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A literary sports classic, finally available in the U.S.
Originally published in Holland in 1978, The Rider became an instant cult classic, selling over 100,000 copies. Brilliantly conceived and written at a break-neck pace, it is a loving, imaginative, and, above all, passionate tribute to the art of bicycle road racing.
Not a dry history of the sport, The Rider is beloved as a bicycle odyssey, a literary masterpiece that describes in painstaking detail one 150-kilometer race in a mere 150 pages. The Rider is the ultimate book for bike lovers as well as the arm-chair sports enthusiast.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Jim Adam
reviewed Rider on August 08, 2009 Rider
This short, dense, gorgeously written book is the Dutch Krabbé's first-person account of a 150-kilometer bicycle race from 1977 (also the year of the book's publication). The writer, who is also an accomplished chess player, started racing professionally when he turned 30. In time he became a contender in many of the shorter day-races in northern Europe.
It succeeds on so many levels: the rider's accomplishment, the true descriptions of racing, historical depth (many seamlessly-woven accounts of great moments in cycling), as a kind of autobiography, and most of all as a long translation of the racer's mind. Time stops, starts, reverses. The brain conjures impossible visions and dreams. The rider's will breaks and resuscitates itself numerous times. It's a philosophical meditation on pain: "Suffering you need. Literature is baloney."
Baloney he says, yet Krabbé elevates other cycling writing as well. His book brings a new light, for instance, to Bill and Carol McGann's two-volume history of the Tour de France, illuminating factual details and amplifying what makes competitive cycling such a special pursuit.
I won't tell you who wins the race. Krabbé wins the writing.
*
WHY I READ THIS BOOK: During this year's Tour de France, I got inspired to read some books on the subject, and found this one at the Seattle Public Library.
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Add Rider, A literary sports classic, finally available in the U.S. Originally published in Holland in 1978, The Rider became an instant cult classic, selling over 100,000 copies. Brilliantly conceived and written at a break-neck pace, it is a loving, imag, Rider to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Rider, A literary sports classic, finally available in the U.S. Originally published in Holland in 1978, The Rider became an instant cult classic, selling over 100,000 copies. Brilliantly conceived and written at a break-neck pace, it is a loving, imag, Rider to your collection on WonderClub |