Good as gold

The difference between crime and public service is more of station than of substance.

When I was small, there were many poor people, and rich were the enemy. Now rich are still there, poor are also enemy.

Any society worth its salt, will stop itself from self destruction. We are not doing it. So we are not a society at all or we are not worth our salt.

Such quotes are numerous in the book and are more and more sarcastic.

Gold is a professor and a writer. But in his father's eyes he is a complete Idiot. Father does not leave a single opportunity to condemn his son.

And his siblings too are not proud of him because he writes something which they can not understand.

So Gold is treated as baby by his sisters. Mocked by his father, step mother and brother. And he still feels hurt because no one appreciates him, not even his children.

So far I can understand the protagonist, relate to him and feel sympathetic with him. But when I see that he does not work honestly as a professor, he misguides kids to lure them into English department, I stop relating with him.

What a hypocrite I am. If the hero of book is rude, self centered, almost anti-social, it is OK. But he should not go against my value system. (Do I have one?)

So suddenly all my enthusiasm to read "Good as gold" by Joseph Heller evaporated. So back to TV and mobile games.

Nothing succeeds as planned : So Gold feels all his ideals have left him. And he has started resenting most of his pet ideals. He was all for racial equality, now his children and his nieces have to fear being bullied by blacks.

But we all have to agree to this at least. Look at communism. It started with a very noble idea of removing the gap between haves and have nots and creating equality among people. What did it achieve? Poverty, corruption and almost stalling of growth.

So a person or a group has this big idea - a dream - to make the world a better place. But when it gets implemented, it gets converted into another fiasco.

Bruce Gold is trying to write a book on Jewish experience in America but he hardly remembers anything about his childhood.  So he asks his elder brother Sid - the same Sid who always tries to pull his legs.

Sid remembers. 

He is new to school and English language is new to him. So he speaks it in a funny accent. Other children in the school imitate him and he does not even realize he is being made fun of.

Even in the neighborhood other children let him play with them. But often treat him very cruelly. He does not complain for the fear of losing his playmates.

During lunch hour in the school, Sid does not know where he is supposed to eat his lunch. He runs and comes to a field, sits there in front of a railway track and eats his lunch. He has no friends in the school.

When Gold hears these from Sid, for the first time, he empathizes with his big brother.

But this need not be Jewish experience. It can be yours or it can be mine.

 Gold wants to go to Washington. For that he must court a perverted, insecure woman Andrea and get the recommendation of her father. Connover, Andrea's father is anti-semitic and insults Gold too much.  To make matters worse, his contact with white house Ralph, never clearly says anything, does not take him to meet the president, does not say what post he will be getting.

But Ralph and his colleagues borrow the phrases of Gold without completely understanding them, thinking that by using those words they also sound very smart.

If you want to read some satirical book, this book will not disappoint you.