Required Reading

by Chris Fontecchio on Apr 30, 2009 6:07 PM EDT in News

An annual exercise, the random quote from Dino Buzzati's cycling classic, The Giro d'Italia:

Bartali peels a banana with his teeth. For just two seconds, he focuses on the fruit. When he lifts his eye again he sees three racers breaking clear. "They are breaking away!" he hears someone shout. He flings the banana away. He leans over, stretches his backside in that odd way of his, flattening himself on the bicycle. And he speeds away.
He doesn't need to ask who they are. Coppi's silhouette seen from any perspective is well-planted in his brain. Then there is the pink jersey, Leoni. And little Pasotti. They are moving at top speed. Lucky for him, Bartali has the excellent Jomaux, one of his lieutenants, with him. The others, Astrua, Rossello, Biagioni, Cecchi, Fornara, will certainly not give him any help.

Thus it is practically on the flats, right where the danger seemed the least likely that the great duel, postponed from day to day, begins.

Bartali: to the devil with that damned banana. How is it possible that I let myself be taken by surprise like a child? Nothing other than a stupid blunder. And almost on the flat, where they fear me the least. "Come on Jomaux! Move faster!" But Jomaux can do just so much. And Coppi draws away.

Thanks to Amazon and their random sneak peeks. Past discussions of this most wonderful piece of literature here and here and here and here. Has it really been four years that I've harangued you guys about this book? Wow, time flies when you're regurgitating blog posts. Anyway, buy the book! OK, copies start in the $40 range, but you will not be disappointed.

Girbecco says: don't be a cheapskate!

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Comments

It's worth checking abebooks also.

It’s sometimes possible to score a deal ;-)

by Jen See on Apr 30, 2009 6:44 PM EDT reply actions

I so heart that site...mmm books

by Albertina on May 1, 2009 8:45 AM EDT up reply actions

Gargh, nothing under $40 there

by Albertina on May 1, 2009 8:51 AM EDT up reply actions

Wow, that expensive?

Not reprinted for a while, I guess? Paperbacks in Dutch are readily available and €12,50 new. I picked up a 2nd hand copy in 1996 for ƒ5 (€2,25).

by tedvdw on Apr 30, 2009 6:55 PM EDT reply actions

sadly, yes

Small print run, in English. It can be hard to come by, actually.

by Jen See on Apr 30, 2009 7:11 PM EDT up reply actions

i found this since the last review

at less than $40… (but it actually took a couple of months of ‘watching’ on half.com).
’need to start reading now, just in time for the Giro!

by cg. on Apr 30, 2009 7:35 PM EDT reply actions

I was lucky last year

it was available in our city’s public library system so I could have it for 6 weeks (3 weeks plus a renewal) for essentially free (well, $12/year for the library card). I might just try to get it again this year to enhance my Giro experience, great book.

by guidemd on Apr 30, 2009 8:51 PM EDT reply actions

You public libraries have books like this?!

Oh that Essex libraries were as discerning….

by Albertina on May 1, 2009 8:47 AM EDT up reply actions

Interlibrary Loan!

That’s how I got a copy of this the first time, after seeing the cheapest Amazon copy clock in at $70 (really?!). And then I scored my own copy for $20-something, last year. Yes, worth it.

by Sui Juris on Apr 30, 2009 11:01 PM EDT reply actions

Excellent read

Please do not besmirch it with images of that creepy horned cartoon donkey

More Muur...

by Jimbo... on Apr 30, 2009 11:49 PM EDT reply actions

Got....

your goat, eh?

by fancan on May 1, 2009 12:04 AM EDT up reply actions

HAR!

by plinytheelder on May 1, 2009 2:02 AM EDT up reply actions

next years vds team

The Creepy Horned Cartoon Donkeys

"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!

by jsallee00 on May 1, 2009 12:23 AM EDT up reply actions

Where are today's Dino Buzzatis?

How I long to read more writing of this calibre. Where are the Buzzatis of the present day? Who writes in this way, that isn’t poetry but somehow registers as poetry in the mind?

This book made me fall passionately in love with the Giro.

Remember when there were check-out cards in pockets in library books, and you could see the signatures of the other people who’d read the books? I wish there was a card like that in our public library’s copy of Dino Buzzati’s 1949 Giro book. Do other people in town read it? I like to throw them a party.

by Steno on May 1, 2009 1:32 AM EDT reply actions

well put

I can think of a couple of recent examples, Paul Fournel and Jean Bobet. Fournel wrote a book in the 90s called “Need for the bike,” there’s an excellent English translation, unfortunately the translation doesn’t have the epilogue he wrote a few years later (and which was added to later editions in French), he followed the Tour one year as a correspondent for a French paper and reprints his reports as the epilogue.

Bobet (Louison’s brother) wrote a book 5 years ago called “Tomorrow we ride,” it came out in English translation last year, I just got a copy from the library and will dig into it soon. I’ve read a couple of extracts and it’s wonderful stuff. He mixes racing anecdotes with general reflections on cycling and life (if that doesn’t sound too corny). I read a wonderful passage about “voluptuousness”: his claim is that one can feel euphoria while racing, but one can only feel voluptuousness, the specific voluptuousness that belongs to cycling, on training or recreational rides – in other words, not in a race but only “on a ride.” Great stuff.

by plinytheelder on May 1, 2009 2:17 AM EDT up reply actions

Thanks, pliny,

I will definitely look for those books.

Maybe for aficionados, opulence is a counterpart to what riders see as voluptuousness…?

As for corny, it probably sounds corny to almost everybody who hasn’t been caught by the mystique. If you try to describe Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast in a similar way, it probably sounds corny, too. But if you’ve ever been caught up in it, a mention of the book makes you smack your lips and sigh.

I guess to me Dino Buzzati’s book is in a category (evocative category) with A Moveable Feast, and that’s one thing I love about it.

by Steno on May 1, 2009 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions

I really enjoyed reading this book, and thank Chris for recommending it last year. My one criticism of it is that at times I found Buzzati a bit on the nationalistic side. It’s easily understandable – this is immediately post-war Italy, the country’s a mess, and along come these 2 guys who basically allow people to feel a bit of pride in themselves again (I remember one of the signs Buzzati reports seeing, something to the effect of “Coppi, you are our redemption” – wow, really amazing stuff). But at times – can’t cite specific instances as I had a library copy – I felt like he got too heavily into the “Italian essence” stuff, I remember not being totally crazy about that. Still, that’s a minor criticism, on the whole I agree with Chris and the commenters here about how great a read this is.

by plinytheelder on May 1, 2009 2:10 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah

I won’t dispute your reaction, but as you say the circumstances were unique. I would like to track down instances, but Dan has hijacked my copy and is asking for $1500 and a pair of goat horn socks.

The Tartar Steppe doesn’t project nationalism, though — more the opposite, I think. But I’m not a Buzzati scholar.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris Fontecchio on May 1, 2009 12:36 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah unfortunately

I don’t know any of his other books, this one was so good that I’d like to read others, I remember looking at all the titles listed on the jacket and thinking: wow, this guy was incredibly prolific.

I should also mention that I really liked that he knew very little about cycling. I remember that at the beginning of the book this annoyed me a bit, I kept wanting more writing about racing strategy, etc. But as I kept reading I found his point of view really refreshing – I think it was his very lack of cycling knowledge that allowed him to speak so beautifully about the context of the race, all the little details on its borders. He was able to see it as a real event rather than just a race.

by plinytheelder on May 1, 2009 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Trieste

There is the whole chapter about the Giro going thru Trieste, which includes a fabulous passage about a certain Italian journo who, the night before, was going on and on about a citizen of Europe, and not merely of Italy. The next day, as the caravan rolls into Trieste, he is wearing dark sunglasses to hide his tears.

The first time I read the book I found it a bit heavy on this stuff, but not this time, probably because I have the historical context in mind. And, he’s not all nationalist — the chapter on Monte Casino gives due regard to all the dead, regardless of nationality.

Viva la Lactique

by nrs5000 on May 1, 2009 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions

The Monte Casino section

is stunningly well written. Just thinking of it now is sending shivers down my spine…

More Muur...

by Jimbo... on May 1, 2009 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah

that (the journalist in Trieste) is one of the parts I was thinking of. Interesting comment, maybe I’d have the same reaction as you on a second read. Agreed also that Buzzati’s not some reductive, all-encompassing nationalist…I probably should have made clearer that I’m referring to only 1 or 2 instances. On the whole I find it an excellent, excellent book.

by plinytheelder on May 1, 2009 3:56 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah, it's really hard

for me to take any negative vibes from the nationalism in anything written in the aftermath, there. It doesn’t take much in the way of empathy to feel the horror from all sides.

by Sui Juris on May 1, 2009 7:08 PM EDT up reply actions