Golden Days (novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Carolyn See |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Nuclear warfare |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Published | 1987 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 196 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 13270958 |
Golden Days is a novel by Carolyn See about a middle-aged divorcee and single mother who moves to Southern California and lives the California dream until the nuclear bombs fall.
"In the early eighties, you had the sense that there was nothing you couldn't do in L.A."
In Golden Days, Edith Langley, a 38-year-old divorcee returns to Los Angeles from the East Coast with her two daughters, Aurora and Denise, to start a new life in 1980. They move into a home in Topanga Canyon, and Edith reinvents herself as a financial reporter and then a financial advisor to other women. Edith begins a relationship with Skip Chandler, an older married man. Skip is back in the States for a medical issue—his wife and children still in Argentina where they moved after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Edith and Skip live the affluent life of the 1980s in Southern California—money, Lear Jets, and Porsches. They fly to San Francisco to attend a weekend seminar given by Lion Boyce on "Abundance as a Natural State." At the seminar, Edith runs into an old friend—Lorna McAvey. On their return, Skip goes to the doctor and discovers there is nothing wrong with him. The novel then flashes back to 1962 when Edith meets her friend Lorna—who sees her through the years of her first marriage and divorce. The story then returns to L.A. in the early eighties; Edith grows a business as a gem dealer and banker. Edith and Lorna are friends again—Edith refers to it as their second friendship. Edith fills Lorna in on her second failed marriage to Dirk Langley, an Australian surf film director. As Edith becomes richer and richer, Lorna reinvents herself on television preaching the positive message of abundance. The book then jumps forward to 1986, Edith's eldest daughter has graduated college and is a successful international courier while her younger daughter is still at home and in school. Edith and Skip have settled into a quiet life entrenching themselves through their affluence against an increasingly unsettled world focusing on the younger daughter's school. A war begins in Central America. At the school, Edith and Lorna meet Franz deGeld a Hollywood executive whom Lorna is having an affair. At that time, a Nuclear bomb goes off in a Central American jungle killing a few thousand people. Life goes on as before. Aurora has fallen in love and announces she is marrying Skip's son Deeky and moving with him to South America. Skip gives them a house in La Plata.
The next part of the novel takes a bit of a break from the main plot and deals with a period of waiting for something bad to happen. Characters talk about fear. One chapter focuses on the life of a cheating husband.
The final part of the novel is nuclear annihilation and its aftermath. Edith describes the last days and Lorna's continued preaching against fear. Then the bomb hits and Edith, Skip, her daughter Denise live through the blast, subsequent fires, illness and disfigurement. The novel describes the lives of the family, friends, and neighbors as they attempt to survive in this new wasteland. The remaining characters decide to leave the Canyon to walk down to the Beach. As they go Edith begins to tell stories—affirming stories, not unlike those of her friend Lorna and Lion Boyce.
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