The Temple of Gold by William Goldman
This book, written by the author of The Princess Bride, was recommended to me by my daughter, who read it in her English class. This story is about the coming of age of a young man named Ray Euripides Trevitt in a Chicago suburb in the 1950’s. We first meet him as he forges a close friendship with his new next door neighbor, Zock. The 2 of them begin their teens together innocently enough until tragedy befalls them. The story tells of Ray’s struggle to cope in a family who does not discuss how to do this.
The voice of Ray is extremely effective. He is blunt, sometimes crude, but always honest to the core. He is very much a product of his time and circumstance and gives the reader a very interesting glimpse of life in the 1950’s. Many refer to it as a simpler time, but as we see here, life has never been simple really. Not for most, anyway.
This book is very engaging, the characters very real and 3-dimensional, and I wish I could’ve read it in a class, because I’m sure the discussions would be great!
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