Sunnyside [Paperback]

A quintessentially American epic,Sunnysidestars the one and only Little Tramp, Charlie Chaplin.  It’s 1916 and, after an extraordinary mass delusion where Chaplin is spotted in more than eight hundred places simultaneously, his fame is at its peak but his inspiration is at a low.  As he struggles to find a film project as worthy as himself, we are introduced to a dazzling cast of characters that take us from the battlefields of France to the Russian Revolution and from the budding glamour of Hollywood to madcap Wild West shows.  The result is a spellbinding novel about dreams, ambition, and the birth of modern America.“Brilliant . . .Sunnysideoffers a wealth of wit and pathos and insight, and who better to guide us through this transformational moment in history than the Little Tramp? . . . Gold’s dexterous voice can swing from the exuberant melodrama of silent film to the terror of doomed soldiers to the quiet despair of the world’s most beloved man.” —Washington Post
 
“Sunnysidealways intrigues and often soars . . . [It has] wonderful Dickensian qualities, namely, the capacity to startle, to thrill, to evoke laughter and, ultimately, to bring tears to the eyes.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
 
“Ingenious. . . . A thoughtful commentary on the creation of celebrity in modern America.” —The New Yorker
 
“Glen David Gold’s Doctorow-esqueSunnysidebrings young America to vivid life as he weaves together European battlefields and the backlots of Hollywood . . . Gold is a masterful, even heart-stopping storyteller.” —Entertainment Weekly
 
“An insanely ambitious novel . . . Gold’s prose is both decorative and tensile, like art deco steel turned into English language . . . [One] scene is such a gorgeous evocation of movieland glamour, night air and healG