House of Gold: Book Review

House of Gold
Natasha Solomons

My copy


I read House of Gold for our book club about a month ago. My memory of the book is a bit fuzzy. House of Gold is about the Goldbaum family from Vienna. It is about a big bank family in Europe. Sound familiar, Rothchild's perhaps. As I am reading it feels similar to Downton Abby.

in 1911 in Vienna. We meet Greta who is forced into an arranged marriage.  She has to move, and live in England with Albert and his family. This includes Albert's parents and his brother.

Goldblum's marry other Goldblaum' she doesn't want anything to do with Albert when she meets him. She and Albert hate each other. It's quite a while before they stop fighting with each other like cats and dogs. And finally, fall in love with each other, and become intimate, after their marriage vows. They have nothing in common with each other. Until Albert's mother has an idea to put her in charge of the estate gardens. This is when things start to change for the better. You see Albert's hobby is collecting bugs. Greta starts becoming interested and fascinated with while she is taking care of the gardens. But soon the war is looming in Europe. Albert has to leave to fight in the war.
What I loved was the description of the house, the clothes, jewelry, etc.

I hope I didn't give too much away of the story.

What I found interesting is how the Jewish aristocrats learn to deal with antisemitism. My take on the book is it was OK. I wasn't in love with the book.

At our book club meeting which was the first since March. Since the pandemic, we haven't met. We decided to try on Zoom. We didn't really discuss the book. I think it was because we were trying to catch up on each of us. I also was nervous about using Zoom. It worked out wonderfully. Not hard to use. But, I think I was camera shy. Hopefully, our next meeting will be a bit better. We will be reading, Just Mercy next month.