Golden Gate, by Vikram Seth
I don't usually rave about a book until I've finished it, because a poor ending or decline in quality can change my opinion, but this one makes me think of so many people on my flist, and it's so good, that I want to jump the gun.
I was going to read Seth's other book, A Suitable Boy, as part of my pre-India program, and I took it off my shelf (aww, my mom gave it to me years ago because it was the sort of Serious Literary book she thought a person like me would like; in fact, she may have read it herself), but then, while I was culling the downstairs shelves for contributions to the UU book sale, I found this one - not a giant doorstop like ASB, but normal-sized and ... written in verse!
Of course, this has diverted me from my pre-India reading program, because it turns out that the whole thing takes place in San Francisco. And that's why you, Hamsterwoman, and you, Ratherbrightred, will like it! And it's written in some fancy metered ABAB rhyme scheme, so cleverly, which is why you, Atdelphi, who once wrote a Snape sestina and you, Schemingreader, who once wrote a metered, rhyming Snarry story, will like it! And it's about a group of friends, including three siblings, and there's a slash interlude (maybe more than an interlude; I'm only halfway through) between the friend of one sibling and the brother sibling, and that's why, well, okay, pretty much everyone named above will like it. And probably Quietselkie, too, because she likes good books.
Here's a sample, the opening to section three:
As Liz and John move out of focus
Into an amorous mist, let's shift
Our lens, Dear Reader, to a locus
An hour south along that rift
That unnerves half of California:
Not just the crusty cohorts born here
But all who earn their bread and salt
Along the San Andreas Fault.
Commerce and learning, manufacture
And government proceed above,
And nature's loveliness, and love;
Beneath them lies the hideous fracture,
Author of the convulsive shocks
That rip the hills and split the rocks.
If you are reading this, Dear Reader, you'll like this book. I would normally be leery of a novel in verse, but I'm completely sucked into this one.
Oh, and you'll need a dictionary, for words like "orts" and "pleonastic."
I was going to read Seth's other book, A Suitable Boy, as part of my pre-India program, and I took it off my shelf (aww, my mom gave it to me years ago because it was the sort of Serious Literary book she thought a person like me would like; in fact, she may have read it herself), but then, while I was culling the downstairs shelves for contributions to the UU book sale, I found this one - not a giant doorstop like ASB, but normal-sized and ... written in verse!
Of course, this has diverted me from my pre-India reading program, because it turns out that the whole thing takes place in San Francisco. And that's why you, Hamsterwoman, and you, Ratherbrightred, will like it! And it's written in some fancy metered ABAB rhyme scheme, so cleverly, which is why you, Atdelphi, who once wrote a Snape sestina and you, Schemingreader, who once wrote a metered, rhyming Snarry story, will like it! And it's about a group of friends, including three siblings, and there's a slash interlude (maybe more than an interlude; I'm only halfway through) between the friend of one sibling and the brother sibling, and that's why, well, okay, pretty much everyone named above will like it. And probably Quietselkie, too, because she likes good books.
Here's a sample, the opening to section three:
As Liz and John move out of focus
Into an amorous mist, let's shift
Our lens, Dear Reader, to a locus
An hour south along that rift
That unnerves half of California:
Not just the crusty cohorts born here
But all who earn their bread and salt
Along the San Andreas Fault.
Commerce and learning, manufacture
And government proceed above,
And nature's loveliness, and love;
Beneath them lies the hideous fracture,
Author of the convulsive shocks
That rip the hills and split the rocks.
If you are reading this, Dear Reader, you'll like this book. I would normally be leery of a novel in verse, but I'm completely sucked into this one.
Oh, and you'll need a dictionary, for words like "orts" and "pleonastic."