“An epic sporting rivalry”: Here’s our interview with Chris Cleave about our book from a week or two again.
Who’s your favorite character so far? Zoe, Kate, Jack, Sophie, Tom? The Millennium Falcon that gets vomited on?
Just on the other side of an unpainted metal door, five thousand men, women, and children were chanting her name.
A lot can be extracted from those 20 words. What do you think of the first sentence?
From the very beginning Cleaves establishes what he does best: filing a report on the texture of the professional sporting experience. An “unpainted” metal door - how fine that adjective is. He goes on to describe the bench Zoe and her coach are sitting on, which has “the blue protective film still on it.” You can practically smell fresh plaster. That’s what the Olympics are like: you spend a lot of time waiting in unglamorous rooms like this.
And then there is the fervent nationalism, the hero-worship, the crowds and power. All of this was turned into a symbol of Zoe’s inner state.
I thought Cleaves explored these two themes very well in the opening scene.
What’s your favorite part so far?
Just on the other side of an unpainted metal door, five thousand men, women, and children were chanting her name.
A lot can be extracted from those 20 words. What do you think of the first sentence?
And the winner is…. Gold by Chris Cleave!
The book comes out this Tuesday, so pre-order it now. Let’s read the first quarter of the book, stopping at page 88, by Friday, July 13th. That Friday at 1 pm ET we’ll host a live chat and discuss the book so far.
For more info on the book, here’s a video of Chris Cleave explaining his novel. Also, did we mention Chris is on Tumblr!? And speaking of Tumblrs, make sure you’re following this one!
Thank you to everyone who voted! Happy reading!
