Customer Reviews

Fast Company: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Motorcycles in Italy

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was a very odd experience for me to read. I know the author professionally and lived in Bologna, had even done some work in Ducati and so have met many of the principal protagonists. However, what I know of David and the company is all from the outside: this book, which is written in an elegant and lively style, portrays it from the inside, very personally. It can be read on a number of levels.

First, there is David's career: he was going the corporate lawyer route, but felt he wanted something different, so he chucked it all when the CEO of Ducati suddenly offered him as job. He left a stable, if stressful, environment for a rollercoaster of career, essentially re-making the brand of the most interesting motorcycle company around - and moved to EUrope in the process. Now, a lot of people would want to do such a thing, but lack the guts. David really did it and changed his life in the process. When you read about this, you feel his inspiration, his fear, and his courage.

Second, there is the story of the company: Ducati was on the verge of bankruptcy, another "Italian" company with unique engineering excellence but poorly run. He and his boss took it over and re-made its image, turning it into a kind of lifestyle brand in addition to continuing to make great bikes. Interestingly for me, this is what I wrote about when I met David, and it is an amazing story. The detail you get is far more personal and introspective than what I wrote (for a business school).

Third, there is David the person. He is gay, seeking a partner and fun, and in wonder of Italian culture and Bologna. Even though I lived there for 4 years, I often felt he was writing about an entirely different place than the one that I knew: I was raising kids rather than chasing young sex partners; I aged there, I didn't feel like I got younger (as David did). Again, David evokes the scene with truly wonderful style, a window into an experience that few Americans will ever know. I do not mean the gay scene, so much as the way you can become a different person when you learn a language and insert yourself into a cultural milieu that you want to embrace. It is one of the most stimulating and fun things that you can do (I have done it 3 times), though few Americans can even conceive of it and have no idea what they are missing. David gets this and wonderfully succeeds in portraying it.

Finally, though I was never a motorcycle afficianado, David introduces the reader to that world. Even better, he alludes to how he was changing it, or at least changing Ducati to fit into it. Once again, it is a world and culture few of us would enter. His "letting go" to become a serious rider is a major theme in the book, in a way what holds it together as a literary work. And it does cross the bar into literature, in my opinion. One can only hope that David will write more.

Warmly recommended.

This book has quietly created a new genre: it is part travelogue, part business book, part memoir--and throughout all of its parts, defined by an incredible level of character development and a fresh, compelling voice. I can not recommend it more highly. It reminds me of Paul Theroux with a business twist. Just read it. You wont be sorry.

Within captivating literary style, Gross's portrayals illuminate an Italian world as it is now, and this is clearly not the world of "Room with a view". Surely the Italian journals and "Corriere della Sera" are well versed with the struggles of Italian boutique businesses trying to meet the challenge of growth to an international level, but to follow the chain of events of Ducati from within and during a major transitional effort is a special gift. To become acquainted with personal and detailed snapshots of corporate design processes and the trials of prima donna designers is equally rewarding, and sheds a fair light on recent Ducati products. From the beach exploits and dreams of characters depicted, one senses the struggles of modern young Italians. Add to this the author's struggle to rationalize infatuation with a young and arrogant love, and one finds another level or dimension of the Italy of today. This love may have equally been heterosexual, it's characteristics in modern day Italy would have been the same. The vignette descriptions ranging from learning to ride a motorcycle, different bikes, and tours reach out to the motorcyclist in all of us, as these motivate us to reach beyond ourselves whether or not a leg is thrown over a bike. This is a book for everyone where one truly gains a view into the beauty, challenge, and flavor of Italy today. On other levels, having been an Italian ex-pat for three years, ridden motorcycles for 30 years, and a Ducatista for 15 years, this book has touched on many levels and reminds of the need to return.

I picked this book up as a bargain, however no price could be too low. The cover mistakenly portrays the book as a tome about business and life. It is far more about Italian fashion and pectorals than it is about the turnaround of the bike company. Extremely disappointing. Chucked it after a few chapters.

The best thing one can say about this book, and it is a compliment, is that it reads more like fiction than a memoir. The author's descriptions of places and people are vivid and interesting. The color he uses in limning exotic locations and characters pulls the reader in and provides information and entertainment. It is rare that memoirs do that.

It's a surprise to learn the author was formerly an attorney because he writes too well for a lawyer. The book displays literary talent beyond that required for legal writing.

While centered on motorcycling, the book offers pleasing digressions into unrelated subjects like language (e.g., figo and figa) and women's shoes. Most books about motorcycling limit themselves to that core-topic and rarely stray beyond it. This work is broader in scope and its tangents add interest.

I recommend this book for an enjoyable read. Those with little attraction to machinery should try it anyway for travel stories and pure literary delight.

The book was a good read on several levels. As a motorcycle
enthusiast and as a designer.. the stories from Ducati.. the inner
workings.. design process.. people were fascinating. Having worked
with all sorts of clients and designers I related easily to the events.
Bologna was presented in vivid descriptions, with its culture,
people, society coming to life. I kept having flashbacks to my 2
years in Milano as well as subsequent visits. I toured most of Italy
but sadly I only stopped at the train station in Bologna. Hopefully
on a future trip I can go to Bologna and visit Ducati.
I thought the sections at the seaside were hilarious.... the descriptions
were like Fellini on Jolt cola I was more exhausted with those stories than
the moto giro ones.
The sections on the MotoGiro were also very compelling for one that rides a
motorcycle....the good, the bad, the ugly, the danger, the exhilaration were all there.
Personal life was interesting, full of irony, but in the end none of my business.
Throughout the book I especially enjoyed kind of a deadpan
description of the theater of the absurd that is Italy..left me with
lot's to think about.

Different..... a great read. My daughter lived in Bologna for a few years, and I visited the city which made the book more interesting to me. It really helps to have spent time in the culture on this one. After you get over the funny "attempt" to cover up the Ducati name..very wierd...it's just a wild ride through a culture on many different levels.
Don't read this book to get page after page of mototcycle details. This is a story about people and culture that produce the bikes from the viewpoint of an outsider..who in the end becomes a part of it all. I enjoyed the writing style and content more because it's a true story.

There are not many people who can go to the best schools,become a lawyer,end up as a creative director at a major Italian motorcycle company, and have the ability to write a completely visual memoir.I love a visual book filled with all the right things----and this book has it.

I could completely relate to the corporate politics, the shoe obsessed Italians, the anorexic girl friend, the closeted boy friend,the bisexual boys,and the hysterical art director.The story is unique because it is Italian but it is also a New York story. We all kill ourselves at the gym, starve to be thin, and play the corporate politics game. If you are at all creative you have had more than your share of temper tantrums.

David's book is all of this and more. It is so visual and passionate that even the company reporting is completely interesting. It is "Fast Company" and it is a fast engrossing read. I loved it------ I am ready for the next book. Thanks David!

As my fellow reviewer said, there is something for everyone in this book!
"Fast Company" is itself a motorcycle ride...through the author's experiences we are taken on a swtichback of adventures. Gross's lucid and endearing observations cut a diverse swath from Italian resort towns, corporate branding challenges and unrequited relationships to "just a bit" of cultural self-obsession. The force that keeps us in our seats is the evenness of the writing. Even this non-motorcycle-riding reader coasted through passages depicting single-sided swing arms and ceramic coolers, as I waited for the inevitable excitement at the next turn in the road. Favorite chapters/topics: transitioning to Italy, ALL the business stuff, the second Motogiro race and nightlife on the Adriatic coast. The author has an amazing talent for describing place and character; what's so much sweeter is these "characters" are real! You feel like you are there--taking espresso at the company bar with the smell of grinds, sweat and factory around you; tasting spaghetti alle vongole in Sicily and eating the dirt of the road at mind-altering speeds. Such a cool book!!!!!

I bought this book because I am a fan of Ducati and figured I'd learn a lot about the company and maybe Italy from reading Mr. Gross' memoir.

As an account of the Texas Pacific years at Ducati, Fast Company largely delivers. Gross recounts the trials and tribulations of restructuring a small, passionate, stubborn, and sometimes irrational group of employees at Ducati. His accounts of his experiences with pivotal Ducati people like Federico Minoli and Pierre Terblanche were certainly enlightening (note: he never uses real names in the book).

My major gripe with the book however was that Mr. Gross was trying way too hard to use elaborate and flowery descriptions for many experiences in the book. By slatthering on too much butter to his narrative at times I found myself skipping paragraphs just to get through the verbosity. For some the soaring and meandering metaphors are welcome but I like my non-fiction to be more to the point. Shakespeare he ain't.

Gripe aside there's a lot in the book about Italian culture (specifically Bolognese culture) but more importantly the culture of Ducati. The only thing I really wished there was more of, was insight into Ducati's racing culture. In a way, this book epitomizes the real-world gulf between those who are passionate about Ducati as a racing brand and those who are passionate about Ducati as a lifestyle brand. If one is in the former camp this book isn't offensive, but it may leave you wanting a bit.