Gold­en Coun­try, Jen­nifer Gilmore’s mas­ter­ful and irrev­er­ent rein­ven­tion of the Jew­ish Amer­i­can nov­el, cap­tures the exu­ber­ance of the Amer­i­can dream while expos­ing its under­bel­ly — dis­il­lu­sion­ment, greed, and the dis­af­fec­tion bred by suc­cess. As Gilmore’s charm­ing­ly flawed char­ac­ters wit­ness and shape his­to­ry, they come to embody Amer­i­ca’s great­ness, as well as its great­est imperfections.

Span­ning the first half of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry, Gold­en Coun­try vivid­ly brings to life the inter­twin­ing sto­ries of three immi­grants seek­ing their for­tunes — the hand­some and ambi­tious Sey­mour, a sales­man-turned-gang­ster-turned-Broad­way-pro­duc­er; the gen­tle and prag­mat­ic Joseph, a door-to-door sales­man who is dri­ven to invent a cleanser effec­tive enough to wipe away the shame of his broth­er’s mob con­nec­tions; and the irre­sistible Frances Gold, who grows up in Brook­lyn, stars in Sey­mour’s first show, and mar­ries the man who invents tele­vi­sion. Their three fam­i­lies, though inex­tri­ca­bly con­nect­ed for years, are brought togeth­er for the first time by the engage­ment of Sey­mour’s son and Joseph’s daugh­ter. David and Miri­am’s mar­riage must endure the inher­i­tance of not only their par­ents’ wealth but also the bur­dens of their past.