The Golden Gate

June 06, 2018

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth is a compilation of stories of the characters that appear in the book. Each character has their own story, views and opinions. Each character’s story is told with emphasis. The author particularly wants every voice to be heard. It is really hard to draw yourself out of this story especially when you find yourself drawn into it as if you were an active character in the book except you don’t have a voice. Reading this book is like sitting mute in someone’s living room while everybody else is having an animated discussion about the world.

The story isn’t written in prose, it is written in the form of sonnets. It is written in iambic tetrameter and follows the ababccddeffegg pattern. As a rule each sonnet has 14 lines and since this book is written in iambic tetrameter each line of the sonnet constitutes of 4 iambs. The ending of each line rhymes in the ababccddeffegg format. The book constitutes 590 sonnets in all. The Dedication, Acknowledgements, Contents and About the Author all adhere to the above mentioned sonnet form.

John who works in the IT industry that took California by storm and is the Mecca to all IT aspirants is young and single and looking for love. He has no life beyond his work and needs to do something about it immediately. Enter Janet! She’s John’s ex-girlfriend and a member of a rock band and a sculptor. Seeing John in despair about his love life she suggests putting in an ad for him in the newspapers à la a very desi matrimonial ad with an evident Californian twang. John scoffs at the idea only to find that Janet actually puts in the ad and to his astonishment finds himself in the midst of letters flowing into his P.O box! One woman in particular catches his eye, Liz. Liz is an Attorney and she too on a whim responds to the ad and before either of them knows it they meet and are living together! Through Liz we are introduced to Ed, her brother. Ed is a staunch Christian and also a homosexual. This leads to us entering his complicated life. On one hand he is making passionate love with his lover and in the morning he hates himself as he has sinned. This vicious cycle of his makes one question if times really have changed much since 1986? Phil, John’s friend is a divorcee living with his son, Paul. Phil quits his job to participate in protests and rallies against nuclear weapons. John can’t understand why Phil would quit his job to do that. As the story progresses we see Ed and Phil falling in love. The couples are set, the story is going smoothly - all’s well, that ends well?

This is merely the beginning of the ride! Meeting their partners is only the beginning. Will it last? Will the Yuppies get the happy ending they aspired? I could tell you more but I’d rob you off an experience and remember this is Vikram Seth’s first novel! What a beauty!

The book deals with a lot of issues (social and others) that predominantly surfaced all around the world in mid 80’s– Feminism, Religion, Anti-Nuclear protests, Free speech, Pop - Culture AND Bumper Stickers are only a few.

“But in five minutes other features

Divert him: “Honk for Jesus.” “I

Swerve to run over little creatures.”

“The President is a lesbian spy.”

“Nuke the nukes.” “Fan of David Bowie”

Or “Here today—and gone to Maui,”

“I♣ winos,” “I ♥L.A”

Or “Have you hugged your whale today?”

“Bartenders do it with more spirit.”

“Old beach boys do it with good vibes.”

John sighs, looks up. An ad describes

The Roach Motel’s compelling merit:

“Roaches check in—but they don’t check out!”

John thinks, “That’s what my life’s about.”

All characters are beautifully layered and with each sonnet more is revealed and the layers keep piling. Very rarely have I read books where the author takes deliberate pains to tell the reader whythe character in his book is doing what they are doing. I couldn’t help marveling at my thoughts after closing his book. The characters are who they are. I understand them better. They aren’t characters, they are people. People I got to know through the book.