Synopses & Reviews
When Jennifer Gilmore’s first novel, Golden Country, was published,
The New York Times Book Review called it "an ingeniously plotted family yarn" and praised her as an author who "enlivens the myth of the American Dream." Gilmore’s particular gift for distilling history into a hugely satisfying, multigenerational family story is taken to new levels in her second novel.
In Washington, D.C., life inside the Goldstein home is as tumultuous as the shifting landscape of the times. It is 1979, and Benjamin is heading off to college and sixteen-year-old Vanessa is in the throes of a rocky adolescence. Sharon, a caterer for the Washington elite, ventures into a cultlike organization. And Dennis, whose government job often takes him to Moscow, tries to live up to his father’s legacy as a union organizer and community leader.
The rise of communism and the execution of the Rosenbergs is history. The Cold War is waning, the soldiers who fought in Vietnam have all come home, and Carter is president. The age of protest has come and gone and yet each of the Goldsteins is forced to confront the changes the new decade will bring and explore what it really means to be a radical.
Something Red is at once a poignant story of husbands and wives, parents and children, activists and spies, and a masterfully built novel that unfurls with suspense and humor.
Review
"Rich and entertaining." Vanity Fair
Review
"Ambitious and provocative, more Molotov cocktail than standard-issue domestic drama, raising profound questions about loyalty, independence, love of family and of country." O, The Oprah Magazine
Review
"[A] richly textured story of the irritations, disappointments, disruptions and remembered joys of family life." Moment Magazine
Synopsis
Jennifer Gilmore's second novel, a powerful and engaging novel about a Jewish-American family in Washington DC in 1979.
Synopsis
When Jennifer Gilmore's first novel,
Golden Country, was published, The
New York Times Book Review called it an ingeniously plotted family yarn and praised her as an author who enlivens the myth of the American Dream. Gilmore's particular gift for distilling history into a hugely satisfying, multigenerational family story is taken to new levels in her second novel.
In Washington, D.C., life inside the Goldstein home is as tumultuous as the shifting landscape of the times. It is 1979, and Benjamin is heading off to college and sixteen-year-old Vanessa is in the throes of a rocky adolescence. Sharon, a caterer for the Washington elite, ventures into a cultlike organization. And Dennis, whose government job often takes him to Moscow, tries to live up to his father's legacy as a union organizer and community leader.
The rise of communism and the execution of the Rosenbergs is history. The Cold War is waning, the soldiers who fought in Vietnam have all come home, and Carter is president. The age of protest has come and gone and yet each of the Goldsteins is forced to confront the changes the new decade will bring and explore what it really means to be a radical.
Something Red is at once a poignant story of husbands and wives, parents and children, activists and spies, and a masterfully built novel that unfurls with suspense and humor.
Video
About the Author
Jennifer Gilmore is the author of two novels, Golden Country, a 2006 New York Times Notable Book, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Jewish Book Award, and Something Red , New York Times Notable Book of 2010. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in magazines and journals including Allure, Bomb, BookForum, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, Salon, SELF, Tin House, Vogue and the Washington Post. She has been a MacDowell Colony fellow and has taught writing and literature at the Cornell University, Barnard College, Eugene Lang College at the New School and New York University. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Jennifer Gilmore