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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
[52] A mesmerizing five star read - this story swallowed me completely. The book describes the complicated history between two very different velodrome cyclists who are best friends and long-term rivals both on and off the track. The focus of the present is the single spot available for the London Olympics that only one of them can have despite being equals to the thousandth of a second. The cuts between the past and the present and the multiple points of view (including their shared coach) made this feel like unwrapping a present. book “'Life' is a big word, isn't it? Let's break it down into smaller segments. Let's find a level of granularity we can plan around; we could say we'll take it a month at a time, or a week at a time, and treat each of those modules almost as a training unit...” [299] star star star star star #GoldBook #ChrisCleave #ModernMrsDarcy #BookReview #Bookstagram
Quotes:
Tom Voss still remembered how it had felt for him, back in Mexico in '68 to miss out on Olympic bronze by one-tenth of one second. He could feel the anguish of it even now, in his chest, raw and unavenged. Forty-four years later he still noticed the sharp passage of every tenth part of every second. The inflections of time were the teeth of a saw, bisecting him. This was not how other people experienced time. They noticed its teeth indistinctly in a blur of motion and were amazed to wake up one day and find themselves cut in half by it, like the assistants of a negligent magician. But Tom knew how the cut was made. [41]
"Sometimes he felt like a clawed animal who'd been given a rose to hold. He knew just enough to know it was beautiful, but not enough to know how to look after it." 139
Mum was quiet for a moment, then Sophie heard her kiss Dad.
"Thanks," she said.
"My pleasure. Now piss off and win. Call me when you've annihilated her, okay?"
"Jack..."
"Shh. No drama. You're the best. Get out of here."
"I love you, Jack."
"While I am only an actor paid to impersonate a man who loves you."
"I hate you."
"While I am merely indifferent."
[257]
“'Life' is a big word, isn't it? Let's break it down into smaller segments. Let's find a level of granularity we can plan around; we could say we'll take it a month at a time, or a week at a time, and treat each of those modules almost as a training unit...” [299]
Slowly, she remembered something she had forgotten in the bitter aftermath of Kate's victory: that this job Kate had been doing wasn't something that she herself could do. It wasn't just hard, it was always a wheel-length ahead of impossible. Looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting. [312]
https://modernmrsdarcy.com/quick-lit-january-2020/
When my husband, Will, was on the podcast, he named this as his favorite book possibly ever—and so I made it a winter break priority. I LOVED it and read it in two days. The story centers around two velodrome cyclists who are best friends and arch-rivals, training under the same coach for their last remaining shot at the London Olympics, while respectively navigating personal crises and the life-threatening sickness of a child (note that content warning, please). I was riveted as Cleave set out the complicated history between the two women and kept raising the stakes in the present. The story is told from multiple points of view to great effect; the coach's point of view made the book for me.
Quotes:
Tom Voss still remembered how it had felt for him, back in Mexico in '68 to miss out on Olympic bronze by one-tenth of one second. He could feel the anguish of it even now, in his chest, raw and unavenged. Forty-four years later he still noticed the sharp passage of every tenth part of every second. The inflections of time were the teeth of a saw, bisecting him. This was not how other people experienced time. They noticed its teeth indistinctly in a blur of motion and were amazed to wake up one day and find themselves cut in half by it, like the assistants of a negligent magician. But Tom knew how the cut was made. [41]
"Sometimes he felt like a clawed animal who'd been given a rose to hold. He knew just enough to know it was beautiful, but not enough to know how to look after it." 139
Mum was quiet for a moment, then Sophie heard her kiss Dad.
"Thanks," she said.
"My pleasure. Now piss off and win. Call me when you've annihilated her, okay?"
"Jack..."
"Shh. No drama. You're the best. Get out of here."
"I love you, Jack."
"While I am only an actor paid to impersonate a man who loves you."
"I hate you."
"While I am merely indifferent."
[257]
“'Life' is a big word, isn't it? Let's break it down into smaller segments. Let's find a level of granularity we can plan around; we could say we'll take it a month at a time, or a week at a time, and treat each of those modules almost as a training unit...” [299]
Slowly, she remembered something she had forgotten in the bitter aftermath of Kate's victory: that this job Kate had been doing wasn't something that she herself could do. It wasn't just hard, it was always a wheel-length ahead of impossible. Looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting. [312]
https://modernmrsdarcy.com/quick-lit-january-2020/
When my husband, Will, was on the podcast, he named this as his favorite book possibly ever—and so I made it a winter break priority. I LOVED it and read it in two days. The story centers around two velodrome cyclists who are best friends and arch-rivals, training under the same coach for their last remaining shot at the London Olympics, while respectively navigating personal crises and the life-threatening sickness of a child (note that content warning, please). I was riveted as Cleave set out the complicated history between the two women and kept raising the stakes in the present. The story is told from multiple points of view to great effect; the coach's point of view made the book for me.
I was a little reluctant to start this novel as I'm not a big sports fan, but boy am I glad I read it. The plot does revolve around 2 British women, Olympic-level cyclists, but it is about them as people. That's not to see I didn't learn a lot about competitive cycling that I didn't know (admittedly I didn't know much), because there is definitely information on that here, but it is woven seamlessly into the plot. We see the training, the structure and support behind the competitors, and the long road to success.
Kate and Zoe are the two women, and they met at the age of nineteen at a national training program in track cycling, the kind that is done in the velodrome, where they also began training with their coach Tom, and met Jack, Kate's future partner.
As the book begins, they are 24 and Zoe, Jack, and Tom are at the Athens Olympics, while Kate is back in England with baby Sophie. The book goes forward from there, with the background story brought in through the characters' looking back. The main action takes place in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics, with both Zoe and Kate training for the events, Zoe struggling with her drive, her history, and her fame, and Kate struggling to continue to be a good mother to her fragile daughter.
For both women, this is their last chance at an Olympics. Next time, their age will mean they won't be able to vie against younger competitors. We see Zoe as she struggles with her emotions, her anger, her guilt, her strong competitive drive that has her taking crazy risks, even off the track.
Kate is a natural rider and has the drive, but has been sidetracked before by her love and concern for her family. Jack tries to be a good father, but Kate isn't always willing to step away, and Jack often feels that he is more the fun parent. Sophie has health issues, but she wants her parents to do well too, and hides the extent of her illness when she can.
This book is about drive, friendships, love, and just being human. The characters come alive for us as complex people, not just the Olympic stars we see in the news. A great read.
Kate and Zoe are the two women, and they met at the age of nineteen at a national training program in track cycling, the kind that is done in the velodrome, where they also began training with their coach Tom, and met Jack, Kate's future partner.
As the book begins, they are 24 and Zoe, Jack, and Tom are at the Athens Olympics, while Kate is back in England with baby Sophie. The book goes forward from there, with the background story brought in through the characters' looking back. The main action takes place in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics, with both Zoe and Kate training for the events, Zoe struggling with her drive, her history, and her fame, and Kate struggling to continue to be a good mother to her fragile daughter.
For both women, this is their last chance at an Olympics. Next time, their age will mean they won't be able to vie against younger competitors. We see Zoe as she struggles with her emotions, her anger, her guilt, her strong competitive drive that has her taking crazy risks, even off the track.
Kate is a natural rider and has the drive, but has been sidetracked before by her love and concern for her family. Jack tries to be a good father, but Kate isn't always willing to step away, and Jack often feels that he is more the fun parent. Sophie has health issues, but she wants her parents to do well too, and hides the extent of her illness when she can.
This book is about drive, friendships, love, and just being human. The characters come alive for us as complex people, not just the Olympic stars we see in the news. A great read.
This was recommended to me as a quick, engrossing read, and it was all of that. I read it during the Olympics and that made it very immediate, but ultimately the story is not about the sport as much as it is about the relationships of the five main characters. There is lots of intrigue here, as training for the ultimate goal affects every aspects of these characters' lives. There are some heart-wrenching twists too. I do recommend this book.
The premise of this book really interested me...2 competitive female cyclists, training for their last Olympics. One is the devil, hard as nails, ruthless, a terrible person. The other is an angel, a totally nice person, who gets taken advantage of, by the other cyclist in ways that I could not fathom. Oh, and they are best friends! Seriously! And then there is a guy, married to the "angel", part of a triangle that this book is based on. Oh heck, let's throw in a child with leukemia, who has a Star Wars obsession, and you have one of the most manipulative, melodramatic books I have read in a long time. If you decide to read this book, you will be completely frustrated with the characters, as I was, hitting yourself over the head with it. I did not like this book at all, but read the whole thing to see if it would get any better. The only reason I gave it 2 stars, is that the writing is good, and made me able to read it.
Do you like bicycles? Do you like Star Wars? Do you like complex characters? Well if you answered yes and you enjoy suffering, then you are in for a treat. This is the story of Kate, Zoe, Jack, Sophie and Tom. Yes, that's a rather large number of characters that get way too much attention throughout the novel—it's one of my problems with the novel—. Kate and Zoe want to go to the 2012 London Olympics but only one can compete thanks to a new rule. They have been friends (and I mean real-world friendship with a lot of betrayal, backstabbing, and selfishness) for ten years and their stories are so entangled that it is hard to figure out who deserves the victory. One is like Obi-Wan Kenobi and the other one is Darth Vader (I'll let you figure out that part). In the end, only one can win, and losing is not an option for either of them.
That's the gist of the story, well, unless we focus on Sophie, a girl with leukemia who loves Star Wars and wants her mother to win. Jack and Kate have made a lot of sacrifices (Kate in particular) to keep her healthy. Zoe on the other hand, has always been a nearly psychopathic winner. She is willing to do anything to obtain a freaking medal. Meanwhile, Tom, their trainer, is dealing with health issues and trying to orchestrate everything to maintain his athletes winning, alive and popular at the same time.
It's a mess. And, someone should fire the idiot who was in charge of printing the novel because it is an eyesore. Whoever did this hates margins. I was suffering enough already with the plot and just looking at how badly printed this book was made me even angrier.
But that doesn't mean the novel is bad. There are a lot of good things here. The writing is often clever and pulls a lot of heartstrings. My allegiance shifted several times throughout the novel but it made me reflect about my own life choices. What are we willing to lose for victory? Is it worth it? Are we a Kate or a Zoe? Is either of those choices good or bad?
Read this novel if you want to figure it out. I believe I am a natural Zoe that puts a lot of effort into being a Kate because it's not already in me. You'll see what I'm talking about once you meet these characters.
That's the gist of the story, well, unless we focus on Sophie, a girl with leukemia who loves Star Wars and wants her mother to win. Jack and Kate have made a lot of sacrifices (Kate in particular) to keep her healthy. Zoe on the other hand, has always been a nearly psychopathic winner. She is willing to do anything to obtain a freaking medal. Meanwhile, Tom, their trainer, is dealing with health issues and trying to orchestrate everything to maintain his athletes winning, alive and popular at the same time.
It's a mess. And, someone should fire the idiot who was in charge of printing the novel because it is an eyesore. Whoever did this hates margins. I was suffering enough already with the plot and just looking at how badly printed this book was made me even angrier.
But that doesn't mean the novel is bad. There are a lot of good things here. The writing is often clever and pulls a lot of heartstrings. My allegiance shifted several times throughout the novel but it made me reflect about my own life choices. What are we willing to lose for victory? Is it worth it? Are we a Kate or a Zoe? Is either of those choices good or bad?
Read this novel if you want to figure it out. I believe I am a natural Zoe that puts a lot of effort into being a Kate because it's not already in me. You'll see what I'm talking about once you meet these characters.
I’d mentally filed this book under the “perfect to read during the Olympics” heading. Rather than wait for another year I decided I’d use it to get my Olympic fix in lieu of, you know, the actual Olympics.
This is the tale of a very complicated relationship between Zoe and Kate, premier British cyclists, close friends and closer rivals, who end up having to compete for just one available spot at the London Olympics.
I didn’t always feel the friendship part of their relationship, but I definitely got the complicated aspect, especially when you factored in their coach Tom and Kate’s husband Jack, an Olympic cyclist himself. I thought the character of Zoe was especially well drawn. She was supremely driven and focussed to the exclusion of anything else, but also haunted by a tragedy from her past.
I thought the author did an excellent job of showing just what is involved in high level sports - the long, hard hours of training, the diet, the minute attention to every detail, all the behind the scenes staff and support, and, most crucially the mental aspects. I loved the way he was able to take the reader into the athletes’ heads before, during and after a race, making me feel I was right there with them. Plus, he really knew how to create tension at key plot points.
The only thing about the book that didn’t work for me was all the Star Wars imagery, used to show how Jack and Kate’s daughter Sophie was battling leukaemia. I recognised the author’s intention but for me it interrupted the narrative flow of the adult’s stories - especially the relationship between Kate and Zoe and their quest for Olympic glory- and it was these I was most interested in.
This is the tale of a very complicated relationship between Zoe and Kate, premier British cyclists, close friends and closer rivals, who end up having to compete for just one available spot at the London Olympics.
I didn’t always feel the friendship part of their relationship, but I definitely got the complicated aspect, especially when you factored in their coach Tom and Kate’s husband Jack, an Olympic cyclist himself. I thought the character of Zoe was especially well drawn. She was supremely driven and focussed to the exclusion of anything else, but also haunted by a tragedy from her past.
I thought the author did an excellent job of showing just what is involved in high level sports - the long, hard hours of training, the diet, the minute attention to every detail, all the behind the scenes staff and support, and, most crucially the mental aspects. I loved the way he was able to take the reader into the athletes’ heads before, during and after a race, making me feel I was right there with them. Plus, he really knew how to create tension at key plot points.
The only thing about the book that didn’t work for me was all the Star Wars imagery, used to show how Jack and Kate’s daughter Sophie was battling leukaemia. I recognised the author’s intention but for me it interrupted the narrative flow of the adult’s stories - especially the relationship between Kate and Zoe and their quest for Olympic glory- and it was these I was most interested in.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. What everyone will say is that it's not "Little Bee." And it lacks the emotional suckerpunch and the narrative drive that characterized LB. But Cleave is a good storyteller. I just saw him read and the stories he has to tell about why he came to write this book and the questions at the center of his books--in this case, what's more important in our lives, ambition or love?--made me like the book more. If Cleave is coming to your town, go see him--you won't meet a more affable, brilliant and effusive author. He answers questions with a lot of thought and depth. A so-so book by an author I have come to admire a lot as a person.
A peek into the world we can’t know
An awesome presentation of characters that we wouldn’t know unless we were married to them.
As a lifelong amateur, I look upon the life of these pros with more admiration and respect as they not only deal with the daily challenges, but the lifelong challenges of planning for at least two lives.
Only a well written book would cause me to tip my hat to those that do it well in the real world.
An awesome presentation of characters that we wouldn’t know unless we were married to them.
As a lifelong amateur, I look upon the life of these pros with more admiration and respect as they not only deal with the daily challenges, but the lifelong challenges of planning for at least two lives.
Only a well written book would cause me to tip my hat to those that do it well in the real world.
3.5 if Goodreads would let me (why CAN'T we give half stars anyway, Goodreads??) I was thinking I didn't like the book very much about halfway through, but then he hit me with the twist of all twists and it suddenly became a lot better. I couldn't relate much to the characters, but it was quick and entertaining.
Friendship, true friendship, is a strange thing. Those outside a friendship often wonder what it is about two so seemingly different people that binds them to each other for years, decades, or even a lifetime. Sometimes, such as in the case of Kate and Zoe, the friends share one burning passion that no one else "gets" the way that they get it - individually and together. But even then (sometimes, especially then), how the friendship survives for so long can be a mystery.
Kate and Zoe, who met when they were both nineteen, are stars in the world of track cycling. They are so good, in fact, that over the course of three Olympic competitions, they are Britain's best chance at Olympic gold. Of the two, Kate has the most natural talent and ability in the sport. Zoe, however, has a level of drive and determination that makes her every bit Kate's equal on the track. Head-to-head competition between the pair more often than not ends with Zoe reaching the finish line slightly ahead of Kate.
As the 2012 Olympics approach, Zoe has become Britain's darling of the track cycling world. She has turned her good looks into a lucrative advertising contract, and her pretty face appears on giant billboards all over the country. Now 32 years old, she and Kate are still competitors, training partners, and despite the odds, friends. But things are not necessarily what they seem. Their story complicated by the intimate history they share, and their friendship is about to be tested in ways neither girl can control.
Author Chris Cleave, in a series of flashbacks, reveals, bit by bit, the shared past that explains how (and, more importantly, why) the obsessed Zoe and the self-sacrificing Kate have managed to remain "friends" for more than a decade. Theirs is a friendship that even the coach they have shared for twelve years, a man who knows the girls as well as anyone can ever know another, finds difficult to understand.
Gold may be anchored by the relationship of the Kate and Zoe characters but the novel's wonderful supporting characters transform it into a truly memorable piece of writing. As it turns out, in addition to their passion for track cycling, Kate and Zoe share a few other things: a coach who sometimes struggles to maintain his objectivity, a man (and fellow racer) who is the key romantic relationship in both their lives, and a little girl who loves them both. Each will help determine whom Kate and Zoe will be when all the competition is finally over - if it ever is - and if they survive the process.
Bottom Line: Gold will appeal to those who enjoy "literary novels" as well as to readers interested in competitive cycling and sports training. It is a well-written novel about a rather unusual topic.
Kate and Zoe, who met when they were both nineteen, are stars in the world of track cycling. They are so good, in fact, that over the course of three Olympic competitions, they are Britain's best chance at Olympic gold. Of the two, Kate has the most natural talent and ability in the sport. Zoe, however, has a level of drive and determination that makes her every bit Kate's equal on the track. Head-to-head competition between the pair more often than not ends with Zoe reaching the finish line slightly ahead of Kate.
As the 2012 Olympics approach, Zoe has become Britain's darling of the track cycling world. She has turned her good looks into a lucrative advertising contract, and her pretty face appears on giant billboards all over the country. Now 32 years old, she and Kate are still competitors, training partners, and despite the odds, friends. But things are not necessarily what they seem. Their story complicated by the intimate history they share, and their friendship is about to be tested in ways neither girl can control.
Author Chris Cleave, in a series of flashbacks, reveals, bit by bit, the shared past that explains how (and, more importantly, why) the obsessed Zoe and the self-sacrificing Kate have managed to remain "friends" for more than a decade. Theirs is a friendship that even the coach they have shared for twelve years, a man who knows the girls as well as anyone can ever know another, finds difficult to understand.
Gold may be anchored by the relationship of the Kate and Zoe characters but the novel's wonderful supporting characters transform it into a truly memorable piece of writing. As it turns out, in addition to their passion for track cycling, Kate and Zoe share a few other things: a coach who sometimes struggles to maintain his objectivity, a man (and fellow racer) who is the key romantic relationship in both their lives, and a little girl who loves them both. Each will help determine whom Kate and Zoe will be when all the competition is finally over - if it ever is - and if they survive the process.
Bottom Line: Gold will appeal to those who enjoy "literary novels" as well as to readers interested in competitive cycling and sports training. It is a well-written novel about a rather unusual topic.