Fast Company

by David M. Gross

Book Overview

It's the thick of the mid-1990s boom, and David M. Gross is racking up billable hours for a Manhattan corporate law firm and thinking that there must be more to life. Out of the blue, a friend calls with a tantalizing and risky proposal: How would he feel about moving to Bologna to help turn around a legendary, down-on-its-luck Italian motorcycle company, known for its dominance on the track and its inability to turn a profit? After a brief soul-search...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374281335
• ISBN13: 9780374281335
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Fast Company: Snapshot of modern Italy

Within captivating literary style, Gross's portrayals illuminate an Italian world as it is now, and this is clearly not the world of "Room with a view". Surely the Italian journals and "Corriere della Sera" are well versed with the struggles of Italian boutique businesses trying to meet the challenge of growth to an international level, but to follow the chain of events of Ducati from within and during a major transitional effort is a special gift. To become acquainted with personal and detailed snapshots of corporate design processes and the trials of prima donna designers is equally rewarding, and sheds a fair light on recent Ducati products. From the beach exploits and dreams of characters depicted, one senses the struggles of modern young Italians. Add to this the author's struggle to rationalize infatuation with a young and arrogant love, and one finds another level or dimension of the Italy of today. This love may have equally been heterosexual, it's characteristics in modern day Italy would have been the same. The vignette descriptions ranging from learning to ride a motorcycle, different bikes, and tours reach out to the motorcyclist in all of us, as these motivate us to reach beyond ourselves whether or not a leg is thrown over a bike. This is a book for everyone where one truly gains a view into the beauty, challenge, and flavor of Italy today. On other levels, having been an Italian ex-pat for three years, ridden motorcycles for 30 years, and a Ducatista for 15 years, this book has touched on many levels and reminds of the need to return.

Visual Reading

There are not many people who can go to the best schools,become a lawyer,end up as a creative director at a major Italian motorcycle company, and have the ability to write a completely visual memoir.I love a visual book filled with all the right things----and this book has it. I could completely relate to the corporate politics, the shoe obsessed Italians, the anorexic girl friend, the closeted boy friend,the bisexual boys,and the hysterical art director.The story is unique because it is Italian but it is also a New York story. We all kill ourselves at the gym, starve to be thin, and play the corporate politics game. If you are at all creative you have had more than your share of temper tantrums. David's book is all of this and more. It is so visual and passionate that even the company reporting is completely interesting. It is "Fast Company" and it is a fast engrossing read. I loved it------ I am ready for the next book. Thanks David!

Unique in so many ways!

This book has quietly created a new genre: it is part travelogue, part business book, part memoir--and throughout all of its parts, defined by an incredible level of character development and a fresh, compelling voice. I can not recommend it more highly. It reminds me of Paul Theroux with a business twist. Just read it. You wont be sorry.

Living in the Fast Lane

Gross, David M. "Fast Company: A Memoir of Life, Love and Motorcycles in Italy", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Living in the Fast Lane Amos Lassen I love books like David Gross' "Fast Company" because they tell so much about learning how to live. What we have is a journey and this is a journey of life. Gross takes us on a ride that is an exciting trip of understanding how to experience a new country a new career and a new relationship all at the same time. He meets personal challenges that are similar to the personal challenges all of us meet and his persona story becomes our own. Leaving the legal profession to go to Italy and ride a cycle is a brave move especially since life in Italy is very different from what a Wall Street lawyer is accustomed to. Gross comes across as a rebel who will not be tied down to corporate America and leaves it all to find himself in a foreign country. He goes to Italy to advise a motorcycle company on how to go public and in doing s takes the Ducati ride of his life. What is so amazing is how there is a tinge of sexuality in almost all that he writes whether it be the Italian coutryside or the social classes of the country. I have never been really interested in riding a motorcycle but after reading this I want to get out and buy a bike and hit the road. Gross explains his love for life in the way he shows his love for babies and his view of the world as theater with all of us being bit players on the world stage. His love for his fellow man is reflected in the way he related his love affair with another man. The book entertains completely and is filled with wealth and humor and honesty above all else We get such a unique picture of Italy and a wonderful look at the loneliness of what it is to be an American living in a foreign country. The characters that Gross gives us are wonderful; a group of misfits, lost and lonely souls, and those with very sharp egos. Reading the book is like what I imagine a ride on the autor's motorcycle might be. We get a look at the inside of a company with its wild personalities and clashes of interests that manages, despite executives who preen, to produce motorcycles that have dominated the world of racing and are recognized everywhere in the world, For a book about the motorcycle business there is also a great deal of sex. As I said before, the book itself is a motorcycle ride. Gross gives such astute observations on everything from being an American lawyer, to describing the countryside of Italy, to corporate branding and relationships that are unfulfilled that you really feel that you are there with him. His talent for description is vivid so much so that I see myself sitting down beside him and having a cappuccino while observing the Italians walking by. A word or two about the author--he is a gay man who is looking for a partner and he spent time looking for young sex partners. Ashe lives in Italy, he seems to turn back the clock and become younger. He enters a world

Book arrived yesterday--finished it last night!

As my fellow reviewer said, there is something for everyone in this book! "Fast Company" is itself a motorcycle ride...through the author's experiences we are taken on a swtichback of adventures. Gross's lucid and endearing observations cut a diverse swath from Italian resort towns, corporate branding challenges and unrequited relationships to "just a bit" of cultural self-obsession. The force that keeps us in our seats is the evenness of the writing. Even this non-motorcycle-riding reader coasted through passages depicting single-sided swing arms and ceramic coolers, as I waited for the inevitable excitement at the next turn in the road. Favorite chapters/topics: transitioning to Italy, ALL the business stuff, the second Motogiro race and nightlife on the Adriatic coast. The author has an amazing talent for describing place and character; what's so much sweeter is these "characters" are real! You feel like you are there--taking espresso at the company bar with the smell of grinds, sweat and factory around you; tasting spaghetti alle vongole in Sicily and eating the dirt of the road at mind-altering speeds. Such a cool book!!!!!