THE TEMPLE OF GOLD [Paperback]

WILLIAM GOLDMAN (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1970

"The famous novel of today's angry, rootless, seeking young men and women. The brilliant first novel by the author of the sensational best sellers, "The Thing of It Is..." and "Boys & Girls Together".

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books; Later Printing edition (1970)
• ASIN: B0010UCWT6
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,592,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Goldman has been writing books and movies for more than forty years. He has won two Academy Awards (for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men), and three Lifetime Achievement Awards in screenwriting.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the disenfenchised have always walked among us, February 12, 2000

By 

Johnny Roulette - See all my reviews

This review is from: Temple of Gold (Paperback)

Being 29, I do not carry the bias of nostalgia that other reviewers may hold. This book was published 13 years before I was born, but the subject matter is timeless. There have always been(and will forever be) teens who become disillusioned with life. Goldman has created, in Raymond Euripides Trevitt, a character with whom most of us can connect. He doesn't relate, or effectively comminicate, with his parents. He finds it easier to burn bridges than to appear emotionally vulnerable. We follow him through a tremendous friendship with a kid named Zock, several girlfriends(relationships ranging from purely physical, hollow offerings to that exaggerated brand of heartache & tragedy that seems to've been patented by teenagers), high school, rivers of booze, a stint in the Army, college & marriage. We have to endure his search for the fabled Temple Of Gold, helpless to save him the trouble. There is more tragedy than triumph, more sadness than laughter, more anger than understanding...in short, Raymond experiences Life. Reading this book, I felt the sense of powerlessness my own parents must have felt. You can only witness in silence as painful, life-altering decisions are made. Wisdom can only be found on the other side of mistakes and bad decesions...it cannot be taught. Raymond has to bludgeon his soul before he can mend it. Temple Of Gold is wonderully written. It is realistic and moving. If it lacks something in the eloquence department, it is because Raymond is telling the story...not Zock. I'm afraid I've lost the thread somewhere in this review...just read the book. You'll be very glad that you did. Teen-angst isn't usually this edible in literature.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twillies, September 28, 2000

By 

Meaghan Ankney (Wilmington, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Temple of Gold (Paperback)

I have never loved a book the way I love this one. As someone who previously reviewed it said, it is the reason I became a writer. I have never written a word or reflected on my own life without being influenced by it. My mother, who was good enough to give me her copy (which, of course, I've subsequently given away) always called it The Better Catcher in the Rye and I tend to agree. I give this book to anyone I really love.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An all time favorite, May 8, 2002

By 

RCHK (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Temple of Gold (Paperback)

I've read this book a couple of times - first when I was a senior in high school, again a couple of years into college, and then most recently as a first year grad student - and every time I've loved it. There are a lot of reasons(it's wry, sincere, frighented, hopefull, and terribly honest... not to mention beautifully written), but I think one of them is that as Goldman works his way through the complex weave of friendship, hope, love, fear, confusion, etc with which he fills this novel, amist it all he somehow manages to capture that rhythm by which life just goes on and on and up and down and you learn some lessons and other things leave you scarred but either way things just keep moving. It's a really difficult thing to accomplish in such a personal and straigtforward novel such as this, but when it is accomplished, it's wonderful.

That's just one stab at explaining one of many reasons that I loved this book, though. I recomend it wholeheartedly.