The Gate House
by Nelson DeMille
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Book Reviews of The Gate House
Book Review: A tedious novel by a great novelist
Summary: 1 Stars
I have read every Nelson DeMille book and have always considered him a wonderful writer but "The Gate House" is one overlong pretentious piece of boredom. At nearly 700 pages, it is a sad sequel to the fine "Gold Coast" written nearly 20 years ago. The story is fairly simple..a man returns to the site where his wife murdered a mafioso don 10 years after the fact. He meets the son of the former don who seems threatening but tries to come across as a "not at all vengeful" person. He reconnects with his former wife and members of his family. Will the new Don threaten him or his wife? How has his family changed since his absence? How many times will he have sex with how many different women? After the first couple of hundred pages, you simply won't care. There is way too much dialogue that often stretches over multiple chapters with no point. It's a bit like the Steve Martin line in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" when he says to John Candy, "When you tell a story try to have a point to it. It makes it so much more interesting for the listener" (Substitute reader in the case of this book!) If you want to read a thick epic novel that fascinates and moves at a rapid speed, pick up "The Given Day" by Dennis Lehane. If you want to read a social satire (which DeMille seems to be attempting here) go back and read "Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe. This book finally reaches it's presumed and unsurprising conclusion in the final 50 pages but by that time, I was so bored by Sutter's sarcastic and witty remarks I simply wanted this book to be finished. To that point, the characters opposite Sutter continually comment on how witty he is which seems to be DeMille complimenting himself on his charming style. The wit or so called wit actually wears on the reader. John Sutter thinks he should say "blah blah blah" but it's too smarmy so he actually says "yadda yadda"! After about the 59th such example of this method, you want to scream! So many of my favorite books have been written by this author. "The General's Daughter" "Word of Honor", "Plum Island" "The Charm School" are just a few examples so if you hate this book like I did, at least check out some of his others and you will be surprised at the quality. I realize this book is a number one bestseller so criticism has little impact but see how many bad reviews from readers are on this site and think twice about immersing your mind and wasting your time on "The Gate House".Book Review: Readable--but he shouldn't have revisited the Gold Coast
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a sequel to "The Gold Coast." "The Gold Coast" is probably Nelson DeMille's best book and I'd give that one five stars and recommend it to anyone "The Gate House" is an entertaining page-turner and any DeMille fan will want to read it, but it feels like a potboiler and an attempt to milk the old cash cow. Furthermore, it references "The Gold Coast" so much that I don't think it stands on its own; you ought to read "The Gold Coast" first.
Both books suffer, in my mind, from the flawed nature of the narrator, John Sutter. The best parts of the book are those in which John is being ironic, sarcastic, dismissive, contemptuous, putting people down, and doing his best to infuriate Mafia mobsters.
John and Susan are supposed to be deeply in love--at times, complex, tragic, star-crossed love. The sex scenes between John and Susan are not so much about love and are very much about sex. In them, the couple behaves like a pair of consenting adults who are mutually exploiting each other as sex objects. The parts of the book concerning agape and philia rather than eros are unconvincing. John as lover is much less believable than John as wisecracker.
It is fun to listen to John the raconteur, but I never get the feeling I would enjoy meeting him.
The rest of the characters are cardboard cutouts. The plot machinery creaks. There is a mysterious game-changing sealed letter worthy of Charles Dickens at his most annoying. I had to work way too hard to suspend disbelief. I disclose no secrets when I say that it becomes clear early in this book John is ultimately going to have to kill the bad guy, Anthony Bellarosa--the son of the bad guy, Frank Bellarosa, whom Susan killed in The Gold Coast. My wife and I had a bet on as to whether this book's ending would be happy or tragic. By the time I was 3/4 done, I was reading mostly to satisfy my curiosity as to how it would turn out, not because I actually cared.
There is also a skein of loose ends. During most of the book, we are led to believe the Iranian owner of the former Stanhope family mansion is in deadly peril from terrorists, just as John and Susan living in the former Stanhope guest house are in deadly peril from mobsters. So, what about this parallel story? No payoff and no resolution.
A good read for an airplane trip--if you already know you like DeMille.
Book Review: Diary of a sarcastic cynical satyr
Summary: 4 Stars
Dairy of a sarcastic cynical satyr
Sex in the morning, sex at lunch, sex on the patio table, sex in a Grecian love temple, well you get the picture. Nelson DeMille's The Gate House is a sad yet funny romp through the remnants of the fabled decadent Long Island "Gold Coast". Hardly a chapter goes by without someone's sexual fantasy being fulfilled: And yet Mr. DeMille is able to keep the story together in a morosely sarcastic humorous way. Funny yes, sad yes, believable no, yet I simply could not stop reading and laughing. At times I felt I was watching an uproariously funny Dennis Miller skit. In all of Mr. DeMille's novels he uses sarcastic wit to keep the reader engaged. In The Gate House he is over-the-top with sarcastic humor and at times becomes too predictable, but still I found myself laughing at the absolute buffoonery of some of the characters.
In essence the story is a month in the life of protagonist John Sutter, his dysfunctional family, mobster neighbors, strange friends, and even weirder acquaintances. At 675 pages I was expecting R.P. McMurphy of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" fame to make an appearance. Sadly, he was held up at the station. There really is not much to go into detail about. It is a superficial story of a man who is fundamentally unhappy yet enjoys his man-made hell. It is a combination of Dostoevsky-lite and Catch 22 redux with a pinch of Dennis Miller wit. Bottom line is I liked it. Why? Heck I don't know why but I did. Although not his best novel, I long for John Corey and his sarcasm and wit, it is still a good read. My advice is to simply go along for the ride and don't expect too much. With that in mind, you'll find yourself laughing your posterior off.
Lots of gratuitous sex, and language. Some graphic violence.
Character development was shallow but fun. It is hard to tell what makes these characters tick but one thing is certain, even they don't know!
Recommend: I'm ambivalent here. I like Nelson DeMille although his last few works have tailed off. I definitely would read this novel but is it worth the $28? Probably not. Wait for the paperback or get it at your local library. I'm am hoping that his next novel with John Corey will return Mr. DeMille to his literary excellence.
Book Review: DeMille Knows Fiction Writing
Summary: 5 Stars
THE GATE HOUSE
Nelson DeMille
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group
ISBN: 978-0-446-53342-3
$27.99
674 pages
Reviewer: Annie Slessman
Nelson DeMille has written fifteen works of fiction and The Gate House, his latest work could prove to be one of his best. DeMille knows how to weave a tight story of intrigue, humor and characterizations that are so believable they seem familiar to its readers.
John Sutter, the main character of The Gate House lives the life of the Gold Coast crowd while married to his aristocratic wife, Susan Stanhope. When Susan kills Frank Bellarosa, their neighbor and Susan's lover, the marriage ends. John divorces Susan and takes a three-year sojourn on his sailboat before moving to London.
He returns to New York when a Stanhope family servant, Ethel Allard, is placed under hospice care. As Allard's attorney, Sutter must put Allard's affairs in order and support her daughter, Elizabeth, as they await Ethel's pending death.
Staying at the former gatehouse of the Stanhope mansion, Sutter finds himself only yards from his former wife. Ultimately, they meet again and this is the point where the story really takes off.
Anthony Bellarosa, son of the deceased, Frank Bellarosa, has a vendetta he must enact and attempts to solicit Sutter in his plans. The relationship that develops between Sutter and the younger Bellarosa takes on a new dimension when Sutter refuses to go along with Bellarosa's plans and a reader is taken on a roller coaster ride of suspense.
When this work arrived at my door, its size seemed somewhat intimidating. However, let me assure readers, you will savor each page and want more when you finish the last page. DeMille gives his readers true value for their money. If you liked The Gold Coast, you'll love The Gate House.
Nelson DeMille attended Hofstra University, served in the Army. He earned the Air Medal, Bronze Star and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He has authored #1 New York Times bestsellers Night Fall and Plum Island and New York Times bestsellers Wild Fire, The Lion's Game, The Gold Coast and The General's Daughter.
Book Review: Unfortunately, Nelson has started his downward spiral
Summary: 1 Stars
As often happens, many of our favorite authors reach a peak and then start that inevitable downward spiral. They seem to lose the creative ability to conjure up different material, with fresh plots involving new characters and resort to what has become the bane of Hollywood, the sequel.
When I first picked up Cathedral, then quickly to The Charm School, I was captured by how creative and inventive his stories were all the while intimately wrapped around the signature of Demille's novels, the main protagonist, his women and his villains. The sarcastic hero, always making the righteous choice even at his own peril, never without a witty comeback to the villain, always getting the girl. But in the end, the ultimate strength of each novel was a great story involving intrigue, treachery, twists and turns.
Some of the sequels held their own, with Nightfall being one of his absolute best. But then came Wild Fire and I got the sense DeMille was starting to lose interest (or more ominously, his talent) and the story became just the backdrop to the main character with very little development of the plot line.
I figured I'd give Nelson another shot, hoping that maybe he had an off few months writing Night Fall.
But my hopes were dashed with The Gate House. Absolutely dreadful. No story whatsoever, unless you consider his repeating ad nauseum the events that occurred 10 years earlier in The Gold Coast. Did you know Susan Sutter had an affair with Frank Bellarosa, then shot him down? Did you know John Sutter was the Don's lawyer and despised his own in-laws? Nelson felt the need to remind you of these facts, along with untold retellings of the events from The Gold Coast at virtually every passage. Not an inkling of anything resembling an original plot line in the whole book.
A repetitive, boring, uninspired rehashing of The Gold Coast in what I can only figure was an unadulterated money grab. I fear that as an author, Demille is done. Let's hope he turns to adapting some of this better novels to film. Always had high hopes of seeing Cathedral on the big screen. But I will not spend another dollar on one of his novels.