Customer Reviews

The Golden Orange

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sometimes a book takes a sudden twist that knocks you for a loop. Other times, you find yourself reading a book where you have a pretty good idea what the twist is going to be, only you keep reading because you care so much about the central character you hope you're wrong. The second kind is more impressive to me, and "The Golden Orange" is a perfect example of it.

Joseph Wambaugh's 1990 novel focuses on a boozy ex-cop's love affair with a beautiful society girl on the coast of Newport Beach in Orange County, California. Maybe that's why people are down on it; it's more Raymond Chandler than Ed McBain. Yet I can't help loving "The Golden Orange," one of the most humorous and emotionally compelling novels I have ever read.

There isn't anything here to surprise film noir enthusiasts, though this is much different in tone and story. With his masterly sense of characterization, Wambaugh starts off putting the reader in the shoes of Winnie Farlowe, a hard-drinking 40-year-old forced off the local police because of injury. Adrift, wishing he could return to a job where he mattered, he wastes his small pension drowning his sorrows in one of the few cheap dives in Orange County, occasionally getting a peek at the well-heeled around him.

Winnie's a hard guy not to like, with his sardonic yet humble manner. Told he is ingenuous, Winnie asks: "Is that like ingenious? I used to be ingenious sometimes. Working on homicide gave me ingenious moments." He's so straight up he pays child support for his ex-wife's kids because he adopted them during the marriage. The only thing he's not straight up about is his drinking: "I'm not an alcoholic. I jist shouldn't drink rum!"

After a mad drunken boat ride lands Winnie in the papers for a couple of days, into his bar walks an unexpected grace note. Tess Binder, a 43-year-old thrice-divorced "Hot Momma," saw his picture in the paper and felt something, it's hard to explain what exactly, that made her want to reach out to Winnie.

In no time they're in bed, she's asking him to stay the week, calling him "old son," seeking his help in figuring out what happened to her father's lost fortune and why someone might be trying to kill her. Protective Winnie is convinced his life just passed perfect and is somewhere north of sensational. Except when he dreams.

Wambaugh finds a cagey balance between amusement and gravity with the alcoholic Winnie. When we first meet him is having one of his three-in-the-morning wake-up calls with his version of pink elephants, two buzzards he visualizes pecking at his stomach. He's so used to them he's given them names.

There's also a nice portrait of Newport Beach, Wambaugh's home turf when he wrote "The Golden Orange." After a small temblor gets his customer praying, a bartender wisecracks: "A day to go down in Newport Beach history...Fifteen square miles a greed and white-collar crime. And people finally pray because of a little four-point-sixer." Among the funny asides is a dissertation on the different kinds of rich, and how the Hot Mommas work their tans and plastic surgeons in a never-ending quest to marry up.

The one downside of the book is a tinness of dialogue: The bar Winnie frequents is full of drunks who seem to one-up each other with wisecracks straight from Neil Simon. But this wouldn't be as much of a flaw in a lesser book. There are moments, mostly between Winnie and Tess, where the conversations ache with real emotion, and you can almost hear the lilt of laughter in Tess's voice.

Other people express their frustration with Wambaugh after his 70s/80s commercial peak, but "The Golden Orange" makes me want to read more. I love his humor here, but I treasure his sensitivity and his compassion for the unlucky and dumped-upon even more. It's a keeper.

In reading the previous reviews, I think this book has not been given it's due. I have read the book several times for the humor found within it. I have been a police officer for 26 years and found The Golden Orange to be full of police humor from the first chapter to the last. The lead character leads the life of a pentioned out officer who is constently battling his past using alcohol and levety to ease that past. Wambaugh molds every character into ones we can all relate to. The police characters are no doubt taken from Wambaugh's experience as police officer from the synical old timers to the optomistic green rookies. There are FEW books I would recommend as highly as this one for action, mystery and real belly laughs. I only wish he had 100 more like it.

As one who has read about six of Wambaugh's books, I don't understand those who gave weak reviews to this book. In fact if I'd never read
any of his other work, I'd still feel strongly that this one stands on its own. It 'is what it is' as they say and I found it hard to put-down (a rare circumstance for me, when reading fiction) after discovering this book at a church rummage sale, in September, 2008.
As a retired policeman myself (25 years Detroit PD) and a published author (7 titles-check Mark A. Bando on Amazon.com), I suspect that I may be somewhat biased toward stories dealing with retired police officers. However, I believe that any male reader who is dealing with middle age, retirement and looming senior citizenship, could relate to the mysteries of life that Mr. Wambaugh forces us to examine and ponder as this tale unfolds.
He has skillfuly woven the plot and well-developed characters together to make this book a masterpiece in my estimation. It is possible that cops more than the average guy, ponder questions of human behavior and life more relentlessly than the average non-police person. The never- ending quest to discover life's 'meaning' (what's it all about?) and the motivations behind cruel/damaging human behavior are the mysteries examined, but never answered in this book. I like this about the book as well, because these questions are daily puzzled-over by millions, yet seldom discussed or illuminated in any public venue.

Indeed Wambaugh realizes that we can never know the answers, but instead we are left to ponder with jaw-dropping amazement, how deeply personal betrayal can be justified by some individuals, in the greedy quest for materialistic gain.
Wambaugh has written about 'monsters' in his other books, killers capable of physical violence-even murder. But the monster in this book is Tess Binder, whose cold-blooded betrayal of the hapless protagonist is every bit as brutal as the actions of a serial killer. She is a psychic serial killer and a reminder that what you see on the surface is not always indicative of what lurks inside. Also, that any dame who has been divorced three times might just be the 'cause', rather than the victim of those failed unions. We often hear of two or three-time losers who are just victims of 'bad choices' or bad luck-not the case here. Maybe Tess's previous husbands WERE jerks but perhaps she deserved what she got. This book also reminds us that if it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly IS.

So, after the final tragedy unfolds in this book, we are no more capable of 'understanding' Tess Binder's brain or soul. We are just left to ponder how a beautiful, rich feline can live with her own conscience after exploiting and damaging someone so shamelessly in pursuit of money-There's another thing to ponder: why the rich are so relentlessly greedy to become even MORE rich?
All these questions run through Wambaugh's story, without being delineated in so many words. Just maybe the mental capacity to hurt people in quest of wealth explains how the rich acquired their wealth in the first place?

Surely these questions play on the author's mind and he has put the scenarios out there for the rest of us to ponder and mull-over.
Perhaps the soaring hope that Winnie felt when a girl who 'has it all' seemed to show genuine interest in a poor, retired pensioner for what he IS, rather than what he HAS, is another feeling that many of us can relate to, as well as the author. The only emergency parachute Winnie has, is that he has been around long-enough to somewhat dis-believe his good fortune from the beginning of the affair.
He questions how long it will last, before she gets tired of him and dumps him. The author has made the characters so real that one believes Tess actually developed some genuine feelings for her victim, before dropping the bomb on him.
The interaction between them while it does last is so seemingly genuine and compelling that the reader is also let-down cruelly when Tess dashes his hopes, ego, trust and love when her true character and motives are revealed at the end of the book. Wambaugh doesn't have to explain to us how devastating this experience is to the mind of his protagonist-we KNOW without having it spelled-out.
Although a serious alcoholic, Winnie is admirable in many ways, a 'straight ahead guy', who, because of his idealism and integrity is a perfect fall guy for Tess' evil intentions.
Perhaps this is another theme of the author's...that the world is not a friendly place for straight ahead guys?

I think it was Bumper Morgan, a cop in one of Wambaugh's earlier novels, who stated that any time he got really close to somebody, that relationship was severed with a 'bloody sword'. This truth resonates with Wambaugh and here he has graphically illuminated a ghastly example of such a scenario. The reader also wonders how much of Wambaugh's various cop characters are reflections of himself.


Tess' type of monster, a beautiful feline with money and a ruthless, aquisitive mind-set, enjoys a dangerous degree of power while still young and attractive. She is not only a monster but also a cruelty joke of nature, making one ponder why God would put such an ugly personna in such a beautiful package. But perhaps this is merely 'survival of the fittest', the evolved product of those who have risen to the top precisely because they have teamed ruthlessness with the ability to attract 'fish'(victims), using the bait of physical attractiveness?
What I finally ponder after reading this, is that nursing homes must be filled with over the hill monsters like Tess. Because in the final analysis, all is bio-degradable and even the mega-rich must eventually die. I have to wonder how the Egos of these once so-powerful ladies cope, when they are no longer desirable, nor attractive?
Observing such creatures at the height of their power, one has to doubt that they have any inkling that they might someday no longer be invincible. How do they feel when they are passing the final boring years or decades, unwanted, undesirable, and wasting away?
Even if their wealth allows them to live-out their final years at home, they must deal with the loss of beauty/desirability that aging brings.
Perhaps this is the hellish retribution they must face?
And how well do they cope with memories of how they used, exploited and hurt people with such callous disregard back in their heyday?
As to guilt, perhaps they feel nothing. The conscience-less individual
probably has no regrets and merely feels that she did what she had to do.
In this case, one feels that just maybe Tess DID have some genuine feelings for Winnie, which might someday come back to bite her.
While neither Joseph Wambaugh nor any other mortal human author knows all the answers to these deeper questions, he has done us a service by illuminating yet another kind of criminal...a killer of interpersonal trust and decency...a callous, sociopathic thief of the human spirit. Saddest of all, this crime of betrayal was done in the quest for material gain.
Thanks so much Mr. Wambaugh, for crafting this entertaining and thoughtful piece of work. I do think it is one of your best.

Real fun and twisted. Great characters, unpredictable plot and superb writing. What else could you ask for? This is one of Wambaugh's most underrated novels.

This is a really enjoyable read. What's unusual is that the author telegraphs the plot twist very early on, but you still enjoy the characters enough to keep you reading until you find out exactly how it plays out.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this novel would have never been published if it was not written by a writer with an established fan base. It seems that Joseph Wambaugh is either hit or miss in terms of the quality of his fiction. "The Golden Orange" is a big miss.

I almost stopped reading the book in the first hundred pages. But like an accident on the highway, I wanted to see how bad it would get. The first half of the book is largely a romance novel of middle aged people with bad track records. Aside from hints of the plot, nothing really happens. Well into the book, the plot finally slowly starts to develop before it is rushed to an end that is very predictable.

The characters are generally unlikeable. The main character Winnie is hard to like when he is a repeated loser and a drunk. He is like the male friend that marries the bad woman despite the advice of his friends. So when he falls into the latest trap(s), it is hard to feel sorry for him.

Amateur writers forged better efforts than this in community college creative writing classes. There was some potential for a good novel here, but Joseph Wambaugh could not find it.

Fear and remorse are Winnie's twins. He is an ex-cop who drinks too much. Drinkers have night visitations.

Disaster ensues during Winnie's stint as a ferry boat pilot at Christmastime. He rams a motor yacht. Passengers panic. A boat parade is disrupted.

The book describes divorcees-- tanned, beautiful, youthful-appearing. The emphasis may seem crass but it is understandable in terms of a policeman's view of the social scene. Tess Binder is one of the divorcees. She lives in a gated community. Winnie develops an infatuation for her. She takes him to a ranch her father owned. She has a remainder interest in it.

It seems to Winnie that Tess's father may not have committed suicide, that his death is suspicious. He comes to believe that Tess is in danger because someone is attempting to extinguish her remainder interest.

Since meeting Tess, Winnie's life has been filled with hope. Nevertheless, as time passes, Winnie begins to notice scars from cosmetic surgery and other imperfections possessed by Tess.

Winnie is coaxed into drinking too much. He ends up in jail, basically his own idea, where he has nothing to do but face his alcoholism. His alcoholic darkness is lifted. Later his drinking resumes as his complete knowledge of multiple plot strands takes place.

Wambaugh's achievement in this book is notable.

Whis book by Wambaugh was a wild and wonderful read. The lead characters were very well sketched out and very believable. Their dealings with each other was interesting and kept your attention. The conclusion was believable and an interesting surprise. It is an enjoyable and quick read and is well worth reading.

J. Robert Ewbank, author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

People who sneeringly refer to California as the "Left Coast" obviously know nothing about Orange County, which is home to a large enough population of conservative wingnuts to offset the whole rest of the state. Unfortunately (for everyone but the Mercedes dealers), the John-Wayne-worshipers also have Newport Beach, one of the nicer stretches of sand in Southern California. Winston "Win" Farlowe is a forty-year-old ex-cop, retired on disability with a bad back, divorced and living in a cheap flat and trying to get by as a semiprofessional alcoholic. Then Tess Binder comes into his life, fresh off her third divorce and with only a quarter of a million dollars to her name. (Yes, as Win keeps noticing, the rich really are different.) Both of their families have lived in Newport for generations, but where Win's grandfather was a fisherman, Tess's was Commodore of the yacht club. Tess seems to find something engaging in Win, much to his startled bemusement, and he's soon spending all his time at her house (a mansion on the "wrong" side of the peninsula), sleeping in her peach-sheeted bed, eating her Spanish omelets, and enjoying unbelievable sex. They go out to the desert rancho where her widowed father had lived until his recent suicide, and while they're out riding they're shot at -- and then things really take a turn for the strange. Tess is convinced the current resident of the rancho -- her late father's male lover -- is out to kill her, to gain control of the trust left by her father. Win, the ex-detective, is willing to do whatever he can to protect her, . . . if he just wasn't drunk so often. This is a pretty sneaky story, actually. You'll wonder where the "mystery" is going until about halfway through the book, when the observant reader will stop seeing everything from Win's bedazzled perspective and will begin to have doubts. Sure enough, Win is cut out by his own failings to be the fall guy. Only the story will change a couple more times before the end. Wambaugh, as always, is a master not only of plotting but of dialogue and description. For instance, there's the barside comment by Win's cop buddy: "Can't stand a roaming drunk. If they stay put, you can avoid `em." Or, Win's remark about one of the perfect-body fortune-hunters on the beach: "Oh yeah. The one that looked at me like I was a strange spot on a hotel pillowcase. I remember her." Or his description of an aging lawyer dressed all in gray, whose hair is "the color of a tarnished butter knife." Great stuff.

Joseph Wambaugh's earlier books were renown for their black humour which would sometimes be so good that you would laugh out loud. He told stories of cops walking the beat and living on the edge.

As the years passed, he seemed to strongly veer away from this sort of story and go towards stories with cops as a side attraction but novels that were more about human nature.

In this novel, we are in the Golden Orange, an area where the very rich people play and we get to see Winnie, a former cop and current alcoholic who is down on his luck, who meets a wealthy woman who has secrets.

The book itself is not terrible or anything, it is just ordinary. There is very little humour and it just seems to me like the author was writing about the people that he spends time with. The problem is that the wealthy tend to be rather dull......