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"'Beautifully written, elegiac biography of the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal' Bookseller 'Rambali brings the athletes, coaches, soldiers and their peculiar monarch beautifully to life in this strange, sad tale' Daily Telegraph 'Poignant... about far more than Bikila's exploits on the track' Time Out 'Delivers engrossing accounts of the Byzantine intrigues at Selassie's court... strong on documentary detail... It is impossible to remain unmoved by his accounts of the two great Olympic feats' Independent"
Independent
`Impressive... no ordinary book... the quality and thoroughness
with which the enterprise is undertaken carry the day' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
with which the enterprise is undertaken carry the day' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this not knowing about the approach that the author had taken, and therefore it came as something of a surprise as I worked through the opening chapters to realise that this was not a biography, but something closer to a dramatisation. As a result, you have no idea whether anything you are reading is actually true (other than clear historical fact, such as Bikila's victories) or the invention of the author.
Uncomfortably, nowhere in the paperback version is the author or the publisher honest enough to own up to this. You would have to be pretty slow to not realise that there is a lot of imagination involved, simply because the book is largely dialogue and frequently told from inside the heads of the main protagonists. No sources are cited for any of it. For all I know, the author could have picked up the historical fact and just conjured the rest into existence. If he did use other sources, he's being a little naughty not crediting them.
The book itself evokes the Ethiopia of the time interestingly enough - but again, I have no confidence in the accuracy.
In the end, you are left confused and not at all clear what you have read. I suppose if the author had written this as pure fiction it wouldn't have carried the appeal that a biography of a fascinating character in athletic history would.
"Dubious" is the best word I can come up with. I'm inclined to avoid the author's other works. Having finished the book, I'm also a little annoyed that I might have completely wasted my time.
Therefore I'm unclear as to how this got shortlisted for the sports book of the year award. Perhaps every sports book published goes on there?
Uncomfortably, nowhere in the paperback version is the author or the publisher honest enough to own up to this. You would have to be pretty slow to not realise that there is a lot of imagination involved, simply because the book is largely dialogue and frequently told from inside the heads of the main protagonists. No sources are cited for any of it. For all I know, the author could have picked up the historical fact and just conjured the rest into existence. If he did use other sources, he's being a little naughty not crediting them.
The book itself evokes the Ethiopia of the time interestingly enough - but again, I have no confidence in the accuracy.
In the end, you are left confused and not at all clear what you have read. I suppose if the author had written this as pure fiction it wouldn't have carried the appeal that a biography of a fascinating character in athletic history would.
"Dubious" is the best word I can come up with. I'm inclined to avoid the author's other works. Having finished the book, I'm also a little annoyed that I might have completely wasted my time.
Therefore I'm unclear as to how this got shortlisted for the sports book of the year award. Perhaps every sports book published goes on there?
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I agree with New Cross. This book is effectively a badly-written novel inspired by (some of) the life of Abebe Bikila. Avoid it, unless you like badly-written novels.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book is a actually a 'fictionalised biography' and much of the supposed 'detail' is clearly from the imagination of Rambali. It is disgraceful that the author or publisher do not make this clear in the book, although Rambali has admitted it in interviews. I'm not sure how much real research was carried out by Rambali for the book - no references are cited, there is no list of Abebe's running achievements and very few dates are mentioned. Despite Rambali's claims that his is the first book about Abebe Bikila (see back cover) there have been others. For instance Abebe's daughter, Tsegie Abebe, published "Triumph and Tragedy: A History of Abebe Bikila and His Marathon Career" in 1996. More recently Giorgio Lo Giudice and Valerio Piccioni published a book in Italy in 2003 titled "Un sogno a Roma - Storia di Abebe Bikila".
The first chapter of the book (which can be read in the excerpt on Amazon) gives some clues about the style of the rest. It is set in Stoke Mandeville Hospital with Abebe paralysed from the waist down following a car accident in 1969 (although none of this is mentioned in the chapter itself). It starts with conjecture about what Abebe was thinking about and how he was feeling but then we start to get to the 'facts':
On page 3 - "no one, apart from His Imperial Majesty.... had a television set". Fact - the television service started in Ethiopia in 1964.
Also on page 3 "man's oldest ancestor, Homo afarensis" Fact - 'Lucy' is actually Australopithecus afarensis. Afarensis is the ancestor of the genus Homo. And Lucy wasn't discovered until 1974, the year after Abebe died, so he couldn't possibly have been watching it on television.
On page 4 - "Rugged faced man in his fifties" "Professor Carleton Coon" Fact - Professor Carleton Coon (1904 - 1981) was a famous American anthropologist but had nothing to do with the discovery of Lucy. He did carry out some work in Ethiopia - but in the early 1930s. He would have been 65 in 1969.
And did Haile Selassie really make a Visit to Stoke Mandeville to see Abebe? I can find no references elsewhere to a visit.
The whole of the book is crammed full of details that simply do not stand up to scrutiny. The worst is probably Rambali's efforts to sensationalise the book by implicating Abebe in the 1960 coup attempt against the emperor and suggesting that he was sentenced to hang. Again I can find no references elsewhere for this - where exactly did Rambali get his 'information'?
His descriptions of Ethiopia and Ethiopian life are also clear caricatures - I suspect he's never even visited Ethiopia. He certainly doesn't appear to have visited Axum or else he would know that the famous stelea are not covered in strange inscriptions. He would also know that if Abebe was walking from his home village to Addis Abeba he wouldn't go anywhere near Axum - but then why let facts get in the way of a 'good story'.
An extremely disappointing and poorly researched book which, unfortunately, is probably going to be treated by some as the standard reference work on the life of Abebe. Really not worth reading if you're interested in the true facts about the life and running career of Abebe Bikila.
The first chapter of the book (which can be read in the excerpt on Amazon) gives some clues about the style of the rest. It is set in Stoke Mandeville Hospital with Abebe paralysed from the waist down following a car accident in 1969 (although none of this is mentioned in the chapter itself). It starts with conjecture about what Abebe was thinking about and how he was feeling but then we start to get to the 'facts':
On page 3 - "no one, apart from His Imperial Majesty.... had a television set". Fact - the television service started in Ethiopia in 1964.
Also on page 3 "man's oldest ancestor, Homo afarensis" Fact - 'Lucy' is actually Australopithecus afarensis. Afarensis is the ancestor of the genus Homo. And Lucy wasn't discovered until 1974, the year after Abebe died, so he couldn't possibly have been watching it on television.
On page 4 - "Rugged faced man in his fifties" "Professor Carleton Coon" Fact - Professor Carleton Coon (1904 - 1981) was a famous American anthropologist but had nothing to do with the discovery of Lucy. He did carry out some work in Ethiopia - but in the early 1930s. He would have been 65 in 1969.
And did Haile Selassie really make a Visit to Stoke Mandeville to see Abebe? I can find no references elsewhere to a visit.
The whole of the book is crammed full of details that simply do not stand up to scrutiny. The worst is probably Rambali's efforts to sensationalise the book by implicating Abebe in the 1960 coup attempt against the emperor and suggesting that he was sentenced to hang. Again I can find no references elsewhere for this - where exactly did Rambali get his 'information'?
His descriptions of Ethiopia and Ethiopian life are also clear caricatures - I suspect he's never even visited Ethiopia. He certainly doesn't appear to have visited Axum or else he would know that the famous stelea are not covered in strange inscriptions. He would also know that if Abebe was walking from his home village to Addis Abeba he wouldn't go anywhere near Axum - but then why let facts get in the way of a 'good story'.
An extremely disappointing and poorly researched book which, unfortunately, is probably going to be treated by some as the standard reference work on the life of Abebe. Really not worth reading if you're interested in the true facts about the life and running career of Abebe Bikila.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Review of the Barefoot Runner
What a fantastic read and insight into Ethiopa during the 1950's - 1960's, as seen from that great runner Abebe Bikila. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2010 by James Gamble
Two gold medals, the rest is fiction
I got this book a few years ago, it's pretty dreadful. Biklila was an Ethiopian Soldier, was coached by a Swede, won the gold medal in the marathon in 1960 and 1964 Olympics and... Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2009 by Anthony Bell
The Life of Abebe Bikila? Really?
What annoyed me much more than the poor writing style and multiple inaccuracies was the fact that Bikila is not even the main character in this book. Read more
Published on 22 April 2009 by M. Rooney
Good story, Poor writing
While I enjoyed discovering Abebe's story in this book - it certainly is a fascinating book, like the other reviewers I was left with a real feeling of it needing a much better... Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2008 by NeilC
Bare-faced drivel
Here are the images that will stay with me from this dreadful book: the turgid imperial ceremonies rendered in even more turgid prose; the patronising descriptions of honest,... Read more
Published on 30 April 2008 by G. Darroch
easy runner
I enjoyed this book. It may not be great literature or 100% accurate, but if you can accept the fictionalised biography format it's a good read and a very interesting story.
Published on 22 April 2008 by P. H. Lee
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