Rollie Gold
by Joe Basara
AmericanAdded on April 20, 2026
Description
Rollie Gold's father had been a Marine drill instructor during World War II, and treated him like just another raw recruit who needed to be run through boot camp. At least this was Rollie's opinion, though as a kid he loved to hear his father's war stories of when he'd fought in the Pacific. When his mother later told him these stories were untrue, it felt like a betrayal. His mother made him promise he'd never tell his father, and he never did, but whatever chance they had of ever enjoying a healthy father-son relationship seemed lost. In his twenties, he moved to Oregon with three companions to live on a commune. There, he came to see a parallel between the four of them and four characters he'd read about in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance. He came to see this romance as his personal myth, but later came wonder if it might be only an illusion. Growing older, he came to equate this illusion with his father's illusion about fighting in the war. This novel focuses on five years in Rollie Gold's life. In his own words, Rollie describes his thirty-year search to find a reconciliation with his father.
Reader Reviews
‘Growing up in the 60’s didn’t help. My patriotic early childhood was giving way to the “We have met the enemy and he is us” attitude’Florida author Joe Basara attended Florida Atlantic University, and has always been fascinated with the mystique of Florida and tries to capture some of this in his novels, all of which are set in the imaginary town of Cypress Lake. ROLLIE GOLD is Bok 5 of his ongoing series he pens as CYPRESS LAKE, the initial volume bearing the series title was published in 2010
Having read the rest of this series, this latest book was very disappointing. The eponymous character just isn't very interesting. He grows up with a Marine Corps veteran father who isn't physically or emotionally abusive like The Great Santini, just gruff. He ends up going to a commune in 1975, which is extremely tedious. It skips forward to 1982 and then 1999 when Rollie hasn't done much with his life except work in a nursing home and then a hardware store and farm pulling the guts from turkey
PowerfulBasara writes a great story that spans over different eras, and it showcases the life and tribulations between father and son. Taught with the connection and life of a Marine (even retired, if there is such a thing), there is something between this two men, and one feels lost in illusions. It's raw and gritty, yet, gentle and deep within the story. The POV of the story is also important, as it shows the emotional turmoil of Rollie. "I put on the new Cubs cap I’d bought just before leavin
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