Color of Light

by William Goldman

He's twenty-three years old and already a prodigy, a critically acclaimed author of whom great things are expected--immediately ... But artistic success and happiness will not come easily to Chub Fuller. Like many writers, he will find himself descending again and again into the lower reaches of his psyche, driven by the phantoms of his past, the obsessive passions of others--and finally, by a murder that brings him face to face with the darkest forces within us all ...

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Writing, Drama, Coming Of Age

355 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Goldman grew up in a Jewish family in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College in 1952 and an MA degree at Columbia University in 1956.His brother was the late James Goldman, author and playwright.

William Goldman had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays. Several of his novels he later used as the foundation for his screenplays.

In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he famously remarked that "Nobody knows anything"). He then returned to writing novels. He then adapted his novel The Princess Bride to the screen, which marked his re-entry into screenwriting.

Goldman won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He also won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: for Harper in 1967, and for Magic (adapted from his own 1976 novel) in 1979.

Goldman died in New York City on November 16, 2018, due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. He was eighty-seven years old.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, in spite of the fact that I slowly grew to despise the main character.
Chub Fuller is a talented young writer with his future ahead of him. He writes his first novel to critical and popular claim. But he manages to mess up almost everything else in his life. He make grievous errors, but he instead of feeling remorse, he wallows in self-pity. He can't come to terms with his horrible past, but does nothing to remedy it.
His character is portrayed very shallowly, but I can't decide whether it's a mistake on the author's part or critical to the plot. I think this is actually one of those books where you're supposed to hate the main character by the end. Kind of like a modern-day tragedy (Aristotle's definition).

[RChazzChute · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite novel of all time. The protagonist is a young writer and I read it when I was a young writer.

[Rowena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the coming-of-age story of Charles "Chub" Fuller, a brilliant writer with a wretched family past. As he moves from university in Ohio to NYC, he captures his life in several daring, ingenious stories that secure him a future in New York's grueling publishing world. However, in his struggles to ignore his own terrible past, he mires himself in a comfortable stasis, and finds himself unable to do what he once did best - write.

I was entranced by this book from page 1. This is the story of what it is like to be burdened by talent. To greet expectation with numbing failure. To mistake love for redemption. This makes the novel sound terribly depressing, but it's not. (not entirely, anyway) It has sparking moments of humor, and fascinating depictions of Chub and those closest to him. As readers, we're not meant to like Chub, we're meant to get a brief window into our own selves and realize how easy it is to sink into apathetic acquiescence.

[Armin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieses Künstlerschicksel ist eine gelungene Hommmage an Irwin Shaw und auf jeden Fall unvergleichlich viel besser als Tinsel, auch bei der überraschenden Schlusswendung.
Leider ist die Gestaltung der kreativen Krise ziemlich wurschtelig geraten, sonst wäre vielleicht sogar eine bessere Bewertung drin gewesen. Ausführliche Rezi eines schönen Tages, vielleicht.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A meadnering book that doesn't go anywhere, but I didn't care, it kept me on the edge of my seat. Not his best idea for a book, but it was kind of a bohemian book. Goldman's On The Road.

[Joey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an ending! A Hitchcockian chef d"oeuvre. Great, great book.

[Athena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't even know what to say about the ending. William Goldman is good. Real good. I have been so involved in this book that I feel as though I'm a part of Chub Fuller's life. Or vice versa. Anyway, there was so much going on in this story, where do I begin? Two-Brew was annoying for the most part but still an endearing part of the story. ALL. I repeat ALL of the women Chub was involved with were unstable. I didn't even foresee the tragedy with BJ. However, never did I think when I started this book there would be a murder mystery solved in the very end. I knew by the synopsis there would be a murder, but that it would unfold as it did. The REAL kicker. I literally didn't know what to say. Anyway, I wanted to give this more stars but the story was so long and dragged in some areas. Goldman is clever.

[Bret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting reading this for the umpteenth time.... Chub is a bit of a jerk, and it's rather uneven, but I still love it. Easy money at the brick factory....

[Jami Ouellette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out in paperback, and reread again before I gave the book back to my sister. It was awesome! And it still comes to mind often, especially the ending. I remember reading it on my lunch break at work and actually exclaiming out loud over it, making quite a commotion with all of the other readers at lunch when then went out and got their own copies. This one is well-worth the time to track down a copy of this book.

[Linda Aull · Rating 4 out of 5]

My college roommate's mom's book club (seriously) was reading this book, so somehow it fell to me as well. Luckily, I was blown away by the writing, the story, the characters, everything. If you've ever fallen up stairs, you'll love this story about what can happen after.

[Amish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most unique book I have read till date.
The story is based around a life of a young writer and his best buddy. This is one book you do not want to miss. The book is just mind blowing keeping the reader at his toes till the very last sentence!!!!

[Gay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent memorable book about a writer by the author of "Princess Bride."

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a really great tale, memorable (can one forget 'the bone?' doubtful)

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitely reads like a movie written from a guy's perspective. entertaining though.

[Pedxing · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorites. I think there ought to be modern fiction classes taught in high school, and I think this book ought to be required reading. Excellent.

[Dickydavis · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most emotionally devastating books I have ever read; almost unbearably sad, and real.

[nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tough to review. Goldman is a great story teller. And the various tales he tells int he first third of the book while Chub is in college and first gets to NY are great. At that point I thought it didn't matter what Goldman was writing about, he would always have my attention.

But it turns out that the various stories couldn't prop-up a whole book. The self sabotage isn't great. But much worse are all the crazy events that start happening around Chub (dead child at his own hand, violent stalker, sex-crazed suicidal stalker, a manic supermodel coming into his life, and in the last paragraph are we supposed to believe that The Bone either murdered or had a part in Sandy's suicide?). And some of the meta-ness about Chub's writing process at first felt like an interesting insight into the writing process, but by the end felt more like a crutch by Goldman to finish this book without it actually having a real ending.

But dang, I do enjoy Goldman's writing.

[isis Clevenger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love how convoluted this ending was. The Bone killed Sandy out of possessiveness n jealousy n her need for co-dependency, but she achieved it by allowing Chub to keep his muse in Sandy, only now in a way that served her. Does that make sense? She killed Sandy because Chub was enamored with Sandy and SANDY was the one who brought him the inspiration to write again, NOT her; even though Sandy was just a pretty, surface girl who could never write like them. Even though all they did was write together and all they did was write. She killed Sandy i think just as much for his benefit as she did her own… (maybe.) i suppose it’s pretty implied that she wasn’t pleased with Chub’s reaction to knowing it was her who killed Sandy because she wanted him to return to his dependency on her and he didn’t. If I assume she did it knowing he’d use her as a story, it takes away the chill of him actually doing the act, and the implication that he’s abandoned all humanity in favor of his writing. And that’s the best part of the book- art is inherently so self-centered(especiallyyyy writing)- so Chub’s final portrayal being so evilly self-serving sat very well with me. Especially when you think of his life throughout the book and realize him being a ‘good person’, so highlighted prior, only happened around moments of inspiration, career success, and time with his daughter. Especially once she was gone, the book makes my stomach flip when it became obvious Chub was always this star-seeking sociopath; never appearing as himself, only getting so close as to make stories out of people. So how much then, really, is The Bone’s fault? I love that he judges her and sees her differently after finding out what she did, when she did it for him because it’s what he’s always wanted, and she’s the only one who ever knew him so deeply as to truly know that. The ending/his reaction goes so far as to argue because it was only a matter of time before he did it himself. Writer’s block comes when things are good; all of my favorite writers are pretty bad people — shame.

[Tiffany Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as a teenager and absolutely loved it. For decades, I could not remember enough about it to find it again. Not the author's name, nor the plot, nor the name of a character. I knew the cover was blue and white, the title had the word "color" in it, and the main character was a writer.

Finally, recently--nearly 40 years after first reading--I found it again. I was a little uncertain opening this worn, used paperback. Not everything we love in high school holds up.

Before I'd finished the first sentence, I remembered the character, the setting, the feel. 50 pages later the bathwater was long cold and I reluctantly stepped out still reading.

I see reviews are mixed, and I've no idea whether this book is compelling if you're not a writer. But if you are--not by trade or as a hobby but fundamentally, in the fabric of your soul--I suspect you will feel this book more than read it.

[Lesley Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not very often that a book makes it into my all time top 5, but this one did. I'd honestly never even heard of it, or knew anything about it, other than logging it into my library system. I come into free lots of books in the hundreds, and this was in one of those lots. I don't even know how long it's been sitting on my shelves, waiting for me to pick it up, but it's now my new favorite. Maybe cause it's about a writer, but there's so much more to this book than a story about an author. It was inspiring (to someone who is a writer) heartbreaking, and surprising with all the different elements of this story about Charles Fuller.
And now I'm going to get to my own writing!

[Nikki Mad · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an Oberlin graduate, I got sucked into this book right from the beginning because it brought me back to campus but it kept my attention beyond that for the unlikeable but still likeable characters and for the return to NY in its past glory. Reminded me of Salinger a bit too in it's "coming of age in the mid century" mood without being too obviously referential. A good story about becoming a writer, becoming an adult and becoming disillusioned, but before the later angst that makes later novels of this theme intolerable. I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to.

[Titi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I ever read from William Goldman. I remember finding it in this ols bookstore, searching for some good stories abour a writer's life and ai definetly recieved it. I read it with so much love and high expectations of ending it in a happy kind of way. I will definetly re'read it all my life. I cried and was shocked. I remember rereading this one page for like 20 times bwcause I couldn't understans how Goldman could write it. I was devestated but I loved every bit of it.

[cowboy hannibal · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. What the fuck. Nasty nasty freezing little jolt at the end there. And prior to that I was not at all impressed; in fact I think this book is very amateurish—literary fiction written by someone who knows how to write but does not know how to write literary fiction. I would never pick this up again to be honest and was glad when it was finished. Never once managed to give a shit about Chub. His name really didn’t help matters, either.

[Bernard Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interested to see someone else here mention The World According to Garp, because this really felt like a John Irving book to me. It wasn’t quite as devastating to its main character as Irving usually is, but there are definite similarities. With this kind of narrative, where most people seem at least a bit unhinged, it’s surprising that violence isn’t breaking out all the time.

[Laura Hoyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should not say I actually read this- I just can't finish it. I rarely abandon books, so this is a bummer for me. I just can't get into it, and I cannot stand Two-Brew. Maybe I can try again another time! It HAS to get better, based on others' reviews!

[Nancy Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book for years without reading. I had read another Goldman book that I loved. Did I love this novel - no! A man finding himself as a writer. Terrible family situation that I sympathized with. Glad it no longer resides on my bookshelf!

[Lisa Kusel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love anything this man writes.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long time since I read this but my memories are fond, indeed I loved it.
Brilliant finish. Goodman is a great, great writer.

[Art Metzger]

Interesting to compare this with THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1984. Story of writer Charles Fuller.