The Golden Gate
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First UK ed.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
In the sun-drenched world of 1980s San Francisco, Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate chronicles the intertwined lives of a group of young professionals navigating love, loss, ambition, and the restless search for meaning against the glittering backdrop of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. At its centre is John Brown, a successful but spiritually hollow tech executive whose personal ad sparks a chain of romantic entanglements, heartbreaks, and self-discoveries that ripple through a vividly drawn cast of characters — lovers, friends, activists, and dreamers. What makes The Golden Gate a landmark of contemporary literature is its audacious formal conceit: the entire novel is composed in sonnets, each crafted in the tradition of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, Seth's acknowledged inspiration. This virtuoso technique never feels like a constraint — instead, it lends the narrative a propulsive, musical energy that transforms the comedy and tragedy of modern urban life into something timeless. Seth writes with wit, compassion, and a poet's precision, illuminating the gap between the California dream and the quiet desperation that so often underlies it. A tour de force that leaves the reader wondering whether it is the form or the feeling that lingers longest.
Author: Vikram Seth
Format: Hardback
Published: 1986, Faber and Faber
Genre: Modern fiction
Edition: First UK ed.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
In the sun-drenched world of 1980s San Francisco, Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate chronicles the intertwined lives of a group of young professionals navigating love, loss, ambition, and the restless search for meaning against the glittering backdrop of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. At its centre is John Brown, a successful but spiritually hollow tech executive whose personal ad sparks a chain of romantic entanglements, heartbreaks, and self-discoveries that ripple through a vividly drawn cast of characters — lovers, friends, activists, and dreamers. What makes The Golden Gate a landmark of contemporary literature is its audacious formal conceit: the entire novel is composed in sonnets, each crafted in the tradition of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, Seth's acknowledged inspiration. This virtuoso technique never feels like a constraint — instead, it lends the narrative a propulsive, musical energy that transforms the comedy and tragedy of modern urban life into something timeless. Seth writes with wit, compassion, and a poet's precision, illuminating the gap between the California dream and the quiet desperation that so often underlies it. A tour de force that leaves the reader wondering whether it is the form or the feeling that lingers longest.