The Golden Gate

This is a basic romance story with very little character development. In fact I found most of the characters unlikable and the cat was probably the most interesting. There is an unpleasant homophobic undertone which hasn't dated well but again I cant really whinge too much about that, for a book published in the 80s. But lets face it this book is not famous as a work of descriptive literature. It is famous because (As if you didn't know), its written entirely in rhyme. Onegin Sonnets to be exact. This is very clever. The sonnets are very good, and its very impressive how much detail can be conveyed. I am not for one second detracting from Mr Seth's brilliance in that respect. But no matter how clever it is, it still feels like a gimmick and not enough to dress a whole book in. Buy it, read it, and boast about reading it to your mates. Kind of like Ulysses, only much easier and more enjoyable.

This novel in verse came highly reccommended to me. At first I was apprehensive about reading it (I have never considered myself to appreciate poetry) and found it hard to get through. I picked it up for a second time after reading 2 of Seth's other novels (An Equal Music and then A Suitable Boy, which are now two of my favorite books) and this time found it hard to resist. The verse was charming and really enhanced the story. It made the novel fun to read and the characters and plot exciting. Seth is now my favorite author and I'm always trying to get people to give his novels a chance. I feel that Seth is an underdiscovered author and nothing would make me happier than sharing the discovery of his amazing talent with others.

As a relative newcomer to the genre of verse novel, I can not recommend Vikram Seth's masterpiece enough. Taking the Pushkin sonnet to new heights, Seth gives his audience a snapshot into early 80s San Fransisco, the Cold War, nuclear research in America, and the very earliest days of the AIDS epidemic. Seeing not only a gay male character but a male bi-sexual character as well is extremely endearing as one who identifies as such. There is something at once preeminently timeless and classical about Seth's verse novel which should draw readers for generations. Never have I seen a poet use poetic formalism in such a conversational way as Seth does in his multi-Pushkin sonnet/stanza scenes. It boggles the mind to see such masterful craft at work. This verse novel defines the genre for a modern audience, and redefines the form first set forth in Alexander Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" nearly two hundred years ago. Please read this book and learn what poetry is capable of and its way of presenting life and love and identity.

For Vikram Seth's, The Golden Gate, a novel set in verse, I stayed up late and found it to be anything but terse. His style of writing, quite exciting, kept me in my seat. I found myself begin reciting to his funky beat. While not all styles of poetry are easily construed, his fluid verbal mastery was elegantly brewed. I knew I'd write, with keen insight, my thoughts in metered rhyme; although this isn't what he'd want, it's all I could opine. His story opens with the tale of John, a lonely single male, who's risen in the rank and file but pines for one to walk the aisle. His empty life seems filled with strife, compelling him to find a wife. Now here comes Janet, once an ex, now just a friend (they don't have sex). She helps him rise above the fray with sage support and, by the way, suggests he posts his personal, through which comes Liz, quite capable of keeping John from all that's dull and end his heart's persistent lull. Romance is lit, so now we flit to others in our growing skit of friends, lovers, sons and mothers, activists and nuclear druthers. All the while, the humor builds, injected by the writer's skills, not to distract from all the glory of this now climactic story, but rather to have fun with style and maybe just to make you smile. Through all the threads that Seth does weave, a tangled web of lives do cleave when, one by one, with damage done, our lovers break up; tears do run. The bigger picture that he paints will make you see the many saints that linger in our lives each day but ne'er we thank them, ne'er we say "I love you," until death may stray onto their path. They go away and leave you crying as you pray for one more chance, just one more way, to hold them, touch them, make them stay... In my conclusion, I will say this gets five stars, without delay. Through Golden Gates do souls depart. In San Francisco lays my heart.