The author clearly wanted to write a book about California and its surf culture that would acknowledge the origins of surfing, its appropriators (good and bad) and its true believers (same). To do that, she needed to bring in at least one character of a different race. Jimmy winds up as a lonely avatar of diversity in a book stuffed with storylines ... Perhaps we are meant to understand that Carol’s wretched parenting has consequences. But it doesn’t quite work, any more than the plot’s occasional references to Carol’s fate — especially after early portents fizzle into anticlimax ... The characters spring to life, however, when they’re on their boards ... At times, this book feels crammed with subplot and passing references to developments ... But in other places — and overall — California Golden plants its feet firmly on the board and rides a powerful wave of nostalgia, eyes focused on the opportunities and dangers ahead.
Tracks the diverging lives of the Donnelly women, careening from glamorous Hollywood parties to dangerous drug-smuggling operations to the stifling limitations of motherhood. With...charm and nostalgia...Benjamin’s novel also shows what the sun-kissed highlight reels so often missed.
Attuned if cluttered ... The core family story is moving, but Benjamin loses focus amid the many themes—Vietnam, the 1960s counterculture, and domestic violence being just a few. These women can hang 10, but the novel doesn’t quite hang together.
This sun-soaked novel is wonderfully awash in the music, television, and fashion of the '60s as well as the counterculture movement that touted drugs and dropping out. Benjamin based this novel, in part, on real-life female surfers who faced sexism in the mid-20th century. A sun-drenched tale of two sisters trying to make peace with their past.
