Customer Reviews

Need for the Bike

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you have an ear for poetry and a love for the bicycle, then this 150-page gem will earn your respect. Fournel is a writer's writer with a taste for going fast on a classic road bike (handmade steel frame and Campagnolo components). He "needs" his bike in order to overcome a mild tendency towards depression. (Sound familiar?)
Out of this endorphin rush comes a subtle taste for everything from the variety of hills that we need to climb to the texture of the roads that we ride to our childhood memories. Winds, companionship, competition, beauty, class, smells, sounds, food & drink and dope are all touched upon. If you're a cyclist it will deepen your ability to experience and express what you already love about the sport. If you're not a cyclist, then you can transfer his "need for the bike" to your own obsession. A true Pleasure.

Paul Fournel's book is a series of short vignettes, all of which are concerned with the inner life of bicyclists. And the evidence is in: They definitely have one. No matter how much or little you indulge in biking, his book will convey to you, in short and vivid strokes, the splendors and miseries of this sport (starting with the miseries; i.e., accidents). Along the route, fathers and sons, Paris and the provinces, labor and leisure--all the life tensions emerge, only to be inflected by the pastime's particular wisdom. Almost better than biking!

Fournel takes Hemmingway, puts him on a bike, and implants a French sensibility. The words a spare, the pieces short, but each is a declarative taste of life on two wheels, including the times your mind wanders from the road and into the passing scenery. You'll drown in the tar, greet the car door, and meet the man with the hammer. If you love to ride, you have to have this book. If you could care less about bicycling, but like to read outstanding imagery in prose, you won't be dissapointed either.

This book is a little gem. Good writing about bikes, cycling, the Tour de France, racing, growing up in Loire, riding in Paris, etc. I can't recommend it highly enough. It is published by University of Nebraska Press (Bison Books) - they along with publishing western lit and history also publish a number of French lit books. Paul Fournel is a member of Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle) along with other writers such as Raymond Queneau, Harry Mathews, George Perec, and Italo Calvino.

A good writer and a good publisher. The translation flows along nicely and although I can not attest to the accuracy (not being able to read French), I thought it quite good.

Quite a remarkable little book. A loose assemblage of thoughts and essays. These include the author's reflections on: his earliest attemps to ride, the inevitable collisions, embarrassments, his first custom built bike, lost or stolen and destroyed bikes, racing triumphs and frustrations, pain & suffering on the wheel, and the heights of pure pleasure which cycling brings. There is something which all devoted bicyclists can understand and have probably experienced themselves. If Marcel Proust had been a bike nut we'd have thousands of pages to glide through on the subject; here we have tiny bites of tasty flavors which may stimulate our own joyous memories. Like cycling along with Grandpa and listening to his long forgotten recollections on the subject. A little treasure.

This is a collection of short essays on the joys of bicycling through an entire lifetime. It has a simple, direct style that makes it easy to read.An excellent book for that last bit of reading before turning out the bedside light.

I stumbled across this little book at my University Library. Opening it up I was expecting a typical cycling "how to" manual. Need For the Bike is not a manual or a history or anything that can be easily described in words. The closest I can come is "poetry". A marvelous little gem of a book. After reading it I needed my bike more than ever. If you've ever sat on a bicycle, this book is a must read. If you haven't, read it anyway.

I have been bicycling for 30+ years. Not in France, unfortunately (in Hungary, Germany and in the USA), but every story in Paul Fournel's little book resonated with me. I bought two extra copies as a potential present for cyclist friends.

Tomorrow morning will be around 30F in Boston. A good day for a 40 miles morning ride.

Akos

Paul Fournel has provided a poetic glimpse of many of the subtle mundanities that join together to make cycling such a pleasurable thing to do, even in the most adverse conditions. After reading this book, I feel I have a more defined frame of reference for what could be called a "spiritual" aspect or a "sense of presence" while cycling. I may be able to recall this while on the bike, but it will more likely arise after a ride, whether grueling or purely pleasurable. In both cases, thanks to the sensitive perceptions in these vignettes, I will surely smile.

Pure pleasure. Fournel is a master of prose and a master cyclist. Translator Stoekl is no slouch either. Need for the Bike is beautifully crafted, wise, insightful, intelligent, and a joy to read. Even the chapter headings are inspirational: Gears, Legs, Class, Outfit, Biker's Tan, Getting Old, Blowup, Doping, Racer, Fatigue, etc. Aguably the best cycling book ever written. Highly recommended.