My friend who doesn’t know me, Glen David Gold, was someone whose books were recommended to me by a friend who has since passed. I had avoided them at first, as I mentioned in my review last year of Carter Beats the Devil. My friend had been right, of course, knowing me well enough, that I feel strongly about these novels.

I loved Carter Beats the Devil, I adored Sunnyside.

Sunnyside, Gold’s second novel, is an examination of so many things: old Hollywood, war, masculinity in relationships, parental relationships, neglect and control. It honestly took me quite a while to grapple with it, not being a page burner so much as a book that requires breaks and contemplation. The way which the different story lines, the completely unrelated characters, weave together is ingenious. An intelligent, winding story with many fantastical elements, stories of old west shows woven into the plot involving Weimar Germany, the fundraising of old Hollywood for war bonds, and heavily leaning on the life and stories of an animated, well characterized Charlie Chaplin as the divining rod for the plot. Normally I’m skittish about historical fiction that leans on well known historical figures—I just have this sort of cringe reaction, wondering how a person would feel having words put in their mouth. With Glen David Gold I consistently don’t mind, I don’t think of it at all. That is Chaplin.

And while Chaplin is a focus and draw, of course, I think my favorite character was Lee Duncan. He was such a smooth, bumbling at times, sympathetic leading man for Gold to lean on.

I cannot begin to fathom the research process for a book like this. It’s stellar.