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Gold

by Chris Cleave (Goodreads Author)

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 7,053 ratings · 1,580 reviews

What would you sacrifice for the people you love? KATE AND ZOE met at nineteen when they both made the cut for the national training program in track cycling—a sport that demands intense focus, blinding exertion, and unwavering commitment. They are built to exploit the barest physical and psychological edge over equally skilled rivals, all of whom are fighting for the last...more

ebook, 281 pages

Published July 10th 2012 by Simon & Schuster (first published July 3rd 2012)

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Jun 03, 2013 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An alchemist is needed to make this gold!
Such a disappointment

The race was on! For me it was a race between throwing it across the room or getting to the finish. Only the fact that it was on my Kindle saved it being thrown. And only the hope that it would improve got me to the finish.

I had been so eagerly awaiting this. I had read pre-release review and interviews, so I knew that it was a change of pace to The Other Hand (aka Little Bee) and Incendiary. But I did expect the depth, the empathy, t...more

21 likes · like · see review

Jul 16, 2012 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the story to three top athletes, bike racers on the Olympic level, and what drives them. This isn't really a sports story, though you do learn a great deal about the grueling training that these folks willingly endure. It's about team mates who are sometimes friends and other times not, with a complicated past and an even more complicated present. It's about parenthood, relationships, priorities and the sacrifices that are made for love, or fear. It's about celebrity and intimacy, of the...more

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May 02, 2012 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reviewers who have read LITTLE BEE will feel compelled to compare the two books, not in subject matter, but in caliber or merit. LITTLE BEE was a powerful, keen, fresh, and original story that remains one of my most esteemed of 2009. GOLD has a similar architectural structure and captive writing style (but is in third person rather than first). The breaks within chapters headed in bold font are familiar, the soaring, poetic, exquisite metaphors and fluent writing resonates, and a young girl engr...more Reviewers who have read LITTLE BEE will feel compelled to compare the two books, not in subject matter, but in caliber or merit. LITTLE BEE was a powerful, keen, fresh, and original story that remains one of my most esteemed of 2009. GOLD has a similar architectural structure and captive writing style (but is in third person rather than first). The breaks within chapters headed in bold font are familiar, the soaring, poetic, exquisite metaphors and fluent writing resonates, and a young girl engrossed in Star Wars in order to cope (vs a young boy immersed in Batman in LITTLE BEE). However, GOLD's story, while thematically ripe, is prosaic, as well as so implausible at its heart that I lamented at the reductive and ultimately predictable turns of events.

Kate and Zoe have been best friends for 15 years--they met when they were 19, as Olympic contenders in cycling, and now they are 32, both going for the Gold again, although Zoe has several from previous Olympics in Athens and Beijing, as well as National victories. Kate is married to Jack, same age, same historical introduction (all three met simultaneously), another Gold champ, and they have a daughter, Sophie, who is 8, and has leukemia. She was first diagnosed four years ago, but after the first treatment, had been in remission until now.

****WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER(S) ALERT.***** This is my first review that requires a spoiler alert, but it felt necessary. So, here goes. For those who have already read the book, or don't plan to, here are the reasons I can't believe the thrust of the narrative:

Cleave attempts to tacitly portray Zoe with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) due to the sudden, accidental death of her brother, Adam, when they were bicycling as kids. She feels responsible, and has buried her emotions. All her disturbing character traits are supposed to stem from there. She has betrayed Kate and Jack numerous times over the years, including an attempt to win Jack over when they first met, only because she knew Kate wanted him. She sabotaged Kate in a race by sending a text to herself from Jack's phone, and she slept with Jack (before Kate and Jack were married, but still...), and other invidious acts. Cleave inadvertently portrayed her with Borderline Personality Disorder--she fits a textbook case (I am also a psychiatric nurse)--a dangerous person to be involved with. She also has some Narcissistic Personality Disorder Traits.

So, when Zoe gets pregnant from her one time sex with Jack (groan right there), she decides to go through with the pregnancy, at the advice of her coach, Tom, the almost-straw character inserted as much to telegraph platitudes as to coach the women. And then gives up the baby to Jack and Kate. Kate becomes the legal mother. However, Zoe is unstable and disturbed. In this case, Kate should have felt threatened from day one. Moreover, Zoe, in her present psychic state and track record--the behaviors she regularly displays, and the competition and envy she has over Jack and Kate's lives--would have played all sorts of mind games with Kate and Jack through the years regarding Sophie. What a fierce weapon for an unbalanced woman who tends to play dirty.

So, Kate and Jack take the baby--oh, and the press believes that Zoe had a stillborn, and that somehow Kate and Jack gave birth. So, Kate and Zoe continue their "friendship," no tension there about Sophie? The only tension seems to be when they race each other. Cleave, in what I consider a mistake, chose to save this fact about Zoe being Sophie's bio mother until near the end, in the penultimate chapters. That handicapped the narrative from any conversation that would steer toward this fact, all throughout the book, with all three of them. (But, ironically, this supposed secret from the reader was painfully obvious early on.) Yet, Zoe is present to support Sophie and the parents through these trying times with Sophie's leukemia. It feels false, renders the story as disingenuous. This doesn't affect Zoe emotionally, we are told, as Cleave gave her an out, which is Adam's death.

Zoe has nothing to live for, so to speak, except her triumphs at the velodromes. Yet, the narrative starts being an apologist for Zoe, as the pages turn, softening her at convenient times. In 2012, as the two women cycle for the chance at a spot in London's Olympics, and Kate's last chance to finally win the Gold, Kate falls from her bike at the deciding race, and yet Zoe slowed down to let her catch up! And then Kate wins by 1/1000th of a second! So, now Zoe gets bitter and vengeful and decides she is going to battle for custody of Sophie and tell Sophie she is her real mother, while Sophie is hanging on for dear life at hospital? The only thing that stops her is she passes out when she sees how sick Sophie is.

All of this--and, yet, not only does everyone live happily ever after, but Zoe, Kate, and Jack remain dear friends. Zoe is cured by dealing with her brother's death, and years later (2015), when Sophie is 11, Zoe is coaching the healthy Sophie at the velodrome to be a competitive cyclist. This is too velodramatic to believe.*****END OF SPOILER ALERT ******************************************

Due to the contrivances and conveniences of character and story, the incredulous twists and turns that are telegraphed and predictable, it was largely unsuccessful to me as a story. Yet, I read every page! Cleave is a lovely writer of prose (although the dialogue was self-conscious and seemed aimed at the cinema), and his metaphors about time undulate elegantly throughout. His themes of success, loss, and the sacrifices we make for love are poignant, and at times emerge radiantly from the melodramatic soap opera. His writing (style) is as assured as ever, and his heart is in the right place. (less)

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May 14, 2012 Aryn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, won-in-giveaway, fiction, chick-lit

My screenwriter boyfriend tells me there is a certain way that stories are supposed to go, a certain formula of events, if you will. Read enough books, see enough movies, and one begins to really believe that. The trick to good story telling is to have stories go in the way that they are supposed to go without giving away, too obviously, where it is going. Gold reads in exactly the way the story is supposed to go. I could have told you from the first 50 pages where the story line should go, and...more My screenwriter boyfriend tells me there is a certain way that stories are supposed to go, a certain formula of events, if you will. Read enough books, see enough movies, and one begins to really believe that. The trick to good story telling is to have stories go in the way that they are supposed to go without giving away, too obviously, where it is going. Gold reads in exactly the way the story is supposed to go. I could have told you from the first 50 pages where the story line should go, and away it went.

Kate, Jack, and Zoe aren't cookie-cutter characters by any means and the plot isn't necessarily a cookie-cutter plot. However, the twists and turns that the story takes on it's track to the Gold, are like the strategic moves made by racers. The tone is set from the starting line, and it can only go a limited number of ways with the choices made by the cyclists on their quests for the Gold Medal.

Don't let the predictability of the story sell it short, however. One cannot help but fall in love with eight-year-old, Star Wars obsessed, Sophie, who fights leukemia and tries with all her little might to keep her parents happy. One cannot help feeling for (and as a fairly bashful woman, also relating to) Kate, her mother, who chooses to miss both the Athens Olympics and the Beijing Olympics for Sophie's health. Zoe's harshness and betrayals, while terrible traits somehow make her a character that you simply want to hug and then slap; her fight to receive a Gold Medal overcomes even her humanity. Jack, Sophie's father, deserved a good shake - I think.

In a lot of ways I felt as though I were reading a Jodi Piccoult novels. The way the story went is very reminiscent of her style; in some ways I was surprised - in a good way - that this was written by a man. Neither she nor Chris Cleave are fabulous authors but the can write a story well, with characters that you can believe and love. It's good book junk food: quick, easy, flowing, happy, "correct."

I received this ARC from Goodreads First Reads Giveaways.(less)

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Aug 10, 2012 Barbara A rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought I'd be clever and read this during the Olympics and then write up a little review, saying that I'd been clever and read it during the Olympics, and be done with it. But I'm scalded. Scorched. Drained. Breathless. Crossing the finish line won't be that simple.

This book quite literally explodes with metaphor, narrative, and fascinating, technical information. There isn't a reason in the world not to read this, unless you are (a) have ever been a parent; or (b) you are currently under th...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Mical rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

A one-two-three punch to the gut and an adrenaline-fueled fast read. I wish there was a .5 to add above the five stars. But admittedly, the question behind the writing, "why and how do we make our choices for ambition versus family," is one that I have been ruminating on for a couple of decades. When family has shaped every choice you've ever made to the point where you wonder who you really are, this book carries nuclear power. I bawled my way through the last two chapters, but really, I'm fine...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Jayne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first half of the novel was disappointing - I just kept looking for the Chris Cleave of Incendiary and Little Bee and could not find it. Once the real tension surfaced, the author I remembered did as well. Patience is the key, and the last 1/3 will reward the reader for the build up time. Perhaps I was not as enamored with the beginning because I have some connections to the competitive spirits and dilemmas described. The novel undoubtedly connects on a different level for anyone who partici...more

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Jun 16, 2013 Buchdoktor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fathers-väter, krankheit-sterben, sport, relationship-beziehung

Im Jahr der Olympischen Spiele in London sind die Bahnradsprinterinnen Kate und Zoe 32 Jahre alt. Die beiden Frauen kennen sich seit dem Tag, an dem sie als Jugendliche für den Radsport entdeckt wurden. Trainiert werden sie noch immer von Tom, der sich vom Erfolg seiner Mädchen eine zweite Chance im Leben erhofft. Nur eine Bahnradsprinterin kann für Großbritannien zu den Wettkämpfen antreten. Für Kate wie für Zoe wäre London die letzte Chance auf eine Medaille. Zoe hat bereits vier Goldmedaillen...more Im Jahr der Olympischen Spiele in London sind die Bahnradsprinterinnen Kate und Zoe 32 Jahre alt. Die beiden Frauen kennen sich seit dem Tag, an dem sie als Jugendliche für den Radsport entdeckt wurden. Trainiert werden sie noch immer von Tom, der sich vom Erfolg seiner Mädchen eine zweite Chance im Leben erhofft. Nur eine Bahnradsprinterin kann für Großbritannien zu den Wettkämpfen antreten. Für Kate wie für Zoe wäre London die letzte Chance auf eine Medaille. Zoe hat bereits vier Goldmedaillen gewonnen; Kate scheint auf die Rolle der ewigen Zweiten abonniert zu sein. Die Sportlerinnen sind miteinander befreundet, doch das war nicht immer so. Grund ist der Dritte im Bunde, Kates Mann Jack, auch er wurde damals von Tom als talentierter Rennradler entdeckt. Heute sind Jack und Kate miteinander verheiratet und erziehen eine Tochter. Kate war schon als Kind für den harten Sport zu mitfühlend und zu wenig rücksichtslos. Offenbar hat sie sich bisher klaglos mit der Rolle der verzichtenden Mutter abgefunden. Immer wenn Jack ein wichtiges Rennen fuhr und immer wenn Zoe wieder eine Medaille erkämpfte, kümmerte Kate sich zu Hause in England um die kleine Sophie. Wer als Teilnehmerin zu den Spielen in London gemeldet wird, soll ein Auswahlrennen zwischen Zoe und Kate entscheiden. Doch dieses Mal treten nicht nur die ehrgeizige Sportlerin Zoe und die fürsorgliche Freundin Kate gegeneinander an. Das entscheidende Rennen wird von der Angst um Sophie überschattet, die an Leukämie erkrankt ist. In Rückblenden erfahren wir u. a. von Tom die Geschichte der ungewöhnlichen Dreierbeziehung der drei Sportler.

Sophies Krankheit hält die Familie Argall im Klammergriff. Typisch für schwer erkrankte Kinder versucht Sophie Schmerzen und Übelkeit zu verharmlosen, um ihre Eltern nicht damit zu belasten. Sie hat herausgefunden, dass Eltern sich weniger sorgen, wenn ihr Kind möglichst frech wirkt. Die Erwachsenen halten ein Kind dann für weniger leidend. Sophie taucht auf der Flucht vor ihrer Angst vor dem Tod im Skywalker-Kostüm in die Welt von Star Wars ab. Die Symbolik der Flucht eines Kindes in eine Fantasiewelt hat Chris Cleave schon in Little Bee genutzt. In "Gold" finde ich den Handlungsstrang der fernen Fantasiewelten zu breit ausgewalzt; denn seinetwegen verzichtet der Autor auf eine differenziertere Darstellung Sophies.

Chris Cleave beleuchtet das Thema Leistungssport aus ungewöhnlicher Perspektive. Der Sport dominiert die Beziehung zwischen Ehepartnern, das Training muss mit dem Elternsein vereinbart werden, Sportler werden von Öffentlichkeit und Presse als Besitz betrachtet. Sehr plastisch in der Figur des vom Sport gesundheitlich gezeichneten Tom stellt sich die Frage nach dem richtigen Zeitpunkt, aus dem Sport auszusteigen. Muss ein Sportler zwangsläufig als Trainer seinem gewohnten "Stall" verbunden bleiben oder gäbe es auch eine andere Perspektive? Der Wettstreit zwischen Kate und Zoe kommt leider nicht ohne Klischees aus. Hier Zoe als aggressive Skandalnudel, die außer ihrem Sport keine Leidenschaften kennt; dort die sich aufopfernde Mutter, die die Trainingszeiten an den Rand eines Lebens mit einem krebskranken Kind pressen muss. Auch mit vielschichtigeren Konkurrentinnen hätte diese Geschichte funktioniert. Chris Cleaves Verknüpfung von Leistungssport, Elternsein und schwerer Krankheit hat mich aufgrund der einseitigen Darstellung der drei entscheidenden Figuren weniger begeistert als die Plotidee zunächst hoffen ließ. Trotz einiger humorvoller Dialoge, die größtenteils von Jack ausgehen, finde ich das Buch sprachlich nur durchschnittlich. (less)

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May 12, 2013 Julia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the story of Zoe and Kate, two competitive cyclists at the top of their game who have been racing against one another since they were teenagers. They are also best friends. They have a complicated back history which emerges gradually over the course of the book. The story is about the build up to the London 2012 Olympics and the tension hinges on who is going to take the gold medal. At the same time, Kate's daughter is suffering from leukaemia and that will be a significant sub-plot in t...more

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May 11, 2013 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 emo...more 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)(less)

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Apr 28, 2013 Paul Samael rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'm all for authors trying something different rather than just ploughing the same furrow - so all credit for Chris Cleave for doing that here. And I did try to put aside expectations based on my enthusiasm for Chris Cleave's previous 2 novels, Incendiary and The Other Hand (Little Bee in the US). I also think Chris Cleave is an excellent writer who is capable of producing exceptional material - but I'm afraid Gold just didn't work for me.

Zoe and Kate are 2 rival cyclists in the run-up to the 20...more I'm all for authors trying something different rather than just ploughing the same furrow - so all credit for Chris Cleave for doing that here. And I did try to put aside expectations based on my enthusiasm for Chris Cleave's previous 2 novels, Incendiary and The Other Hand (Little Bee in the US). I also think Chris Cleave is an excellent writer who is capable of producing exceptional material - but I'm afraid Gold just didn't work for me.

Zoe and Kate are 2 rival cyclists in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics. They are also (sort of) best friends - and their difficult relationship forms the backbone of the plot. But the contrast between them extends to so many areas and is so sharply drawn that it felt contrived, as if the author was writing with one eye on a film/TV adaptation, where scriptwriters tend to adopt a slightly more black and white approach. On the screen, you can get away with it because the audience doesn't have so much time to think about what they're watching (especially if you make the action fairly fast-moving). But when you're reading a novel you normally have more time to ponder - and it just felt a bit too artfully constructed to me. It may also be that in the first 2 novels, we have first person narrators who have very distinctive and convincing voices - whereas in Gold, it's all in the third person, which may mean that you are more aware of the guiding presence of the author.

The other problem I had with it was that in both Incendiary and The Other Hand, there was a lot at stake - whereas for me, winning an Olympic medal doesn't have quite the same weight. That's not to belittle the achievements of athletes who've won Olympic medals - it undoubtedly requires exceptional dedication and skill and the world would be a very much poorer place without them. But ultimately, it isn't a "life and death" issue like terrorism (Incendiary) or asylum seekers (The Other Hand). In this case, I felt that there was an attempt to introduce a "life and death" issue in the form of Kate's daughter, Sophie, who has leukaemia, but it felt like it was grafted on to give the plot added gravitas and/or to make the book appeal to people who aren't that interested in sport.

I can see why (after Incendiary and The Other Hand) the author wanted to explore slightly more "feel-good" territory - and he does an efficient job of it, but if you really liked his previous 2 novels, this may not quite live up to expectations.
(less)

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Apr 17, 2013 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story of three champion cyclists and the melodrama of their relationships and rivalries, against the backdrop of the race for Olympic gold.

As an Olympics ignoramus, this book was not a natural choice for me. I had to respect many aspects, however, especially the sparky and exciting descriptions of cycle racing, and the convincing accounts of the lives and prospects of successful sports people.

Although the characters are well-defined as different personalities the voices with which their idea...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Joana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: emprestado, kindle

Não há nenhuma palavra que possa descrever o que sinto relativamente a este livro. Simplesmente soberbo. Depois de o começar a ler não consegui parar.

Já tinha lido o Pequena Abelha à algum tempo, porque toda a gente me falou maravilhas acerca dele. No entanto na altura, apesar de perceber a beleza da história, houve algo que não me conseguiu cativar na totalidade. Posso dizer que o mesmo não aconteceu com A Menina de Ouro.

Adorei cada momento, cada virar de página. A escrita do autora ao lonfo de...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Howard Cincotta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Capturing the intensity and experience of a solo sport like competitive bicycling – all mind games, exhaustion, and pain – strikes me as far more of a challenge that depicting our more popular team sports. But Chris Cleve pulls it off brilliantly in Gold with his portrayal of two Olympic-class athletes, Kate and Zoe, who are evenly match in the velodrome , even if they live very different and complicated lives on the outside.

The two are both close friends and bitter rivals, and it is their tang...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Karen McMillan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Gold is one of the best books I have read this year. It is extremely well-written, thought-provoking and emotionally engaging. In fact, the book delivers one heck of an emotional wallop. Gold explores the theme of success, and what people have to give up in order to achieve at the highest levels, and whether the sacrifices they ultimately make are worth it.

The book centres around three Olympic cyclists who have a long history of training together. Two of them, Kate and Jack, are married and have...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Richard Brand rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 2012 we had a Republican Senate Candidate make the claim that women who had been raped would not get pregnant because their bodies would emotionally shut down and reject the sperm. Here in this story we have the same argument in reverse. Zoe has everything wrong with her potential to get pregnant. Yet because of her deep unadmitted emotional feeling for Jack she becomes pregnant. So her emotional attachment could influence her body to become pregnant. The argument did not work for the Republi...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Simon Lipson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cleave is popular and his books sell, so what do I know? I hated The Other Hand but decided to give this one a go because I was interested in the sports rivalry theme. Cleave actually does a decent job of getting into the minds of focused sports people and some of his descriptive passages are fine - especially those depicting the physical and mental processes of athletes during races.

But...this is a schmaltzy, mawkish load of tosh, with one dimensional characters and a central friendship that do...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Soobee72 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The thing about Cleave's books that annoys me isn't his fault. It's the publisher that insists on covering the flap with all those glowing reviews but with these "we'd like to tell you what's between these covers, but to do so would be criminal. CRIMINAL!" quotations. Not his fault, and frankly, it is kind of difficult to give a synopsis without giving too much away. The plot is sort of movie of the weekish, but not in a bad way.

This is a good book, but, and this isn't fair to the book or the a...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a page turner, and I would highly recommend it for a vacation read. That said, I did not like it nearly as much as the other Chris Cleave book I have read, Little Bee. Gold was too melodramatic for me. It often felt more like a soap opera than a novel. Cleave is a talented writer, and I think he could have written an enticing novel without resorting to some of the sensationalism in this novel.

Also, some of the facts didn't completely add up. I know Olympic support differs in different c...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Cleo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, review-copy

Gold is the story of two Olympic sprint bicyclists, Kate and Zoe. They are both extremely good, and both desperately want to win gold. They met in 1999 when they were 19 years old, and now, in 2012, the London Olympics will be their last chance to win a gold medal. Kate is naturally better than Zoe, but she is married and has an eight year old daughter named Sophie. Sophie is battling a second bout of leukemia, which had been in remission for three years. And Zoe has her own problems too. Then,...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Kayla West rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Never hearing of this particular author before, I was glad to have a fresh and open mind about this work of his I was about to start. Unmarred by the expectations readers may have after reading an authors' previous works.

From beginning to end, GOLD was a breath of fresh air. I was happy to see Mr. Cleave bring his readers' into the world of the olympics. Happy to see him tell the story of his famed athlete characters as they worked to find their place in both the next olympics and in their every...more

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Nov 23, 2012 Judith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a very interesting story which probably deserves closer to 4 stars because it was so enjoyable to read. On the other hand, it is more of a classy soap opera than lasting literature. The author also wrote "Little Bee", which is highly rated and a book I have intended to read for so long that I finally lost interest in it.

The story is about 2 women who are on their last opportunity to win Olympic gold for cycling. They have been best frenemies for over a decade and shared their intense...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Gold was a page turner for me in the way that any good soap opera addict needs their fix. Cleave has an incredible writing style and a beautiful ability to create prose. I relished in the language and fluidity of his writing.

Unfortunately the story was slightly unbelievable. Kate's character was much too perfect and polished to make her fully 3 dimensional, especially as an Olympic cyclist. Zoe carried many more of the characteristics that I would assume an Olympic winner would carry. Self loath...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Stacy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you've read "Little Bee," you will quickly realize the author's style in this newly published novel about three close friends, all elite velodrome cyclists in London, and explore with the characters your own feelings of success and what you would do to achieve it. The novel unfolds while switching voice from Zoe, a hardworking rider fighting demons, to Kate, a naturally talented rider with a softer heart, Jack, Kate's gold-medal winning husband, Sophie, their young daughter battling leukemia,...more

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Sep 25, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had a hard time getting into this novel, but my patience with it paid off. On the surface, it looked like just a story about two competing Olympic athletes -- which it is, but it really is about much more, and that is where the story was interesting to me. Kate and Zoe have been training with the same cycling coach for 13 years, and are best friends, although they couldn't be more different. Kate is married to Jack, also a cyclist, and their daughter Sophie has leukemia. The story is set as th...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Joyce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, set-in-locations-outside-usa

In the novel Gold by Chris Cleave, the author tells the story of 3 British athletes involving in cycling at the Olympics level and an 8 year old girl struggling with leukemia. Two of the athletes, Kate and Zoe, are the top women cyclists in the world and Jake is one of the top male cyclists. They come together for the first time when they are 18 and 19 years old competing for a national competition in England and their lives become entangled at that point. The novel begins when both women are 32...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Kara Yi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eh, it was a very bland/okay book... it was just basically a series of events happening one after another. Bike race, Sophie's sick, another bike race, Sophie gets sick again.
I can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned how SELFISH Zoe is!!! I couldn't stand her one bit. So she goes and sleeps with her best friend's husband, trains hard even though she's pregnant with his baby with complete disregard to the baby's health, dumps the sick baby onto her best friend (who gives up her life to take care o...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Caitlin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mental-holiday

I loved "Incendiary" and "The Other Hand" so much I actually had to keep putting them down because I didn't want to finish them too quickly - I found the stories fresh and the writing painfully beautiful.

I try not to judge books by an author's previous work - however, I'm not a massive sports fan, and if I didn't like Cleave's previous books so much, I probably wouldn't have chosen "Gold" to read in the first place.

I liked the idea of following two "frivals" (friends yet rivals) who have spent m...more I loved "Incendiary" and "The Other Hand" so much I actually had to keep putting them down because I didn't want to finish them too quickly - I found the stories fresh and the writing painfully beautiful.

I try not to judge books by an author's previous work - however, I'm not a massive sports fan, and if I didn't like Cleave's previous books so much, I probably wouldn't have chosen "Gold" to read in the first place.

I liked the idea of following two "frivals" (friends yet rivals) who have spent most of their adult lives in an intense, hot-housed environment with a man between them and a father-like coach, while one battles her athletic passions with being a good mother and the other is a self-destructing winning machine.

This is good, this is plausible, I wanted to know more.

About halfway through, though, the lack of character development and the default settings of "Pollyanna martyr versus impersonal twat, oh, and a guy who's Scottish, good at riding bikes and even better at being handsome" just got too much - and I nearly gave up during the history of how the child came into things, because this went completely beyond my limit of "I read because I can't stand implausibly convaluted soap operas."

It's interesting that although I was reading a male author, it was in fact the male characters I had difficulty with really understanding, especially Jack - the idea of the "Working-class-boy-made-good" could have been explored/reflected on further, or at least in the parts set more recently, and while we learn every single intimate detail of every thought the two women go through, right down to what they eat for breakfast, there's a lot about Jack we simply don't hear about, especially in his motivations behind his relationship with the two women.(I've found with all three Cleave books the female voice is very strong and developed, sometimes to the detriment of the men.)

I really think the story could have used a couple more characters to even it out (maybe a younger rider to make the two women pull closer together or a rival for Kate's affections in the earlier days that makes Jack work harder to keep her), or some inciting incidents other than the next bike race/bike crash/Sophie's sick again.

The only thing that kept me reading was the writing itself. I found the descriptions of the racing captivating - especially since at first I thought there's not much more to say other than simply "She rode really, really fast" - and I loved the moments within the imaginary Star Wars world of the child, which were a great departure and balanced the almost imaginary, disconnected world of professional sport nicely.

'Gold' is the story of a good writer who took on the timely subject matter of Olympic-level cycling and got the book finished in time for London 2012. I know that sounds quite cynical, but I wonder if this book could have benfited from just a little more time it could have the same polished quality I've come to expect from Cleave.
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Aug 27, 2012 Karissa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. It was a very engaging book that was hard to put down; but there were parts I didn’t enjoy. I also thought everything was a bit too tidily tied up for this to be an accurate representation of real life.

This is a story about three cyclists on their way to the Olympics. Kate, Zoe, and Jack meet at nineteen years of age during a training camp. They are all exceptional cyclists...they are all seemingly destined for Gold. Kate and J...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book. After reading Little Bee, I was wondering what Chris Cleave would come up with next. Gold takes us to London and the months just prior to the 2012 Olympics. I was having an Olympics withdrawal, so this was the perfect book. In Gold, Kate, Zoe and Jack are the three main characters. Kate and Zoe friends, frenemies? Jack comes into their lives in the world of competitive cycling in the UK. Cleave, an amateur cyclist, really wrote with an understanding about the training and psyc...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Would you have stayed friends with Zoe?	4	34	Apr 27, 2013 02:51pm
Were you a Sophie?	7	32	Apr 18, 2013 02:00am
Jack (Warning SPOILER Alert)	5	36	Sep 10, 2012 05:44pm
Book Blog Networking: Giveaway of Gold by Chris Cleave!	1	6	Aug 18, 2012 07:17pm
Romance, Historic...: Giveaway of Gold by Chris Cleave!	1	4	Aug 18, 2012 07:17pm
Chicks On Lit: Giveaway of Gold by Chris Cleave!	1	14	Aug 18, 2012 07:15pm

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About Chris Cleave

Chris Cleave was born in London and spent his early years in Cameroon. He studied experimental psychology at Balliol College, Oxford. His debut novel, INCENDIARY, won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and is now a feature film. His second novel, LITTLE BEE, is a New York Times #1 bestseller with over 2 million copies in print. GOLD is his thir...more

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“Looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting.” — 6 people liked it

“Off the bike she was like a smoker without cigarettes, never sure what to do with her hands. As soon as she got off the bike, her heart was expected to perform all these baffling secondary functions like loving someone and feeling something and belonging somewhere - when all she'd ever trained it to do was pump blood.” — 4 people liked it

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