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And two more
Feb. 20th, 2001 02:45 pm48. Freya North - Cat
A book about the Tour de France it seemed. Then again the recommendation on the cover was a quote from the Cosmopolitan, so I could have known better. As you might know the Tour de France is the highlight of a year watching sports for me, so I read it anyway. This is not a book about the Tour, it's about the main character Cat, who happens to become a journalist in the Tour de France. The cycling is only a background, a situation in which to place the story.
Apparently the author got infected a couple of years back when confronted with a tv-documentary on the event. She did a lot of research. She actually describes the atmosphere fairly well. Even some of the observations on cylcing are spot on. Nitpicker as I am (in Dutch we use the term antfucking for this), I have found some flaws though. The difference between the first and last cyclist before climbing the Alpe D'Huez is never an hour and a half. Stuart O'Grady winning two mass arrivals is extremely unlikely. The book seems to honour the cyclists who helped the author during her research. They might not win as much in reality, in her book the English speaking riders seem to be the ultimate top. But overall it is a interesting book. If you can read beyond the soppy love story, it is really fascinating. That Cat finally finds true love will be no surprise, that the Tour is brilliant either. Difficult is when it gets to the confusion of names. Some real riders (Boardman, Cippolini, O'Grady and Millar) appear in the book, but others are made up. Armstrong, the winner of the last two events gets a mention in the book (he isn't participating because his wife is expecting a second child, funny idea), but what happended to Ullrich and Pantani? And are the fictional characters based on real cyclists, or are they completely made up? Who can tell. I thought I recognized a bit of Berzin in the Russian contender, a bit of Hinault in the French one. I could be wrong. For cycling purists this book is to be avoided. For those who like an easy love story or a book in which their sports starrs, it is recommendable.
49. Ben Elton - Stark
This was the only one by Elton I hadn't read. For those of you who don't know Ben, he is co-author of famous comedies as The Young Ones, Blackadder and the Thin Blue Line. He is also a famous Stand Up Comedian in the UK, with his own TV-show. He has written several brilliant novels and plays. Stark was his second. I had seen the Tv-film based on the book already, therefore I hadn't read the book yet, but his eye for detail can never be incorporated in a film, you just have to read his books.
Elton is cynical, his books speak for that. Being a comedian he obviously cannot avoid putting zillions of little jokes in the book, but the story itself is brilliant enough. A conspiracy (I love conspiracy theories. Elvis is alive, Monroe was murdered, the moonlanding was fake etc.) of very, very rich magnates decides to let the world go down, but have found a solution for themselves. A group of losers has to try to stop them. Armageddon might seem far fetched, but reading this book, you can't avoid thinking that it could just happen like this. It might not even be fiction, But knowing that it is, it is a brilliant read. Now that I have read every single one of his books, I can't wait for a new one! The whole story plays in Australia and some of the characteristics are really well observed, there are several good reasons to read this book, can't seem to find any to not read it.
A book about the Tour de France it seemed. Then again the recommendation on the cover was a quote from the Cosmopolitan, so I could have known better. As you might know the Tour de France is the highlight of a year watching sports for me, so I read it anyway. This is not a book about the Tour, it's about the main character Cat, who happens to become a journalist in the Tour de France. The cycling is only a background, a situation in which to place the story.
Apparently the author got infected a couple of years back when confronted with a tv-documentary on the event. She did a lot of research. She actually describes the atmosphere fairly well. Even some of the observations on cylcing are spot on. Nitpicker as I am (in Dutch we use the term antfucking for this), I have found some flaws though. The difference between the first and last cyclist before climbing the Alpe D'Huez is never an hour and a half. Stuart O'Grady winning two mass arrivals is extremely unlikely. The book seems to honour the cyclists who helped the author during her research. They might not win as much in reality, in her book the English speaking riders seem to be the ultimate top. But overall it is a interesting book. If you can read beyond the soppy love story, it is really fascinating. That Cat finally finds true love will be no surprise, that the Tour is brilliant either. Difficult is when it gets to the confusion of names. Some real riders (Boardman, Cippolini, O'Grady and Millar) appear in the book, but others are made up. Armstrong, the winner of the last two events gets a mention in the book (he isn't participating because his wife is expecting a second child, funny idea), but what happended to Ullrich and Pantani? And are the fictional characters based on real cyclists, or are they completely made up? Who can tell. I thought I recognized a bit of Berzin in the Russian contender, a bit of Hinault in the French one. I could be wrong. For cycling purists this book is to be avoided. For those who like an easy love story or a book in which their sports starrs, it is recommendable.
49. Ben Elton - Stark
This was the only one by Elton I hadn't read. For those of you who don't know Ben, he is co-author of famous comedies as The Young Ones, Blackadder and the Thin Blue Line. He is also a famous Stand Up Comedian in the UK, with his own TV-show. He has written several brilliant novels and plays. Stark was his second. I had seen the Tv-film based on the book already, therefore I hadn't read the book yet, but his eye for detail can never be incorporated in a film, you just have to read his books.
Elton is cynical, his books speak for that. Being a comedian he obviously cannot avoid putting zillions of little jokes in the book, but the story itself is brilliant enough. A conspiracy (I love conspiracy theories. Elvis is alive, Monroe was murdered, the moonlanding was fake etc.) of very, very rich magnates decides to let the world go down, but have found a solution for themselves. A group of losers has to try to stop them. Armageddon might seem far fetched, but reading this book, you can't avoid thinking that it could just happen like this. It might not even be fiction, But knowing that it is, it is a brilliant read. Now that I have read every single one of his books, I can't wait for a new one! The whole story plays in Australia and some of the characteristics are really well observed, there are several good reasons to read this book, can't seem to find any to not read it.
