The Downhill Racers [Paperback]

Oakley M Hall (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons (1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684189267
• ISBN-13: 978-0684189260
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,086,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Skiers out in the cold, March 1, 2006

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Downhill Racers (Mass Market Paperback)

About a group of world-class skiers and their attempts to out beat each other in downhill competitions and out-bed each other with the hangers-on that seem to follow them from Aspen to Squaw Valley to the Alps. Narrated by Jack, the tough one, the super-competitor who has an epiphany at the end: "I had wanted to beat everyone in the world at this one thing [downhill racing]. Today that wanting had been cast out of me like a devil exorcised." (He pulled out of a race after he was halfway down the course when a racer in front of him fell.) He's in love with Georgiana and realizes that maybe now he should settle down with her and do something "useful" with his life. There's nothing especially extraordinary about the plot, but what casts the book beyond the average is Hall's superb writing, especially the dialogue, which I think is in a league with John O'Hara's: it's fresh and exciting and, most of all, totally believable. Worth checking out for that alone.