Good as Gold is a satirical novel about Bruce Gold, a Jewish American professor and writer living in New York. He is anxious about his family, whose dinners are full of complaint and comic misunderstanding, and about his own career. When he is invited to work for the government in Washington, he is drawn into a world of ambition, flattery and political nonsense. Heller mocks both family life and the machinery of power, with fast jokes and a sharp ear for speech. It is an energetic comedy about identity, success and the compromises people make to get ahead.