Ten Points by Bill Strickland
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.70 You Save: $21.25 (89%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Ten Points
Book Review: Exercising Cyclist Exorcises Childhood Demons
Summary: 5 Stars
Author Bill Strickland is an amateur bicycle racer as well as the executive editor of BICYCLING magazine. He embraces a magnificent obsession -- to earn by placing weekly criterium bike races near his home. He pledges to his pre-school aged daughter that he will score 10 points by placing high enough in this series of races.
TEN POINTS is on one level bicycle narrative, but it transcends that. Strickland's cycling endeavors alternate with flashbacks of a deeply troubled childhood overshadowed by an abusive father. Strickland's father could be considered a poster child for White Trash, except that would probably give undue insult to those who are White Trash. It's people like Strickland's father who make us wish that you had to be licensed in order to sire children. The vignettes of abuse recounted by Strickland are at times difficult to read. I marvel at the courage Strickland has in self-revelation and sharing these memories with the readers. Throughout his adult life the baggage haunted him and impacted his dealings with his friends, his children, and even led him to an extramarital affair which jeopardized his marriage.
Rather than letting this psychic baggage derail his life or marriage, Strickland redoubles his efforts and infuses "the quest for 10 points" with an almost mythic sense of mission. His prose on bike racing cracks and crackles with authenticity, putting you in the middle of the straining peloton. This alone is worth the price of admission...
It would be nice to wrap this up with a tidy Tiffany's bow and relate a story where Bill Strickland ultimately wins his 10 points, transcending his athletic limitations and his past.
Alas, life is rarely so neatly packaged. As one famous bicycle racer has stated, "It's not about the bike." TEN POINTS is also not about the bike. It is about facing down the demons of your past and proving to yourself that family history is not destiny, that we have the power to change ourselves and unshackle or sells from the chains of our painful influential upbringing, that goals sometimes remain unattained and we are strengthened by our failures.
This is a moving book of self transcendence and I urge you to keep a box of Kleenex on hand for the end. On a scale of one to ten, TEN POINTS gets an eleven!!
Book Review: A Flashback in Every Chapter
Summary: 5 Stars
Had a rough childhood? I did as did many of the people I grew up with. We all had our own way of dealing with these demons of our past. Most of my friends didn't make it. Some fell to drugs or prison or the worst fate of all - marriage. Fortunately I took a similar path to author Bill Strickland who tried with every muscle fiber to purge his nightmares through the sweat of sport. Each successive attempt acts as yet another chance to prove to himself, his wife and his daughter that he is not his father. The man who warped his psyche was continuing to do damage years after his physical presence had passed away. This inner turmoil manifested as blind ambition whenever the author took to his cycle in each season as he attempted to do the impossible, win ten points in a weekly Criterium race. This powerful memoir brings forth the question as to whether a man can chance his stars with the sheer thrust of pedal power. Greats of the past have done so but could a damaged man? 10 Points not only makes you seek the answer but makes you wonder what you can accomplish as well. More importantly, it makes you reconsider what your accomplishments would really mean.Book Review: Triumph
Summary: 5 Stars
10 Points--
Triumphant, heartbreaking, and tender, 10 Points is masterfully--and courageously told. In a breathtaking ride through the author's life 10 Points chronicles how a man with a toxic past grapples with a fragile and unfamiliar purity found in the souls of his wife and little girl. He burns off some poison on his bike, hammering the peddles in a weekly race with a fury that blasts him through gateways sport opens like few other experiences, blurring his way through agony into purity and possibility and newness. And while this book finds source code in sport and competition and fast bikes, the only cycling experience required for the read is knowing that its fun to ride through a puddle with your feet off the pedals. Tack on a world class prose that'll make you cringe, cry, and find a better way to love; it's hard to find a better, more meaningful book. They should make this into a movie.
Mark Clement, author The Carpenter's Notebook, A NovelThe Carpenter's Notebook -- A Novel
Book Review: Couldn't put it down
Summary: 5 Stars
A riveting book. Pacey and raw. Strickland captures perfectly the almost savage satisfaction of all-out physical effort on a bike. It was impossible to put the book down until each race finished. Equally riveting but extremely disturbing are his accounts of the abuse suffered at the hands of his father. '10 Points' elated me, depressed me and left me profoundly unsettled. If I met Bill Strickland on the road, I'm not sure whether I would ride along companionably... or sprint away as fast as I could. Unforgettable.Book Review: Ten Points
Summary: 5 Stars
Ten Points is much more than a book about bicycling. Bill Strickland takes us to places we don't want to go but can't stop reading about. Few of us know the thrill and pain of competitive cycling. Unfortunately, many of us know the pain of abuse at the hands of someone who should be our protector. This book is astonishing, appalling, and inspirational all rolled into one. Strickland achieved 10 points.Ten Points