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.
