Review of 'The Golden Gate'
The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
This is quite a change for novel having been written entirely in verse (leading me to wonder if this is a BIT of a gimmick since the dedication, chapter headings and author write-up in the back are all also in verse). It tells the story of a small group of “yuppies” coming to grips with their lives in San Francisco (and surrounds, including Pal Alto, Silicon Valley). There are a number of different story-lines that are followed that all inter-relate to one another and full of surprises. I found the way that Seth actually takes time out from these stories to actually stand back and look at the actual writing of the book itself, commenting himself on the reaction publishers gave him while writing, to be terribly interesting. Seth does this on more than one occasion, forcing the reader to step back and think about the book as a whole. I found myself reading not for the poetry (some of the rhyming is not quite what one might call “poetry”, in my humble opinion) but the actual story which is quite interesting touching, as it does, on homosexuality, anti-nuclear sentiment, and the joy of living with cats, amongst many other things. Definitely an experience I am now interested to explore some more of Seth's more traditionally constructed novels.
Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”
Genre: General Fiction