Customer Reviews

Gilles Villenueve: The Life of the Legendary Racing Driver

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This is a truly impressive book. For racing fans, Donaldson delivers step by step action through a lap of the Monaco race - capturing the reader and having them feel as though they were in that car with Gilles. Glimpses of Gilles' personal life bring color to his character without being tabloid cheap!! In short, I feel sad that Gilles is no longer with us, what an awesome personality and a warm, friendly person. This book left me wishing I could meet him and wondering what Gilles would've been doing today in his fifties! Stunning book!

This book is still today a classic, and an absolute must for any motor racing fan-- independently of their favourite category. Beautifully written, it narrates in detail the life, times, and racing of one of Formula One's most intriguing drivers. It is full of interesting anectodes and important facts about Gilles Villeneuve's racing and his all too brief presence on the international scene. It is full of interesting notes on his character, personality, and private life-- never crossing the line, however, in morbid curiosity or tabloid cheapness. You will read it over and over again.

It is rare to come across a biography of a famous sports personality that will keep you reading on and on and on compulsively, but Gerald Donaldson has written one. The book combines all the passion and excitement of Gilles' short career in a thorough and superbly readable biography that takes you right behind the public image of Gilles Villeneuve. In short, buy this fantastic book! It more than lives up to its reputation as the racing classic.

This book will make you feel a shiver up your spine! It's all there: the racings, Villeneuve's determination, the real facts, his family, all put together in a reasonable way that makes you read the book non-stopping. There's no need for another Villeneuve reference book, you must be sure!!!

The book is strictly written in chronological fashion, but Donaldson weaves in opinions and quotes from many people who worked or lived with Gilles. It gives us a good impression of Villeneuve, both as a racing driver and as a person.

Personally, I'm not that interested in learning about the private life of racing drivers, hidden as they are behind their helmet. It's their driving that's important. Consequently, I didn't much care for it in this book, either, and it upset me here and there. But then, I'd have missed out on the hilarious accounts from people who were passengers in Gilles' road cars.

The racing action in this book is magnificent. Like being there in person.

Really well-written, this book literally made me cry and laugh. I can only recommend this one.

Let me be clear: this is simply the best racing driver biography ever written. It's complete, well written, touching and objective at the same time, respectful to the dead. It's an amazing book. No doubt the writer is a big Villeneuve fan, but he managed to avoid being totally partial.
It's full oof data, anecdotes, funny parts, tragic parts, competition, brief technical analysys of the cars, a lot of famous drivers in diverse categories... Well, this is the book.

The sad fact is that, despite the popularity of F1 now, nobody since has demonstrated Gilles' control.

This book is a good representation of him- it doesn't fawn on him, he's not without his flaws and I think it does a pretty balanced job of showing all sides of the man. If you're into Villeneuve's style, and want to know more about him, you will not do better.

In Montréal on GP weekend, they've a display of Gilles' suit on Crescent Street. The guy looks all of 5 feet all...a tiny giant among drivers...

This book is impossible to put down, if you are or are not a
Gilles fan this is a must. The book is very well written with
tons of insite to his years of racing as well as lots of
liitle known information about him and his family. I found myself
making time to get a few more pages in before I would have to
put it down. I was at six of the races mentioned in the book,
Watkins Glen and Canada, not only did it bring back great
memories, but I learned more about those races than I knew then
when I was there live. Buy it and god bless Gilles

I've read a lot of racing books, but never one better than this. It is at the same time gripping, compelling and very well written.

Donaldson's masterpiece is recommend without hesitation.

Very well written story on the life of Gilles and full of tons of facts on his races and the way he lived his life . I still can't believe he lived that long while reading this book . Check out Curtis Turners book " Full Throttle " for a perfectly written story that's imposible to put down , with an emotional ending on probably the first " Intimidator " . You won't be disappointed .