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A review by skwinslow
Gold by Chris Cleave
3.0
I had a hard time not giving this four stars, easily, because I honestly loved reading it. I knew I would love reading it just a few pages in when I realized that one of the main characters is an eight-year-old girl who loves Star Wars; I have a six-year-old daughter who loves Star Wars. And I think Chris Cleave gets the stuff about kids (and their parents) right. Incidentally, I thought this was true of Little Bee as well.
I don't think he writes about the relationships between men and women particularly well, though; that always feels a little clunky to me. And plot-wise -- well, I read the story quickly, and I was definitely absorbed and enjoying myself, but it was only slightly better than a Jodi Picoult novel for me. That's true of some of the writing, too. Sometimes I loved it; sometimes the metaphors seemed a bit too self-conscious.
But sometimes you just need to wrap up in an imperfect little book and be okay with rolling your eyes here and there while still really loving some parts of it, and that was this book for me. I'm glad two of my good friends read it around the same time so we can talk about it the next time we get together.
I don't think he writes about the relationships between men and women particularly well, though; that always feels a little clunky to me. And plot-wise -- well, I read the story quickly, and I was definitely absorbed and enjoying myself, but it was only slightly better than a Jodi Picoult novel for me. That's true of some of the writing, too. Sometimes I loved it; sometimes the metaphors seemed a bit too self-conscious.
But sometimes you just need to wrap up in an imperfect little book and be okay with rolling your eyes here and there while still really loving some parts of it, and that was this book for me. I'm glad two of my good friends read it around the same time so we can talk about it the next time we get together.