HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
Loading...

Golden Gate (original 1986; edition 2001)

by Vikram Seth

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,4744112,277 (4.07)70
The Golden Gate is a brilliantly achieved novel written in verse. Set in the 1980s in the affluence and sunshine of California's Silicon Valley, it is an exuberant and witty story of twenty-somethings looking for love, pleasure and the meaning of life. It was awarded the 1986 British Airways Commonwealth Poetry Prize.… (more)
Member:gnapp
Title:Golden Gate
Authors:Vikram Seth
Info:Stockholm: Forum, 2001; 315, [1] s. ; 24 cm
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:fiction

Work Information

The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse by Vikram Seth (1986)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 70 mentions

English (40)  Dutch (1)  All languages (41)
Showing 1-5 of 40 (next | show all)
A group of friends look for love in San Francisco around 1980.

I can look on this verse novel as something of a tour de force and it is fun watching the author's verbal dexterity in keeping to the meter, but the actual story is really rather slight. ( )
  Robertgreaves | Feb 28, 2024 |
This is an early eighties story of a group of people living in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridget in San Francisco. John is a successful but lonely executive looking for some kind of love. His ex-girlfriend-turned-loyal-good-friend, Janet Hayakawa, takes pity on him and places an ad in the personals (a la Rupert Holmes: if you like Pina Coladas). As John goes on bland blind date after bland blind date he finds ways to avoid second encounters with each woman until he meets Liz. It's practically love at both sight for both of them...until he moves in with her and meets her cat. Competition with a pet is not easy.
Philip Weiss is also looking for love after his wife, Claire Cabot, left him and their young son, Paul. When Philip tries a different sort of love he is confronted with conflicting feelings. Morality, religion, and society's attitudes guide his choices. These are just a few of the characters in Golden Gate. As the reader, you get to delve into their work, their relationships, their responsibilities. It's all about human connections. The fact it is one giant poem is just icing on the cake. I was captivated until the (surprising) end.
It took Vikram thirteen months to finish The Golden Gate. ( )
  SeriousGrace | Apr 22, 2021 |
In 300 pages of iambic pentameter, this is the story of John, who is desperately lonely and calls up a former girlfriend, Jan, to help him figure out how he can find love. Jan jumps right in and places an ad, then sorts through to find good matches for John, which ends with him meeting and falling for attorney Liz. They're very happy together, but their relationship angers Liz's old cat, Charlemagne, who takes great pleasure in destroying John's things and peeing on his pillow.
This is also the story of John's best friend, Phil. His wife left him and their young son a while ago, something they are still dealing with, but Phil finds an unexpected love in Ed, Liz's brother. Keeping their relationship hidden to their family and friends, there is also the issue of Ed's Catholic guilt, which seems to come up when Phil believes they should be at their happiest.
Remarkably fleshed out, these are characters that have hidden sides and the ability to evolve. They deal with parenthood, illness, government and corporate pollution, and religion. Yes, it's hard to read a poem this long, yet it's filled with humor. ( )
  mstrust | Mar 6, 2021 |
Joyous read from first line to last.
The story is funny, moving and uplifting; and the rhyming prose makes it a delight to read.
Impossible to put down, and quite fast reading.
... I found this book in a discount stack in the 90's - D'oh! ( )
  ianitts | Nov 29, 2020 |
More like 3/5, but an extra star for being written in such structured verse. I can't imagine writing a novel like that, so kudos to Seth. ( )
  littlebookjockey | Sep 15, 2020 |
Showing 1-5 of 40 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (4 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Seth, Vikramprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Hout, Paul van denTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
So here they are, the chapters ready,

And, half against my will, I'm free

Of this warm enterprise, this heady

Labor that has exhausted me

Through thirteen months, swight and delightful,

Incited by my friends' insightful

Paring and prodding and appeal.

I pray the gentle hands of Steele

Will once again sift through its pages.

If anything is this should grate,

Ascribe it to its natal state;

If anything in this engages

By verse, veracity, or wim,

You know whom I must credit, Tim.
First words
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
To make a start more swift than weighty,

Hail Muse.
Quotations
Last words
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

The Golden Gate is a brilliantly achieved novel written in verse. Set in the 1980s in the affluence and sunshine of California's Silicon Valley, it is an exuberant and witty story of twenty-somethings looking for love, pleasure and the meaning of life. It was awarded the 1986 British Airways Commonwealth Poetry Prize.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.07)
0.5
1 3
1.5
2 8
2.5 5
3 36
3.5 16
4 90
4.5 13
5 88

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,187,837 books! | Top bar: Always visible