Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille (1990)

I don't remember why this book was recommended to me and, for a while, I thought that the 25 hours of listening time would never be over, but I have to say, the book grew on me. When I finished it, I went back to the introduction to again hear how DeMille was inspired by The Great Gatsby, and described his idea as "Godfather meets Great Gatsby on the Gold Coast". I have to admit, that even though I grew up in the New York City area, I had never heard of the Gold Coast - the northern shore of Long Island, where the richest of the rich used to have their mansions. DeMille himself grew up on Long Island and remembers the great construction boom, which I was aware of, as many Latvian immigrants found jobs building up Long Island in the 50's and 60's.

The story is narrated by John Whitman Sutter, a blue blood lawyer, who has married Susan Stanhope Sutter, who grew up in one of the now deserted mansions. I was interested in the history of this Gold Coast, how the rich settled out here, and how taxes and the Great Depression made these mansions impossible to maintain, so they were often deserted, bulldozed, or sold to institutions. I had a hard time listening to the idle lifestyle of the rich. John is a lawyer, and at least does some work, but still has time for long lunches at the club, and takes off weeks or months to spend in a summer home sailing. Susan rides her horse every day, does some gardening, socializing, and belongs to the Gazebo Club. I guess I need to understand that there are people that live that way, but it was a frustrating read. All people have their demons, and John Sutter's seemed to arise out of boredom, maybe some discontent of this laid back lifestyle. In the first line of the book, John meets Frank Bellarosa, the biggest Mafia don remaining in New York, who has just moved into the estate next door - Alhambra. As a straight laced lawyer, John is repelled by this man and wants nothing to do with him, but Bellarosa is engaging and definitely not boring. Susan too was drawn to this man, as was I. John keeps repeating how this man is dangerous and manipulating, but gets drawn into Bellarosa's life anyway, and watches his own crumble. I am naive in many ways and want to believe the best in people, so I was drawn to Bellarosa's humor, ties to his community, the way he bought goodies for his wife, or planted tomato and other edible plants. I was totally intrigued by the descriptions of Little Italy and the Italian immigrant community, finding some parallels with Latvians. We never had a place like Little Italy, where all could "come home." My aunt married a Sicilian, and I was vaguely aware that he had close ties with his Italian buddies and went to his club to play cards.

For a long time I thought John's problems were outgrowths of his own discontent, but slowly realized that most of them were created by Bellarosa. Since I have never read anything by DeMille, I didn't know he is a writer of thrillers, but there was a simmering thriller underneath. This is not his typical work and it was not reviewed well, but as people started reading it, it became popular among readers, and is sometimes used as a companion to The Great Gatsby in college courses.