What do you think?
Rate this book
The Dying of the Light
A dramatic, passionate Southern gothic tale of a glamorous debutante who marries for money and suffers for love—perfect for fans of Dominick Dunne.It begins with a house and ends in ashes . . .Diana Cooke was “born with the century” and came of age just after World War I. The daughter of Virginia gentry, she knew early that, other than her famous beauty, her parents had only one their stately house, Saratoga. Though they are land-rich, the Cookes do not have the means to sustain the estate. Without a wealthy husband, Diana will lose the mansion that has held her family together for five generations.The enigmatic Captain Copperton is a stranger in the ranks of Southern aristocracy with no pedigree but plenty of cash. Seeing the ravishing nineteen-year-old Diana for the first time, he’s determined to have her. Diana knows that marrying him would make the Cookes solvent and ensure that Saratoga will always be theirs. Yet Copperton is vulgar as well as cruel; while Diana covets his money, she cannot abide him. Carrying the weight of Saratoga and generations of Cookes on her shoulders, she ultimately succumbs to duty, sacrificing everything, including love.Luckily for Diana, fate intervenes. Her union with Copperton is brief and gives her a son she adores. But when her handsome, charming Ashton, now grown, returns to Saratoga with his college roommate, the real scandal and tragedy begins . . . Reveling in the secrets, mores, and society of twentieth-century genteel Southern life, The Dying of the Light is a romance, a melodrama, and a cautionary tale told with the grandeur and sweep of an epic Hollywood classic.
285 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 3, 2018
About the author
Robert Goolrick
17 books476 followersI was born in a small university town in Virginia, a town in which, besides teaching, the chief preoccupations were drinking bourbon and telling complex anecdotes, stories about people who lived down the road, stories about ancestors who had died a hundred years before. For southerners, the past is as real as the present; it is not even past, as Faulkner said.
I went to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and then lived in Europe for several years, thinking that I would be an actor or a painter, two things for which I had a passion that outran my talent. I wrote an early novel, and then my parents disinherited me, so I moved to New York, which is where small-town people move to do and say the things they can't do or say at home, and I ended up working in advertising, a profession that feeds on young people who have an amorphous talent and no particular focus.
Fired in my early fifties, the way people are in advertising, I tried to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, and I came back around to the pastime that had filled the days and nights of my childhood: telling complex anecdotes about the living and the dead. I think, when we read, we relish and devour remarkable voices, but these are, in the end, stories we remember.
I live in a tiny town in Virginia in a great old farmhouse on a wide and serene river with my dog, whose name is Preacher. Since he has other interests besides listening to my stories, I tell them to you.
I went to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and then lived in Europe for several years, thinking that I would be an actor or a painter, two things for which I had a passion that outran my talent. I wrote an early novel, and then my parents disinherited me, so I moved to New York, which is where small-town people move to do and say the things they can't do or say at home, and I ended up working in advertising, a profession that feeds on young people who have an amorphous talent and no particular focus.
Fired in my early fifties, the way people are in advertising, I tried to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, and I came back around to the pastime that had filled the days and nights of my childhood: telling complex anecdotes about the living and the dead. I think, when we read, we relish and devour remarkable voices, but these are, in the end, stories we remember.
I live in a tiny town in Virginia in a great old farmhouse on a wide and serene river with my dog, whose name is Preacher. Since he has other interests besides listening to my stories, I tell them to you.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
July 11, 2018
3+ stars.
Where to begin with this ? At the beginning with the prologue, I suppose is a good place to start where I was drawn in by the writing, narrated by a reporter trying to decipher the history of this house that has burned, the story of a woman tied to this house. If she were alive she’d be 99 years old. In 1919, there was a stately home called Saratoga and a family with its roots firmly planted in the place, in society. They have run out of money and are at risk of losing the biggest and most beautiful house in Virginia. It seems the family is saved and the house is saved but only at the expense of their beautiful daughter, Diana Cooke who is pretty much sold to the very rich and very vile Captain Copperton. There was never a doubt in her mind that this was her role in this life to save her family and its legacy even though there are pre-wedding “jitters” and a realization she is making a mistake. But of course she proceeds or we wouldn’t have this melodramatic story.
Diana falls into the marriage full force easily becoming accustomed to days of endless shopping and the nights of passion until .... the almost inevitable things begin to happen at the hands of Copperton. They have a son, Ashton, fiercely loved by both and life continues in the mire of dysfunction until.... Alone and loathing with enough to survive, still needing - ( omg even this sounds soapy), she remains at Saratoga. Years later Ashton is “sent “ home from college with his roommate Gibby and he attempts to restore the place and the melodrama continues. I kept thinking what’s next - really? The thing is I really did want to know what was next in this way, way over the top story . It was kind of like a soap opera, but one that I couldn’t stop watching. It was too much in so many ways, like a guilty pleasure read but I kept reading! So for that alone I have to give it 3 stars and a plus because there were places where I really liked the writing. While it was not one that I can say I loved, I will read more by this author.
I received an advanced copy of this book from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.
Where to begin with this ? At the beginning with the prologue, I suppose is a good place to start where I was drawn in by the writing, narrated by a reporter trying to decipher the history of this house that has burned, the story of a woman tied to this house. If she were alive she’d be 99 years old. In 1919, there was a stately home called Saratoga and a family with its roots firmly planted in the place, in society. They have run out of money and are at risk of losing the biggest and most beautiful house in Virginia. It seems the family is saved and the house is saved but only at the expense of their beautiful daughter, Diana Cooke who is pretty much sold to the very rich and very vile Captain Copperton. There was never a doubt in her mind that this was her role in this life to save her family and its legacy even though there are pre-wedding “jitters” and a realization she is making a mistake. But of course she proceeds or we wouldn’t have this melodramatic story.
Diana falls into the marriage full force easily becoming accustomed to days of endless shopping and the nights of passion until .... the almost inevitable things begin to happen at the hands of Copperton. They have a son, Ashton, fiercely loved by both and life continues in the mire of dysfunction until.... Alone and loathing with enough to survive, still needing - ( omg even this sounds soapy), she remains at Saratoga. Years later Ashton is “sent “ home from college with his roommate Gibby and he attempts to restore the place and the melodrama continues. I kept thinking what’s next - really? The thing is I really did want to know what was next in this way, way over the top story . It was kind of like a soap opera, but one that I couldn’t stop watching. It was too much in so many ways, like a guilty pleasure read but I kept reading! So for that alone I have to give it 3 stars and a plus because there were places where I really liked the writing. While it was not one that I can say I loved, I will read more by this author.
I received an advanced copy of this book from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.
June 22, 2018
Saratoga, a house, the biggest in Virginia, the most lavish at one time, inhabited by five generations, but now on the verge of being lost. Not enough money left, the only asset, the only way to save the family home is to sell the debutante daughter to the highest, most wealthy bidder, regardless of breeding. Diana, has been trained for this role, to make an advantageous marriage, to save the reputation and the traditions of her family. And....she does, but very little in her life turns out as planned.
The heavy weight of history, Southern mores and traditions, generations of family portraits peering down from the walls, reputations and secrets, all hang on one shoulder. Scandal, tragedy and loss of freedom, love lost and in the end, for what? Southern Gothic at it's most ostentatious, over the top, melodramatic, excessive, provided me with questions a conundrum. These are usually the elements that I dislike, avoid, in fiction. But here, oh it worked, for me it worked.
Like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or the Streetcar named desire, Stella, Stella, this too was Southern at it most deliberate. A novel with a woman trapped by the long history of her family. A novel that under the drama are truths that mean everything, a web weaved to entrap. One can see the tragedy coming a mile away but it had to be played out, there was no avoiding it here, there was no other way forward.
I so enjoy this author.
ARC from Edelweiss.
The heavy weight of history, Southern mores and traditions, generations of family portraits peering down from the walls, reputations and secrets, all hang on one shoulder. Scandal, tragedy and loss of freedom, love lost and in the end, for what? Southern Gothic at it's most ostentatious, over the top, melodramatic, excessive, provided me with questions a conundrum. These are usually the elements that I dislike, avoid, in fiction. But here, oh it worked, for me it worked.
Like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or the Streetcar named desire, Stella, Stella, this too was Southern at it most deliberate. A novel with a woman trapped by the long history of her family. A novel that under the drama are truths that mean everything, a web weaved to entrap. One can see the tragedy coming a mile away but it had to be played out, there was no avoiding it here, there was no other way forward.
I so enjoy this author.
ARC from Edelweiss.
July 7, 2018
4 over-the-top, dramatic stars to The Dying of the Light! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I read Robert Goolrick’s The Reliable Wife several years ago and found his writing both beautiful and enthralling. The Dying of the Light had that same lovely prose and was filled with melodrama.
The Dying of the Light’s prologue is exceptionally lurid with a strong southern gothic feel. An unnamed narrator has arrived by boat to explore the remains of a large house burned to the ground in the early 1900s. This house was not only grand in its day; when it was built, it was the largest house in the United States.
Constructed in the 1700s by the hands of slaves, the stately Saratoga costs a pretty penny to keep in order, and Diana Page Powell Cooke is forced to be a debutante to find a wealthy husband who can save her house. Otherwise, it has become too costly to maintain, as the farm land is barren due to overuse, and the family money has been squandered.
Diana meets Captain Copperton, and while he is not old money and is rather mysterious, he is wealthy and quickly becomes her savior, until she discovers he is also a cruel brute. Diana has a son, Ashton, with Copperton, and he is the center of her world. Years later, scandal erupts once again at Saratoga when Ashton returns from college with his roommate.
The Dying of the Light is described in the synopsis as dramatic, even melodramatic, and it most definitely is. Just as the grandeur of Saratoga is over-the-top, so are some of the happenings within those walls, including some steamy dalliances.
Overall, The Dying of the Light is Diana’s coming-of-age with a stunning gothic backdrop. She has been trapped under the watchful eye of generations of her family and is now seen as the sole provider and perhaps sole survivor. Will darkness and tragedy always follow this family, and is Diana the one true survivor?
Thank you to Harper for the complimentary copy. The Dying of the Light is available now!
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
I read Robert Goolrick’s The Reliable Wife several years ago and found his writing both beautiful and enthralling. The Dying of the Light had that same lovely prose and was filled with melodrama.
The Dying of the Light’s prologue is exceptionally lurid with a strong southern gothic feel. An unnamed narrator has arrived by boat to explore the remains of a large house burned to the ground in the early 1900s. This house was not only grand in its day; when it was built, it was the largest house in the United States.
Constructed in the 1700s by the hands of slaves, the stately Saratoga costs a pretty penny to keep in order, and Diana Page Powell Cooke is forced to be a debutante to find a wealthy husband who can save her house. Otherwise, it has become too costly to maintain, as the farm land is barren due to overuse, and the family money has been squandered.
Diana meets Captain Copperton, and while he is not old money and is rather mysterious, he is wealthy and quickly becomes her savior, until she discovers he is also a cruel brute. Diana has a son, Ashton, with Copperton, and he is the center of her world. Years later, scandal erupts once again at Saratoga when Ashton returns from college with his roommate.
The Dying of the Light is described in the synopsis as dramatic, even melodramatic, and it most definitely is. Just as the grandeur of Saratoga is over-the-top, so are some of the happenings within those walls, including some steamy dalliances.
Overall, The Dying of the Light is Diana’s coming-of-age with a stunning gothic backdrop. She has been trapped under the watchful eye of generations of her family and is now seen as the sole provider and perhaps sole survivor. Will darkness and tragedy always follow this family, and is Diana the one true survivor?
Thank you to Harper for the complimentary copy. The Dying of the Light is available now!
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
March 25, 2018
Debutant Diana is perfection personified (always a snore) and is ‘sold’ to a cad, who happens to be the highest bidder, in order to save the family pile in Virginia. Hubris and fate take over and the house begins to moulder until the opportunity arises to return it to its former glory. The prologue is painful and the scandal isn’t all that scandalous. This book contains odious characters as well as being overwrought and overwritten.
May 18, 2018
AWESOME READ!! FULL REVIEW IS ON JULY 5.
"THE DYING OF THE LIGHT is in typical Robert Goolrick fashion - excellent, descriptive writing, love, scandals, sex, mystery, and intrigue.
The cover is stunning, and as you continue reading, you will understand the meaning of the title.
If you have enjoyed Mr. Goolrick's other books, I know you will enjoy THE DYING OF THE LIGHT.
Mr. Goolrick can always tell a great story with beautiful words.
And what an amazing ending. 5/5"
"THE DYING OF THE LIGHT is in typical Robert Goolrick fashion - excellent, descriptive writing, love, scandals, sex, mystery, and intrigue.
The cover is stunning, and as you continue reading, you will understand the meaning of the title.
If you have enjoyed Mr. Goolrick's other books, I know you will enjoy THE DYING OF THE LIGHT.
Mr. Goolrick can always tell a great story with beautiful words.
And what an amazing ending. 5/5"
July 4, 2023
3.75 stars!
For less than 300 pages, this took too long for me to read but I think it’s because I wasn’t the greatest fan of this book. The synopsis led me to believe this book was about one thing when in reality, the book itself was quite different.
Diana Cooke is quite the intriguing character. Falls in love with a man 30 years older than her to use his fortune to save her family home and then when he dies, she falls in love with her son’s best friend, Gibby. Gibby is such an ick name IM SORRY. Not to mention, Gibby is 20 years younger than Diana????
Ashton shocked me at the end but I can see why he did what he did; kiddo was angry as hell. I was half-expecting Ash and Gibby to be together but I was humbled real quick during the scene in the river.
This book was giving Lady Chatterley’s Lover but in a much weirder way. A good book but not my favorite.
For less than 300 pages, this took too long for me to read but I think it’s because I wasn’t the greatest fan of this book. The synopsis led me to believe this book was about one thing when in reality, the book itself was quite different.
Diana Cooke is quite the intriguing character. Falls in love with a man 30 years older than her to use his fortune to save her family home and then when he dies, she falls in love with her son’s best friend, Gibby. Gibby is such an ick name IM SORRY. Not to mention, Gibby is 20 years younger than Diana????
Ashton shocked me at the end but I can see why he did what he did; kiddo was angry as hell. I was half-expecting Ash and Gibby to be together but I was humbled real quick during the scene in the river.
This book was giving Lady Chatterley’s Lover but in a much weirder way. A good book but not my favorite.
February 3, 2019
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT engrossed me from the very first page. I love reading books set in the American south, especially books that have romance, tragedy, and of course, a wonderful gothic feeling.
READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
July 17, 2018
I was entertained. Probably not my favorite of his but I did enjoy it very much. All of his novels are so different than the other.
April 7, 2018
How to tell a book was written by a man? The beautiful debutant only felt loved and beautiful when she was naked, having sex, or being molested/raped. The ultimate story was well written and a great read to kick back with. Sadly the main character was held in a chauvinist light throughout.
Read
July 7, 2018DNF @ 40%
Unfortunately, I just could not get into this book. I am not sure if it was the writing style or that I just could not connect with Diana. Which is a shame because Reliable Wife was such a good book and I was so excited to see the Goolrick had a new book.
Unfortunately, I just could not get into this book. I am not sure if it was the writing style or that I just could not connect with Diana. Which is a shame because Reliable Wife was such a good book and I was so excited to see the Goolrick had a new book.
November 20, 2018
This was the first book that I have read by Robert Goolrick and it definitely intrigued me enough to read more of his works. Southern gothic is very apt to describe this book. If you like Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, you will like this book. Diana Cooke Cooperton Cooke isn't a very likable main character but Goolrick wraps you in and you can't look away even though it's evident from the very first that nothing will end well.
September 16, 2018
Robert Goolrick set this story on the Rappahannock River, in Caroline County, Virginia. I have lived on the Middle Peninsula or Northern Neck of Virginia most of my life. I cross the Rappahannock daily, and know intimately its pull on the hearts of those who live here. I have lived in and visited, old family homes, a few of which are mentioned in this novel. I know the family names and the traditions described in the book. Mr. Goolrick gets all the details just right, all the way down to the china, silver, portraits and even the battered old furniture and possessions. He "gets" the Southern, plantation mentality, right down to its tragic nature and flaws.
Goolrick has created a novel that captures your mind and your heart as you are carried back into the lives of Diana Cooke Copperton Cooke, her son, Ash, and their home, Saratoga. Their desires, hopes and choices lead the reader through passion and tragedy as they try to survive. We follow Diana and her family as they often, knowing what will make them happy, still go the other direction.
I was completely captivated all the way through the novel!
Goolrick has created a novel that captures your mind and your heart as you are carried back into the lives of Diana Cooke Copperton Cooke, her son, Ash, and their home, Saratoga. Their desires, hopes and choices lead the reader through passion and tragedy as they try to survive. We follow Diana and her family as they often, knowing what will make them happy, still go the other direction.
I was completely captivated all the way through the novel!
May 16, 2018
I loved this book! It is a historical fiction book about the life of Diana Cooke. She married Captain Copperton for his money to be able to keep her mansion. This is the story of her life with many twists and turns in it.
It would appeal to those readers who enjoy Historical, fiction, romance, mystery.
I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to read it and review it. Thank you
It would appeal to those readers who enjoy Historical, fiction, romance, mystery.
I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to read it and review it. Thank you
July 29, 2021
This was the July 2018 selection of the Nervous Breakdown Book Club. Goolrick is a new author to me. I would call it Southern Gothic in style. A Virginia family with ancestors from colonial times, living in straightened financial circumstances, is threatened with the loss of their mansion. Diana, their only child, has known from childhood that she must marry a man with money in order to save the house.
I had mixed reactions as I read. The writing is fevered and sometimes florid but the story is gripping. Perhaps too much melodrama but quite in the tradition of Southern writing. While reading I was impatient for the end but when I finished I felt I had read something strong and good.
I had mixed reactions as I read. The writing is fevered and sometimes florid but the story is gripping. Perhaps too much melodrama but quite in the tradition of Southern writing. While reading I was impatient for the end but when I finished I felt I had read something strong and good.
September 26, 2020
Lol, "dormant lushness" to discuss riding on a horses .... this has potentially been the worst book I've read this year.
July 22, 2022
I found it overwritten and superfluous, like a tea so sweet you can’t bear to drink it.
March 8, 2024
2.5 stars rounded up.
Having read “A Reliable Wife“ by this author, I thought I would like this book too. Well, apparently not so much.
Diana reminded me a lot of Scarlett O’Hara, since both characters would do anything to preserve their homes. In this case, Diana‘s Saratoga, supposedly the largest and most impressive house in America at that time. As a debutante around 1919, Diana is basically sold off to the highest bidder by her parents in order to save their home and lives from financial ruin. Diana marries Ashton Copperton, a nouveau riche, alleged “captain”, whose past is unknown, but he is fabulously wealthy. He’s a kind of more evil Rhett Butler, who verbally, physically, emotionally and sexually abuses Diana during their marriage. The scenes of his abuse are really tough to read. After he dies, he leaves all his fortune, including Diana’s house, to their son Ashton. Ash loves his mother, but when he returns to Saratoga with his roommate, Gibby, scandal ensues and lives and fortunes are irrevocably changed.
For me, the writing was offputting. The author “told“ instead of “showed“ and it seemed like he tried to create a distance between the reader and the story. I never really engaged with the characters or the storylines. There are a lot of fairly explicit, sex scenes, but the way they were written the reader feels like a voyeur. There is a definite “ick” factor.
In reading some of the reviews, I found it amusing that some readers didn’t like that Diana took a younger lover, although the age difference between her and her younger lover, (her 41 to his 20) was almost the same as between her and her husband (her 19 to his 42). I say more power to her. The ending was a bit shocking, but I also noticed some odd inconsistencies.
This was one of those books that I struggled to finish and was glad when I was done. Overall, a disappointment.
Having read “A Reliable Wife“ by this author, I thought I would like this book too. Well, apparently not so much.
Diana reminded me a lot of Scarlett O’Hara, since both characters would do anything to preserve their homes. In this case, Diana‘s Saratoga, supposedly the largest and most impressive house in America at that time. As a debutante around 1919, Diana is basically sold off to the highest bidder by her parents in order to save their home and lives from financial ruin. Diana marries Ashton Copperton, a nouveau riche, alleged “captain”, whose past is unknown, but he is fabulously wealthy. He’s a kind of more evil Rhett Butler, who verbally, physically, emotionally and sexually abuses Diana during their marriage. The scenes of his abuse are really tough to read. After he dies, he leaves all his fortune, including Diana’s house, to their son Ashton. Ash loves his mother, but when he returns to Saratoga with his roommate, Gibby, scandal ensues and lives and fortunes are irrevocably changed.
For me, the writing was offputting. The author “told“ instead of “showed“ and it seemed like he tried to create a distance between the reader and the story. I never really engaged with the characters or the storylines. There are a lot of fairly explicit, sex scenes, but the way they were written the reader feels like a voyeur. There is a definite “ick” factor.
In reading some of the reviews, I found it amusing that some readers didn’t like that Diana took a younger lover, although the age difference between her and her younger lover, (her 41 to his 20) was almost the same as between her and her husband (her 19 to his 42). I say more power to her. The ending was a bit shocking, but I also noticed some odd inconsistencies.
This was one of those books that I struggled to finish and was glad when I was done. Overall, a disappointment.
August 22, 2018
Gone With the Wind meets Princess Daisy in this novel about the mysterious and exotic Diana Cooke Copperton Cooke, a child born with extraordinary beauty but without resources. She marries to save her family's estate, Saratoga, and what first seems to be a love match becomes abusive and controlling. She finds love and passion later in life with a much younger man, but this too will backfire on her. The enthralling if somewhat over the top beginning features an unnamed narrator heading to the ashes of Saratoga, determined to find out the fate of Diana Cooke once and for all--she disappeared years ago. Did she die in the fire that destroyed Saratoga? Is she living somewhere deep in her estate grounds?...and the reader is hooked. Not a bad read for fans of sweeping historical drama, but I found it gloomy and a little twisted. Adult.
August 5, 2018
In the 1900's the Cook family can no longer sustain their southern mansion Saratoga in Virginia. Their only hope is Diana,their beautiful daughter. So yes, Diana does what is expected of her and marries Captain Copperton. A wealthy and cruel man. The only good thing about their marriage is their son Ash. When Copperton dies and Saratoga falls into ruin. Ash returns to his family home along with his Yale roommate. That is when things really turn for the worse and start happening. A southern drama full of secrets, scandal and tragedy. Amazing Read! I highly Recommend.
Dawnny
Novels N Latte
Book Blog
Dawnny
Novels N Latte
Book Blog
July 16, 2020
I read The Reliable Wife from this author and didn’t like it. I liked this book. It was a strange story but I always wanted to know what was going to happen next especially at the end
November 22, 2018
This is a writer who is so in love with his own words, he literally can't see the forest for the trees. I've never encountered anything quite like it and wish a good editor had been able to sink his/her teeth into this tale and weed out the inconsistencies and contradictions.
The first few pages had my heart singing. The language is seductively opulent, but then... The language is everything. It renders the style repetitive while the writer repeats the same information over and over so he can use different words to describe the same things. And, again, because it's all about the words, not the story, this is wall-to-wall telling, not showing. That renders it very flat and the characters shallow. None of the characters, BTW, are likeable.
Now, the 'can't see the forest' bit I mentioned: Mr. Goolrick is so in love with letting the words spill out that he completely loses focus. The contradictions are at first surprising, but then ludicrous, and finally, irritating enough to abandon the whole book. Examples:
We are told Diana, the MC, for the first time in her life screams at her father about having to leave home for her debutante presentation. Then, a few paragraphs later, we are told how Diana had early on refused her father's permission to stay at home and expressed her willingness to search for a rich husband. How disjointed.
We are told that Diana searches for her wedding dress and settles on the most outrageous, scandalous one she can find. Then she shrinks from people looking at her in it and bears their stares in a horrified sort of martyrdom. Eh?
We are told that Diana loves her home's library and spent a great deal of her childhood reading. In addition, it is stressed that she was raised to be cultured and educated...refined to a rare degree. Then, she tells her son that she was raised so ignorant and empty-headed and has learned only by reading the books in the library during the last couple of years while he was a student at Yale.
We are told the son is dismissed from Yale because he sequestered himself in his room. Didn't bathe. Didn't do his assignments. Was so mentally off that they asked him to take a year off and return after becoming more focused. The kid arrives home with extreme focus and immediately shoulders the duties of the enormous estate and has even had the foresight to manage legal matters to his mother's advantage all on his own.
There's a storm the night of the son's homecoming. The electricity goes out. Then, it comes back on, but a few paragraphs later they are all eating dinner together in a dark dining room with only flickering candles for light. And, also of the storm, Diana asks a servant to open the windows of the son's old room so it can air out because 'the storm has passed.' Then, again a few lines later, they are eating their dinner with the storm howling around outside.
I could go on and on and on. As I said, it feels as though the writer got caught up in the sheer joy of telling and sacrificed continuity and inner logic. It's a shame, because I love opulent descriptions, but not at the expense of plot and character.
In the end, I don't have the desire to read any more of Mr. Goolrick's work, but, perversely, I'd be intrigued to have lunch with him and hear his own backstory. There's something interesting there, but it's not in his work. Yet.
The first few pages had my heart singing. The language is seductively opulent, but then... The language is everything. It renders the style repetitive while the writer repeats the same information over and over so he can use different words to describe the same things. And, again, because it's all about the words, not the story, this is wall-to-wall telling, not showing. That renders it very flat and the characters shallow. None of the characters, BTW, are likeable.
Now, the 'can't see the forest' bit I mentioned: Mr. Goolrick is so in love with letting the words spill out that he completely loses focus. The contradictions are at first surprising, but then ludicrous, and finally, irritating enough to abandon the whole book. Examples:
We are told Diana, the MC, for the first time in her life screams at her father about having to leave home for her debutante presentation. Then, a few paragraphs later, we are told how Diana had early on refused her father's permission to stay at home and expressed her willingness to search for a rich husband. How disjointed.
We are told that Diana searches for her wedding dress and settles on the most outrageous, scandalous one she can find. Then she shrinks from people looking at her in it and bears their stares in a horrified sort of martyrdom. Eh?
We are told that Diana loves her home's library and spent a great deal of her childhood reading. In addition, it is stressed that she was raised to be cultured and educated...refined to a rare degree. Then, she tells her son that she was raised so ignorant and empty-headed and has learned only by reading the books in the library during the last couple of years while he was a student at Yale.
We are told the son is dismissed from Yale because he sequestered himself in his room. Didn't bathe. Didn't do his assignments. Was so mentally off that they asked him to take a year off and return after becoming more focused. The kid arrives home with extreme focus and immediately shoulders the duties of the enormous estate and has even had the foresight to manage legal matters to his mother's advantage all on his own.
There's a storm the night of the son's homecoming. The electricity goes out. Then, it comes back on, but a few paragraphs later they are all eating dinner together in a dark dining room with only flickering candles for light. And, also of the storm, Diana asks a servant to open the windows of the son's old room so it can air out because 'the storm has passed.' Then, again a few lines later, they are eating their dinner with the storm howling around outside.
I could go on and on and on. As I said, it feels as though the writer got caught up in the sheer joy of telling and sacrificed continuity and inner logic. It's a shame, because I love opulent descriptions, but not at the expense of plot and character.
In the end, I don't have the desire to read any more of Mr. Goolrick's work, but, perversely, I'd be intrigued to have lunch with him and hear his own backstory. There's something interesting there, but it's not in his work. Yet.
June 5, 2019
Robert Goolrick is that rare breed of author who writes a very different novel every time. He defies the publishing adage of "branding", which I must admit, I respect and admire as a fellow writer.
In his THE DYING OF THE LIGHT, we're immersed in a full-throttle, no-holds-barred Gothic melodrama, replete with a stunning, one-of-a-kind Virginia mansion with the requisite sweeping river views, whose historical upkeep has of course bankrupted its illustrious family; a plucky, beautiful heroine, the last of her inbred kind, who must sacrifice herself for said family and mansion; an illicit love affair that shatters all illusion of respectability; a gay subplot; a murder twist; and of course, the ubiquitous fiery denouement.
There's a lot to be said for how Mr Goolrick manages to expertly weave all these cliches into an original and very readable tale. You can argue that his heroine Diana Cooperton is both too perfect for anything but high-gloss modeling yet depicted through a misogynist lenses: her unparalleled flair for couture, her voracious sexual appetites, and her desperate, unmet need for therapy are part and parcel of her archetype Southern character. You can argue that his gay subplot lacks sensitivity or depth, though in the era depicted, gay men's self-loathing went widely unaddressed. You can argue that all the chaos and deprivation these privileged white people go through for a house - yes, it's a very impressive house, I'll grant you, but still just a house - qualifies them for the Dysfunctional Family Award of the Century. And you wouldn't be wrong.
But . . . the writing is gorgeous. It refuses to curtail itself, swaths of overwrought prose lush as the mansion's velvet curtains enveloping you in a smothering embrace. Mr Goolrick's sense of place and time are pitch-perfect, as always; and he draws on the spell-binding Southern storyteller tradition to spill out his tale. This novel, for all its flaws, ends up being an immersive read because the author seems to know exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. And his cameos make the oft-calamitous ride worth the effort. The flagrantly eccentric interior designer with her Diana Vreeland quips and overweight lapdog was my favorite, but there are others, such as the devoted black house servants who serve up endless platters of ham biscuits and kitchen-distilled wisdom that no one heeds. The closeted book repair man (yes, there actually is one) who just wants a safe place to hide. The tragic and hilarious description of the debutante circus-balls where, with her much-envied curtsy, Diana puts her competitors to shame and catches the jaded eye of her family's savior and personal tormentor - torments that, naturally, take place in high-end Paris hotel suites.
You don't read this book for the story alone, though there's plenty of yarn to keep you turning its pages. You read it for a writer whose defiance of the established norms in fiction, while subverting age-old and time-honored hooks that made those established norms so popular, makes you wonder how on earth he got away with it.
In his THE DYING OF THE LIGHT, we're immersed in a full-throttle, no-holds-barred Gothic melodrama, replete with a stunning, one-of-a-kind Virginia mansion with the requisite sweeping river views, whose historical upkeep has of course bankrupted its illustrious family; a plucky, beautiful heroine, the last of her inbred kind, who must sacrifice herself for said family and mansion; an illicit love affair that shatters all illusion of respectability; a gay subplot; a murder twist; and of course, the ubiquitous fiery denouement.
There's a lot to be said for how Mr Goolrick manages to expertly weave all these cliches into an original and very readable tale. You can argue that his heroine Diana Cooperton is both too perfect for anything but high-gloss modeling yet depicted through a misogynist lenses: her unparalleled flair for couture, her voracious sexual appetites, and her desperate, unmet need for therapy are part and parcel of her archetype Southern character. You can argue that his gay subplot lacks sensitivity or depth, though in the era depicted, gay men's self-loathing went widely unaddressed. You can argue that all the chaos and deprivation these privileged white people go through for a house - yes, it's a very impressive house, I'll grant you, but still just a house - qualifies them for the Dysfunctional Family Award of the Century. And you wouldn't be wrong.
But . . . the writing is gorgeous. It refuses to curtail itself, swaths of overwrought prose lush as the mansion's velvet curtains enveloping you in a smothering embrace. Mr Goolrick's sense of place and time are pitch-perfect, as always; and he draws on the spell-binding Southern storyteller tradition to spill out his tale. This novel, for all its flaws, ends up being an immersive read because the author seems to know exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. And his cameos make the oft-calamitous ride worth the effort. The flagrantly eccentric interior designer with her Diana Vreeland quips and overweight lapdog was my favorite, but there are others, such as the devoted black house servants who serve up endless platters of ham biscuits and kitchen-distilled wisdom that no one heeds. The closeted book repair man (yes, there actually is one) who just wants a safe place to hide. The tragic and hilarious description of the debutante circus-balls where, with her much-envied curtsy, Diana puts her competitors to shame and catches the jaded eye of her family's savior and personal tormentor - torments that, naturally, take place in high-end Paris hotel suites.
You don't read this book for the story alone, though there's plenty of yarn to keep you turning its pages. You read it for a writer whose defiance of the established norms in fiction, while subverting age-old and time-honored hooks that made those established norms so popular, makes you wonder how on earth he got away with it.
March 9, 2021
I cannot think of a more aptly named book, in retrospect. This is a book devoid of light, of hope, of pretty much any good thing you might cling to...and somehow, as the story progresses, it is still a tale of the many different forms of the extinguishing of light and life, even though I am not sure how, since the former never appeared to be present in the first place and the latter only in the very barest sense.
What I liked about The Dying of the Light:
The description - This is a quality people either love or hate, but I am the former and the author successfully painted pictures in my mind. I could see the river and the house and the debutante balls. The visuals, when they came, were striking.
Priscilla and Clarence - Pretty much the only characters of redeeming value in the entirety of this novel. All the rest, even if I felt badly for their state of mind, were such secretive, self-centered, pathetic, loathsome, spineless messes that I couldn't bring myself to like them even for a half minute.
What I didn't care for:
The raunch - I noticed several reviews on this book attribute this to being written by a man, but I've encountered plenty of female authors equally capable of writing these scenes. It really was...a bit much, regardless. It may have been to prove a point about Diana's character but mostly it just read uncomfortably.
No sense of time - Because of the way the book was laid out, beyond a certain point, I no longer had any inclination of "when" I was in history. When Diana was younger, there were enough references to her age that it was easy to deduce what era the country was in, but once Ash was a young man, it suddenly felt more muddled, until the very end. Throughout the bulk of the pages, though, nothing really seemed to give me a concrete feel for what the world around them was like. Then again, perhaps that was on purpose, since they all acted as though nothing beyond the perimeters of Saratoga bore any significance.
If I were to sum this up? A dark tragedy from which I couldn't seem to disengage. Hopeless and empty, it felt very Gatsby-like to me, emotionally; no one came across as likable, just pitiable for their very existence. The relationships were all dysfunctional at best and more often outright profane. The decadence was a thin, cheap veneer for the brokenness that seethed just below it. Reminiscent of The Lost Generation (also aptly named), present in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, as well as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, this book had that same feeling of depraved lifestyles covering up the meaningless lives of vapid individuals. I had to keep reading to see how that trainwreck was going to conclude, but when I closed the book for the final time, I felt exactly after I did when I completed the aforementioned classics: utterly disheartened.
What I liked about The Dying of the Light:
The description - This is a quality people either love or hate, but I am the former and the author successfully painted pictures in my mind. I could see the river and the house and the debutante balls. The visuals, when they came, were striking.
Priscilla and Clarence - Pretty much the only characters of redeeming value in the entirety of this novel. All the rest, even if I felt badly for their state of mind, were such secretive, self-centered, pathetic, loathsome, spineless messes that I couldn't bring myself to like them even for a half minute.
What I didn't care for:
The raunch - I noticed several reviews on this book attribute this to being written by a man, but I've encountered plenty of female authors equally capable of writing these scenes. It really was...a bit much, regardless. It may have been to prove a point about Diana's character but mostly it just read uncomfortably.
No sense of time - Because of the way the book was laid out, beyond a certain point, I no longer had any inclination of "when" I was in history. When Diana was younger, there were enough references to her age that it was easy to deduce what era the country was in, but once Ash was a young man, it suddenly felt more muddled, until the very end. Throughout the bulk of the pages, though, nothing really seemed to give me a concrete feel for what the world around them was like. Then again, perhaps that was on purpose, since they all acted as though nothing beyond the perimeters of Saratoga bore any significance.
If I were to sum this up? A dark tragedy from which I couldn't seem to disengage. Hopeless and empty, it felt very Gatsby-like to me, emotionally; no one came across as likable, just pitiable for their very existence. The relationships were all dysfunctional at best and more often outright profane. The decadence was a thin, cheap veneer for the brokenness that seethed just below it. Reminiscent of The Lost Generation (also aptly named), present in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, as well as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, this book had that same feeling of depraved lifestyles covering up the meaningless lives of vapid individuals. I had to keep reading to see how that trainwreck was going to conclude, but when I closed the book for the final time, I felt exactly after I did when I completed the aforementioned classics: utterly disheartened.
October 28, 2020
That book sucked. I had originally planned to leave my review simply at that, since I didn’t want to waste any more of my life on it, but maybe I should explain. Mostly, it’s an absurd story filled with uninteresting characters and plot twists that make no real sense. Just to add more drama, I suppose, but never really getting into any depth. The plot of the first half of the book is actually entirely revealed from reading the back of the book jacket and the prologue. Seriously, half way through I was like, “ok, yeah I knew that stuff when I read the blurb on the back”. (Unfortunately, at that time I thought it would be an interesting read.) Actually, there were two characters that I found somewhat interesting, but they were minor and what was their purpose in that story anyways? I would have rather read their stories. Some of the lines he comes up with in this book are ludicrous. At one point, he actually compares a man making love to a woman with how a duck sits on the water. Really? I’ve seen ducks on water. I’ve had sex with a man. Maybe I’m no poet, but I do not see the comparison. Then there are all the inconsistencies! We’re told throughout the book how much she hated her husband. Then at some point near the end, we hear this business about how just before he died, she was beginning to fall in love with him again. The author seems to think sex is the only thing really on the mind of this supposed complicated woman with this complicated life. We’re supposed to believe she was really still pining for sex with her rapist? And what was with the Dec 7, 1941 reference? (Pearl Harbour attack day). If that was supposed to have any significance to the story it sure as hell wasn’t explained. Yeah, I only finished it so I could properly tell people how much this book stunk.
August 15, 2018
OK. Great story idea, could have been better. Not crazy about the flowery language, etc.
Also, there were a few holes in the story which I found distracting. When Lucius showed up, someone observed that he looked about 27. But then later, we learn he is 42. I had to look back until I found the earlier mention of him looking 27, and then scan ahead, thinking I missed something. Just things like that made it seem like the author forgot to describe/explain a few things.
And, are we honestly expected to believe that (spoiler alert) Diana lives in the little house (dollhouse? Really, what was that? It was never clear.) for all those years, and no one noticed that she was still there, alive? Or that she still swam laps in the OLYMPIC sized pool every day, which she kept heated? No one picked up on the fact that the house was using water and electricity? Umm, ok.
The whole tragedy of her and her son, who was in love with her, and if he couldn't have her didn't want any other woman, and her affair with her son's best friend, made for a good story, but this whole story was so dark and depressing that between that and the other shortcomings/distractions, not sure I can say I recommend.
Also, there were a few holes in the story which I found distracting. When Lucius showed up, someone observed that he looked about 27. But then later, we learn he is 42. I had to look back until I found the earlier mention of him looking 27, and then scan ahead, thinking I missed something. Just things like that made it seem like the author forgot to describe/explain a few things.
And, are we honestly expected to believe that (spoiler alert) Diana lives in the little house (dollhouse? Really, what was that? It was never clear.) for all those years, and no one noticed that she was still there, alive? Or that she still swam laps in the OLYMPIC sized pool every day, which she kept heated? No one picked up on the fact that the house was using water and electricity? Umm, ok.
The whole tragedy of her and her son, who was in love with her, and if he couldn't have her didn't want any other woman, and her affair with her son's best friend, made for a good story, but this whole story was so dark and depressing that between that and the other shortcomings/distractions, not sure I can say I recommend.
Read
September 23, 2018“It begins with a house and it ends in ashes.” So opens Robert Goolrick’s rich, lyrical new novel, The Dying of the Light. The house is Saratoga, a colonial-era estate in Virginia that is at once a joy and a burden to the family that lives there, the Cookes. In particular, it determines the life trajectory of Diana Cooke, the eighteen-year-old heiress charged with saving her family and her home from poverty right after World War I. Diana reluctantly embraces her destiny, agreeing to marry Captain Copperton, a wealthy but uncouth man who doesn’t hesitate to remind the Cookes at every turn that he owns not only the house but them, in principle if not in fact.
But Copperton has one virtue in addition to his entrepreneurial abilities: he is a good father to the son he has with Diana. And it is, in the end, their son who unwittingly sets off the series of events that leaves Saratoga in ashes. Along the way, a cast of delightfully realized and often eccentric characters interact in sometimes predictable, sometimes surprising ways against the backdrop of Saratoga and its ever changing, ever inspiring river.
Interview with Robert Goolrick at New Books in Historical Fiction.
But Copperton has one virtue in addition to his entrepreneurial abilities: he is a good father to the son he has with Diana. And it is, in the end, their son who unwittingly sets off the series of events that leaves Saratoga in ashes. Along the way, a cast of delightfully realized and often eccentric characters interact in sometimes predictable, sometimes surprising ways against the backdrop of Saratoga and its ever changing, ever inspiring river.
Interview with Robert Goolrick at New Books in Historical Fiction.
October 31, 2018
3.5 stars. I was a fan of The Reliable Wife so was excited for this book. Beautifully written story of a home called Saratoga and the family within.
June 27, 2018
** 1/2
It pains me to give this just 2.5 stars but here we are. I didn't love Goolrick's first book A Reliable Wife (though apparently I read it before I joined Goodreads) and as a result, I didn't read him for a long, long time after that which is a shame because once I finally did, I adored both Fall of Princes and Heading Out to Wonderful.
Well, The Dying of the Light has a lot of echoes of A Reliable Wife and it didn't wow me. If you're a fan of Southern Gothic bodice-rippers, this one might be for you. I found the story line to be completely predictable and the characters flat.
But just because I didn't like it doesn't mean you won't. Goolrick is an author who should be better known than he is so give him a try--if not this book, one of his earlier ones.
It pains me to give this just 2.5 stars but here we are. I didn't love Goolrick's first book A Reliable Wife (though apparently I read it before I joined Goodreads) and as a result, I didn't read him for a long, long time after that which is a shame because once I finally did, I adored both Fall of Princes and Heading Out to Wonderful.
Well, The Dying of the Light has a lot of echoes of A Reliable Wife and it didn't wow me. If you're a fan of Southern Gothic bodice-rippers, this one might be for you. I found the story line to be completely predictable and the characters flat.
But just because I didn't like it doesn't mean you won't. Goolrick is an author who should be better known than he is so give him a try--if not this book, one of his earlier ones.
April 1, 2018
True Southern gothic-you can smell the heavy magnolia and feel the oppressive heat as you watch this detached family try to keep their social standing and preserve their family home. Robert Goolrick loves to play with his readers and while this story starts off on a slow and easy ramble, it finishes with a smack-you-in-your-face ending that will leave you reeling. We begin with the poor debutante who marries up and survives an uneasy marriage to a cad, produces the golden boy heir and then falls apart again trying to keep it all together with no money. The language and setting made me think that Zelda Fitzgerald would show up at the doorstep any minute. Mix up a pitcher of mimosas and settle into the rocking chair on the porch- this is one hot historical shocker. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
April 2, 2018
If you are looking for a true gothic with the flavor of the south, complete with a moldering manor house and dysfunction galore, look no further than this atmospheric novel. Quite frankly, there aren't too many sympathetic characters and the writing was at times a little overwrought, but it didn't stop me from flipping the pages to find out what happened to Diana who debuted to "sell" herself to the highest bidder in the husband department in order to save the family manse. You know from the start that it's not going to be a good thing.
Fans of Christina Schwarz's DROWNING RUTH and/or John Berendt's MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL may find this a similar read.
Thanks to the publisher for the advance digital review copy. The publication date for this is July 3, 2018.
Fans of Christina Schwarz's DROWNING RUTH and/or John Berendt's MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL may find this a similar read.
Thanks to the publisher for the advance digital review copy. The publication date for this is July 3, 2018.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews