers and is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America. She is a member of The Creative Coalition, National Book Critics Circle, PEN, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Adams Round Table. She sits on the boards of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, the Queens College Foundation, the North Shore Child and Family Guidance Association, and the Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Imperious Gloria Garrison, spurned by her best friend and heir to a multimillion-dollar beauty makeover business, summons the three grandchildren she barely knows to the Santa Fe, N.Mex., headquarters of Glory Inc. to pick her successor among them. But neither feisty Legal Aid lawyer Raquel—daughter of Gloria’s favorite son and his Puerto Rican social worker wife, nor Raquel’s cousins—irresistible PR man Matt and big sister Daisy, a Paramount Studios mogul—want anything to do with their mean grandma’s enterprise. The King Lear implications are not lost on the crusty 79-year-old CEO, who broods that Lear’s “two bad daughters, at least, want the kingdom,” calling her own unruly progeny “my thankless flesh and blood.” Prolific veteran Isaacs (Any Place I Hang My Hat) creates a deliciously wicked tale of family dysfunction—as interpreted in alternating chapters by the salty Gloria and her angry grandkids as they endure a long weekend of bitter recriminations that turns abruptly civil after a tour of Glory Inc. and a good makeover. Despite the sluggish pace and improbable reconciliation, time spent with this cheeky and unruly crew is anything but wasted.
Publishers Weekly
Gloria Garrison, 79, has a plan for the future of her booming Santa Fe-based beauty business, Glory, Inc. Having alienated her former partner and successor, she decides to invite her twentysomething grandchildren to tour the business and learn the ropes. Since Gloria wrote them all out of her will, Daisy, Matthew, and Raquel Goldberg are shocked when they realize the motives behind Gloria's invitation: one of them will inherit Glory, while the rest will receive nothing. What Gloria does not anticipate is a collective answer of "not interested." Verdict: Told from the varying viewpoints of every member of the family, Isaacs's latest is full of sharp observations on its relationships. Fans of her previous novels (e.g., Close Relations; As Husbands Go) and of comparable authors such as Nancy Thayer will enjoy the comic wit of Isaacs's latest.—Mara Dabrishus, Ursuline Coll., Pepper Pike, OH
Library Journal
An aging entrepreneur invites her three grandchildren, whom she barely knows, for a weekend visit so she can choose which one will take over her company.... Gloria is not only unlikable, but unbearably boring. Her endless conversation is pretentious without one twinkle of wit. The grandkids are more likable, but equally dull. Few readers will follow them to the contrived, anticlimactic resolution. A painfully long yawn.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Gloria says that her tragic flaw is “losing control and saying what I truly think.” Talk about tragic flaws—Gloria’s, your own, other novels whose plots are driven by such character flaws.
2. What do you think of Glory, Inc. offering makeovers in the back of eighteen-wheelers? Is it a good idea for a business? Could it work in real life?
3. Do you see yourself in Matt, Daisy, or Raquel? In Gloria? Does Matt, Daisy, Raquel, or Gloria remind you of anyone in your own family?
4. Do any of the grandchildren’s jobs appeal to you: PR for a professional sports team; legal aide; book scout for Paramount Pictures?
5. Why is Gloria the way she is? What do you think are the major forces or events that have shaped her personality? Can you admire her or sympathize with her?
6. What do you think of Gloria’s relationship with her ex-husband, Joe? Do you understand or sympathize with her for leaving him?
7. Gloria is critical and judgmental of her family, but she can be relaxed and generous with her employees like Emily Anderson and Lizzy. Why do you think this is?
8. Have you ever had a makeover? How did it go? Is there anyone you know who you’d love to see have a makeover?
9. What did you think of the way the story was told from different points of view, alternating between chapters? Was this an effective way to tell this story?
10. Imagine yourself in Daisy, Raquel, or Matt’s position when they got the offer from Gloria. What would you have done? Do you think they made the right choices ultimately?
11. Have you ever fantasized about opening your own business? What kind would it be?
12. Gloria seems utterly heartless and manipulative at the opening of the novel. Yet, by the end, she’s gained wisdom and even earned everyone’s forgiveness. Talk about the idea that it’s never too late—even at eighty—to change.
13. Do you know anyone who has had a realization and reconciliation in the way Gloria does at the end of the novel?
14. What did you think of the ending? Did you foresee this resolution or was it surprising?
(Questions issued by publisher.)