Need for the Bike

by Paul Fournel

Book Overview

A book like no other, Frenchman 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803269099
• ISBN13: 9780803269095
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.8" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Dreamy Recollections...

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.

A Small Book of Short Essays

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.

It's a bike thing, but maybe you'll understand

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.

Biking to Oulipo

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.

A Prose Poem About Cycling

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.