false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178185366m/768496.jpg 768496 11 Can 690 sonnets, rhyming a-b-a-b-c-c-d-d-e-f-f-e-g-g, be a novel? Definitely! First published in 1986 and still fresh (the sole sign of its publication date being the frequent use of the word <I>yuppie</i>), Vikram Seth's <I>The Golden Gate</I> will turn the verse-fearing into admiring acolytes. Janet Hayakawa, a yet-to-be-discovered sculptor and drummer in the Liquid Sheep, secretly places a personal ad for her friend John, even though she too is single. "Only her cats provide distraction,/Twin paradigms of lazy action." The seventh letter does the trick. Lawyer Liz Donati's submission is two sonnets in toto and disarms John into meeting her. Soon they fall into brief bliss, as do her brother, Ed, and John's old college roommate, Phil. Unfortunately, the first couple's love is too soon destroyed, partly by a pet, partly by politics; and the second is rent by religion. Ed pulls away thanks to the Bible: "I have to trust my faith's decisions, / Not batten on my own volitions." <p> The rest of the novel leads less to the traditional comic ending--rapprochement and marriage all around--than to surprising sadness. But in between there is wit, wordplay, abounding allusion, and some marvelous animals, among them the iguana Schwarzenegger. The author even steps onto the stage on occasion: at a frou-frou publishing party a powerful editor accosts him, curious to hear about his new novel. When Seth tells him it's in verse, the temperature plummets. "'How marvelously quaint,' he said, / And subsequently cut me dead." Luckily, Seth's real editor did anything but. 49206 1986 The Golden Gate total:579|5:204|4:212|3:121|2:34|1:8| 579 2307 822 83 5 5 false false Mon Mar 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 05 07:46:42 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 17 08:59:30 -0700 2008
Total times I missed my bus stop as a result of this book and had to walk home from Bosworth and Mission: 2.

Total times I have ever missed that bus stop: 3.

That will tell you how involv...more...]]> 5 3 false false Wed May 28 06:01:54 -0700 2008 Wed May 28 06:08:02 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Jul 03 14:02:04 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 14:06:32 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 4 false false Mon Nov 12 08:53:08 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 16 06:59:00 -0800 2009 How to put this? Well, let's see...
Were he a cookie from Nabisco,
A Nilla Wafer's what he'd be.
An ordinary kind of guy,
No one you'd notice passing by.
From him, the story branches out
To friends and lovers, and throughout,
...more...]]> 5 3 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Fri Feb 15 21:30:05 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 21:32:05 -0800 2008
The novel presents a daunting challenge to readers, because it consists of sonnets - 14 lines per, babe. I recall that Seth doesn't adhere closely to iambic pentameter, which is fine - there's a good tradition of poets b...more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu Jun 14 17:07:40 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 14 17:12:49 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Mar 21 14:37:54 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 21 14:40:23 -0700 2007 5 11 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1988 Fri Nov 21 05:06:53 -0800 2008 Fri Jul 03 03:42:44 -0700 2009 5 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Nov 15 18:01:31 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 15 18:10:44 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 18 11:04:11 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 19 18:15:00 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 08 15:55:54 -0800 2007 Mon Feb 25 13:29:20 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Sep 03 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Mon Jun 16 12:44:12 -0700 2008 Thu May 07 11:54:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Mar 04 10:11:57 -0800 2007 Tue Mar 06 08:47:01 -0800 2007 5 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1989 Fri Dec 07 08:28:31 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 12 08:26:13 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Wed Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 19 09:03:57 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 22 12:52:14 -0700 2008
Seth is a phenomenal writer, and from start to finish, he leaves you constantly wondering how one can possible write a novel completely in rhyme.

On His Writing...
While I myself only started to do this mid novel, the story is best read out loud. You truly hear...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 10 10:53:47 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 13 06:57:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Jul 08 09:37:08 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 09:58:14 -0700 2009
This book was a gift from someone who loved it and thinks it's her favourite book (but has since asked fo...more...]]> 5 0 true false Sat May 01 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Thu Feb 26 04:31:51 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 04:37:48 -0800 2009 2 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Fri Nov 09 18:58:47 -0800 2007 Sun May 11 08:39:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Mar 24 12:09:04 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 12:12:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=768496