Gold: A Novel (original 2012; edition 2012)

An excellent book that captures the pressures of competitive sport while dealing with the complexities of friendships based on rivalry and the burying of secrets. Kate and Zoe are track cyclist at the national level who are both pursuing the gold medal up to and including the Olympics. Jack is also an elite track cyclist who eventually marries Kate, but who fathers a child Sophie with Zoe. Sophie has leukemia. The pressures of being a "gold" parent as well as a gold medalist Olympian are beautifully handled. A terrific book on all levels. ( )

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.

Rated at: 4.0 ( )

So unbearably good. The birth scene gave me the shivers and the races were fabulous. I cannot countenance "alright" in published work, though. ( )

I enjoyed Chris Cleave’s early book Little Bee, so I had my eye on this one when I came out. But I read some lukewarm reviews, and from the little bit that I knew about the book (that it was about two Olympic athletes), I wasn’t sure it was for me. But when I found it on audio at my library, I decided to give it a go. The book is about two British Olympic cyclists, Kate and Zoe. The book begins at the 2004 Athens Olympics as Zoe is getting ready to complete. Kate is home in London, watching on television with her baby daughter Sophie. She is clearly disappointed not to be in the spotlight, but as Zoe wins gold, Sophie flashes Kate her first smile, and Kate melts. This scene alone made me love the book. It captured the stress that comes with trying to be a mom and a professional, a stress that I know well. It drew me in immediately.

The story moves forward in time, as Kate and Zoe train for the 2012 London Olympics and Sophie fights leukemia. Cleave also takes us back to when Kate and Zoe first met, gradually weaving the threads together to form a complete picture. Kate and Zoe have a complex relationship, and it is not until we learn all of the backstory that their interactions completely make sense. If I have one complaint with this book, it is that we switch time periods too quickly (although perhaps listening to the book on audio made these transitions more difficult). But in the end, the threads come together to show the complexities of finding success, maintaining relationships, and doing so while being authentic. ( )

Re-read for Staff Picks book club at the library. It was just as good the second time, and I marked just as many quotes (different ones) as the first.

Quotes:
"That there is life; this here is sport. You only need to think about the next ten minutes." (Tom to Zoe, p. 6)

What good did it ever do anyone to ride themselves back to their point of origin? (Kate, 13)

A single day with that family had felt like the whole of her life. She didn't know how they could bear it. There was an insane amount of emotion, but nothing sufficiently concentrated to cry about at any particular second. It was impossible. (Zoe, 31)

This was just how the world was. There were two kinds of people when a light turned red. One kind accelerated, the other kind braked. (62-63)

Bit by bit, race by race, year by year, a girl like Zoe would stay afloat in the sport while Kate slowly sank under the weight of real life. (Tom, 82)

You could almost believe you had raced so hard that you had outrun the past. The sensation was indistinguishable from that of being forgiven. (Zoe, 91)

Freedom made Zoe quicker and sadder than her, and if Kate had the choice she wouldn't trade. Still, she had to work hard sometimes not to feel resentful....it was hard to forget the times Zoe had put the fight before the friendship. Then again, maybe this was how everyone felt. Perhaps everyone struggled with the possessive flaw in human memory that hoarded the episodes you most wanted to let go. Maybe by the time you reached thirty-two, it was a miracle if you could completely forgive your friends. (116)

Was this why nothing came close to touching the raw and inconsolable place inside her? (Zoe, 254)

This was the nature of time: it was a wide, elegant, and gently descending spiral staircase whose last dozen steps were unexpectedly rotten. (Jack, 270)

He knew everything there was to know about making human beings go quicker, but nothing at all about how to make them stop. (Tom, 286)

This was what you learned, after all the racing was over: that the hardest laps were the ones you did after the crowd had gone home. (320)