I've been a fan of the 'adventure' genre since I was a kid with not a little influence from my father's love of C.S. Forrester, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Alister MacLean. It has only been in the last few year that I have have actually started reading MacLean and I finally dug up the Golden Gate. Being a native of the San Francisco Bay area does give me a better picture of the setting than most and as I grew up during the early 1970's, the time frame of the story is spot on for me.One of the things I expect from an author is at least decent research when you are writing about an area and that should include learning something about the weather. My entire childhood in the Bay Area was sans thunderstorms, not one in 20 years yet here MacLean coughs one up like magic. And that, a very violent storm more likely to occur in the South. I know, some might say 'but there have been thunderstorms in San Francisco just within the last six months'. That's today's weather patterns, not 1976.Another thing, and bear with me as I am listening to this on audio and can't flip back to find a page so I might have the number wrong, there is no Highway 280 that runs up the coast. That's 101 as anyone from the state will tell you. Also he mentions the 'State Patrol', we call them the California Highway Patrol, CHiPs to those of you old enough to remember the TV show.Then there's the use of the USS New Jersey, which at the time, 1976, have been out of commission since 1969 and would not return to active duty until 1982. You could have used an aircraft carrier, Mr. MacLean. Also, as the USS New Jersey has a mast height of @198 ft and the clearance of the Golden Gate at mean HIGH tide is 220 ft there would be no reason to have the ship pass under the bridge only at LOW tide. There is also this nonsense that this ship would not be able to stop or turn back. As I said, nonsense. Ok, I am drifting onto a 'technical rant'. Let's talk story. Just exactly how much of the population does Mr. MacLean believe to be 'mad' as he accuses half the characters in the book of harboring some for of insanity at one time or another. The head bad guy, I can see it, but it seems to be a term tossed about with abandon in Mr. MacLean's world. And I am not going to get into his usual problems with trying to write an 'American' character. I sometimes wonder if he ever met a Yank let alone talk to one.Unlike his earlier HMS Ulysses, I never developed an empathy for his characters nor did his setting, the middle of the bridge, convey the atmosphere of that earlier work. Some attempt was made, I guess, with the thunderstorm but that pretty much failed in light of personal experience as I mentioned.There is little to set this book apart and nothing to suggest it to any but a die hard MacLean fan and even they will find it rather mundane. I finished it because I hate to leave any book unread once started. Given a choice again, I would skip it.
I'm normally a huge fan of MacLean's thrillers. Most of them have aged remarkably well and still have the ability to portray gripping action.The Golden Gate, sadly, didn't fit into that category. It was a badly developed plot that had me rooting for the bad guys the whole way through. The basic premise is that a group of hijackers kidnap the President of the United States in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge and hold him for ransom.The main character wasn't fleshed out at all and appeared to be a heartless machine. It was difficult to sympathize with the hero because, as a reader, I had no information about his motivations, thoughts, or feelings. While there is a sort of hard-boiled sensibility that enjoys and thrives on that kind of distance from characters, it didn't work in this case.As an aside, I can see this being made into a movie someday if it already hasn't. That doesn't mean I'd want to see it, but it seems like the kind of heist/hijacker plot that is attractive to many movie studios.
What do You think about The Golden Gate (2005)?
I was going through my collection of favorites and glad I kept this hardback copy I found in a thrift store about fifteen years ago. I had yet to be published and admired MacLean's ability to write novels and screenplays. Some of his books have been made into memorable movies (The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra, to name a few).This book could be a good movie even by today's standards, so long as the producer and director follow the script. We've had enough nonsense with Die Hard 4 and Transporter 3 comedy action that is too impossible to believe. MacLean writes this lean story of less than 300 pages in a fast-paced version of what happens when highly motivated terrorists capture the president's motorcade on the Golden Gate bridge. You won't be disappointed if you enjoy realistic action in good literature.
—David Lucero
