Need for the Bike

Need for the Bike
by Paul Fournel

Need for the Bike
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Book Summary Information

Author: Paul Fournel
Translator: Allan Stoekl
Introduction: Allan Stoekl
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); French (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09-01
ISBN: 0803269099
Number of pages: 150
Publisher: Bison Books

Book Reviews of Need for the Bike

Book Review: A Prose Poem About Cycling
Summary: 5 Stars

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.

Summary of Need for the Bike

A book like no other, Paul Fournel?s Need for the Bike conducts readers into a very personal world of communication and connection whose center is the bicycle, and where all people and things pass by way of the bike. In compact and suggestive prose, Fournel conveys the experience of cycling?from the initial charm of early outings to the dramas of the devoted cyclist.
 
An extended meditation on cycling as a practice of life, the book recalls a country doctor who will not anesthetize the young Fournel after he impales himself on a downtube shifter, speculates about the difference between animals that would like to ride bikes (dogs, for instance) and those that would prefer to watch (cows, marmots), and reflects on the fundamental absurdity of turning over the pedals mile after excruciating mile. At the same time, Fournel captures the sound, smell, feel, and language of the reality and history of cycling, in the mountains, in the city, escaping the city, in groups, alone, suffering, exhausted, exhilarated.
 
In his attention to the pleasures of cycling, to the specific ?grain? of different cycling experiences, and to the inscription of these experiences in the body?s cycling memory, Fournel portrays cycling as a descriptive universe, colorful, lyrical, inclusive, exclusive, complete.

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