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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
Wonderful to read a book that features committed women athletes. Equally wonderful to read a book that balances personal goals and dreams with the demands of the needs of those you love.
Interesting fiction of a long standing rivalry between two Olympic caliber women cyclists. It's putting me in the mood for the Olympics!
The advance copy of this book was provided to me free of charge by the publisher.
Throughout the first part of this book I didn't find myself anxiously turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next. Instead, the story built itself up, gave plenty of character background and I found myself thinking about the book when I wasn't reading it. Towards the middle of the book the story picked up and that's when I couldn't put it down. After reading Cleave's "Little Bee" I was anxious about the direction the story was going, but the twists and turns of "Gold" (and there are many!) all ended up in a place that turned this book into an instant favorite for me. I cried tears of sadness, tears of despair and tears of joy while reading this story and I have no doubt that it will stick with me for a long time.
Throughout the first part of this book I didn't find myself anxiously turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next. Instead, the story built itself up, gave plenty of character background and I found myself thinking about the book when I wasn't reading it. Towards the middle of the book the story picked up and that's when I couldn't put it down. After reading Cleave's "Little Bee" I was anxious about the direction the story was going, but the twists and turns of "Gold" (and there are many!) all ended up in a place that turned this book into an instant favorite for me. I cried tears of sadness, tears of despair and tears of joy while reading this story and I have no doubt that it will stick with me for a long time.
“Gold” is the the Olympic year reading experience I didn’t know I needed.
I loved it for its refreshing premise (two female speed cyclists fighting over an Olympic berth instead of over a man) and its plucky supporting characters, including a Star Wars-obessed girl with leukemia, and an aging coach with an unbearable decision to make.
Having been, once upon a time, a Level 10 gymnast and, later, a Division 1 high jumper, I identified with the book’s themes of ambition and sacrifice as readily as I did with the layered relational dynamic between the athletes and each other, and the athletes and their coach.
In weaker hands, the story’s twists and emotional turns could feel contrived, but Chris Cleave’s trademark ability to make us care deeply for his characters lends itself to a memorable, satisfying ride.
I loved it for its refreshing premise (two female speed cyclists fighting over an Olympic berth instead of over a man) and its plucky supporting characters, including a Star Wars-obessed girl with leukemia, and an aging coach with an unbearable decision to make.
Having been, once upon a time, a Level 10 gymnast and, later, a Division 1 high jumper, I identified with the book’s themes of ambition and sacrifice as readily as I did with the layered relational dynamic between the athletes and each other, and the athletes and their coach.
In weaker hands, the story’s twists and emotional turns could feel contrived, but Chris Cleave’s trademark ability to make us care deeply for his characters lends itself to a memorable, satisfying ride.
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of the best books I've ever read. Incredibly well written. Movingly beautiful.
I enjoyed this book. It was a great read to listen to in the car, and got me psyched for the upcoming Olympics. I especially enjoyed seeing how the relationship between Kate and Zoe grew over time. Compelling!
Outstanding writing and a great story as well! Chris Cleave, I will be reading other books by you!
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I try to avoid reading other reviews of books I’m reviewing until after I’ve turned my review into my editor. The only exception to this is when I want to double check that my reading of a murky plot point was correct. Gold was the first novel by Chris Cleave I’d read, and I knew that he had a reputation for writing literate and popular books, so I was surprised when I found the opening pages of it so off-putting.
Often my first impression of a book is the one that I carry through to the end of it, but there have been a few times when my initial impression of a book is overturned by what comes later. One other example of this is Joyce Carol Oates’ “The Gravedigger’s Daughter,” which was tedious at the beginning but became riveting about a hundred pages in. Likewise, Gold grew on me. The plot became exciting and the characters better developed. After I turned in my review, I read some other reviews of it, such as the one in the New York Times, and although I didn’t write this in my review, I agree with what they said that the sections about the cancer-stricken child feel manipulative. It’s hard to write about sick kids with the appropriate touch that Lorrie Moore managed, for example, in “People Like That Are the Only People Here.”
Anyway, here’s my review that ran in the Dallas Morning News:
Gold by Chris Cleave Takes Readers On a Spin
By JENNY SHANK Special Contributor
Published: 27 July 2012 12:18 PM
Chris Cleave’s new novel, Gold, which tells the story of three friends involved in a love triangle competing to make the British cycling team for the 2012 London Olympics, recovers from its wobbly start.
Gold opens with some flat descriptions, such as this of Zoe as she prepares to win the 2004 Olympic gold medal in sprint cycling: “Magazines loved her. She looked good in clothes. She was beautiful.” Cleave uses unnecessary words that adverb referees Mark Twain and Stephen King would blow the whistle on, and he inflicts several strained metaphors and clichés, often involving the heart. Zoe’s cardiac system is busy — “her heart surged,” and a few pages later, her “heart was still snagged on the wire of the fence her friend had put up between them.”
But you can’t keep a pro like the international best-selling author of Little Bee down for long. Cleave writes of the physical experience of cycling at top speed with clarity and vigor. After the warm-up chapters, Gold takes off and develops into a gripping tale with many surprising turns on the way to its photo-finish climax.
As the book opens, Zoe is in Athens, racing for gold, while her training partner Kate is home in Manchester. “She had shared a coach with Zoe and trained with her and beaten her in the Nationals and the Worlds,” Cleave writes. “And then, in the final year of preparation for Athens, baby Sophie had arrived.” Adding to the sting of missing the Olympics is the fact that Kate’s fiancé, Jack Argall, is also in Athens racing for gold, and we soon learn that there is some tortured romantic history between Zoe and Jack, and that Zoe, a psychological train- wreck, can never be trusted.
The narrative skips ahead to 2012, when Sophie is 8 and suffering from leukemia. Zoe and Jack, now married, divide their days into four-hour chunks, trading off training for the Olympics and caring for Sophie. Cleave writes several chapters from the perspective of Sophie, who is obsessed with Star Wars and sees her fight against leukemia as the effort to fire “the Death Star’s destructor beam into the limitless constellations of space and hit exactly the right target.” The Sophie chapters are full of convincing details that prove Zoe’s eventual realization that “looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting.”
Cleave ratchets up the suspense as the British Olympic committee announces only one cyclist can compete in the 2012 Olympics. The mystery of the three cyclists deepens as Cleave reveals their pasts, detailing the grief that drove Zoe to become a Machiavellian competitor who uses clever tricks to destabilize her opponents, such as sending a text message from Jack’s phone to hers that she knows Kate will see.
As Zoe and Kate race to determine who will represent Britain at the Olympics and Sophie struggles through a health scare, the pages of Gold fly by, leaving the reader’s pulse as quickened as those of the athletes.
Jenny Shank’s first novel, The Ringer, is a finalist for the High Plains Book Award in fiction.
Gold
Chris Cleave
(Simon & Schuster, $27)
Often my first impression of a book is the one that I carry through to the end of it, but there have been a few times when my initial impression of a book is overturned by what comes later. One other example of this is Joyce Carol Oates’ “The Gravedigger’s Daughter,” which was tedious at the beginning but became riveting about a hundred pages in. Likewise, Gold grew on me. The plot became exciting and the characters better developed. After I turned in my review, I read some other reviews of it, such as the one in the New York Times, and although I didn’t write this in my review, I agree with what they said that the sections about the cancer-stricken child feel manipulative. It’s hard to write about sick kids with the appropriate touch that Lorrie Moore managed, for example, in “People Like That Are the Only People Here.”
Anyway, here’s my review that ran in the Dallas Morning News:
Gold by Chris Cleave Takes Readers On a Spin
By JENNY SHANK Special Contributor
Published: 27 July 2012 12:18 PM
Chris Cleave’s new novel, Gold, which tells the story of three friends involved in a love triangle competing to make the British cycling team for the 2012 London Olympics, recovers from its wobbly start.
Gold opens with some flat descriptions, such as this of Zoe as she prepares to win the 2004 Olympic gold medal in sprint cycling: “Magazines loved her. She looked good in clothes. She was beautiful.” Cleave uses unnecessary words that adverb referees Mark Twain and Stephen King would blow the whistle on, and he inflicts several strained metaphors and clichés, often involving the heart. Zoe’s cardiac system is busy — “her heart surged,” and a few pages later, her “heart was still snagged on the wire of the fence her friend had put up between them.”
But you can’t keep a pro like the international best-selling author of Little Bee down for long. Cleave writes of the physical experience of cycling at top speed with clarity and vigor. After the warm-up chapters, Gold takes off and develops into a gripping tale with many surprising turns on the way to its photo-finish climax.
As the book opens, Zoe is in Athens, racing for gold, while her training partner Kate is home in Manchester. “She had shared a coach with Zoe and trained with her and beaten her in the Nationals and the Worlds,” Cleave writes. “And then, in the final year of preparation for Athens, baby Sophie had arrived.” Adding to the sting of missing the Olympics is the fact that Kate’s fiancé, Jack Argall, is also in Athens racing for gold, and we soon learn that there is some tortured romantic history between Zoe and Jack, and that Zoe, a psychological train- wreck, can never be trusted.
The narrative skips ahead to 2012, when Sophie is 8 and suffering from leukemia. Zoe and Jack, now married, divide their days into four-hour chunks, trading off training for the Olympics and caring for Sophie. Cleave writes several chapters from the perspective of Sophie, who is obsessed with Star Wars and sees her fight against leukemia as the effort to fire “the Death Star’s destructor beam into the limitless constellations of space and hit exactly the right target.” The Sophie chapters are full of convincing details that prove Zoe’s eventual realization that “looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting.”
Cleave ratchets up the suspense as the British Olympic committee announces only one cyclist can compete in the 2012 Olympics. The mystery of the three cyclists deepens as Cleave reveals their pasts, detailing the grief that drove Zoe to become a Machiavellian competitor who uses clever tricks to destabilize her opponents, such as sending a text message from Jack’s phone to hers that she knows Kate will see.
As Zoe and Kate race to determine who will represent Britain at the Olympics and Sophie struggles through a health scare, the pages of Gold fly by, leaving the reader’s pulse as quickened as those of the athletes.
Jenny Shank’s first novel, The Ringer, is a finalist for the High Plains Book Award in fiction.
Gold
Chris Cleave
(Simon & Schuster, $27)