This is the first account of Giro d''Italia p ublished in English which includes maps and illustrations of the legendary 1949 Tour of Italy. '
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WE OPEN THE DOOR TO CABIN No. 223, second tourist class. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
WE OPEN THE DOOR TO CABIN No. 223, second tourist class. Read the first page
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Dino Buzzati was known foremost as a playwright and novelist when he was sent by popular Italian newspaper La Corriere della Sera to cover the 1949 Tour of Italy cycling race. By assembling the daily reports he filed at the time, this book records not just the classic duel between two national sporting heroes in Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, but also the mood of abjection and dissolution that tainted postwar Italy.
Buzatti offers cycling fans a refreshing perspective on one of the world's best-loved races - and he dazzles non-enthusiasts with his flamboyant descriptions of everything in and around the world of professional cycling. Often the author's extravagant imagination gets the better of him. When the Giro goes up Mt Etna, Buzatti gives the narrative over to the volcano itself, which speaks of its pride in having the country's best riders struggling up its slopes; later on, the spirits of dead soldiers evoke their ghoulish suffering as the Giro's cavalcade motors past their unmarked graveyard.
But Buzatti does not ignore the action. He beautifully communicates the frenzied support of the tifosi (Italian fans), seeking to rebuild a sense of national pride; and he carefully crafts portraits of the ageing hero Bartali and his new upstart rival, the young Fausto Coppi. This is a classic race, recounted with verve and invention by an exceptional writing talent.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Dino Buzatti's account of the 1949 Giro D'Italia goes way beyond an account of the struggle between two cycling greats. For anyone who loves Italy and it's culture here is a description of a national sporting institution being played out against the backdrop of a country recovering from war. This is in some respects a travelogue and does more to convince the reader of the unique nature of the Italian psyche than any other book I have read. We read of landscape and climate and joy and sadness and politics and eating. And, oh by the way, we read about the great Bartali and the even greater Fausto Coppi. The cycling is not by any means relegated to secondary relavence, just put into perspective.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars
4 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Bon Bons for the Cyclist
2 Jun 2000
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This is a book, not just about one of cycling's great events, the Giro, during one of the classic years of that event, 1949. It is a book of literature, of the Italian people recovering from a decade of war, of the duel between the mindset of war being overcome with the temptation of peace, and of the old decorated hero -- Bartoli -- battling time, the inevitable decline of age, and the young Fausto Coppi.
Each chapter is a bon bon that I savoured until it was over. Written by Buzzati, an award winning Italian journalist who was covering his first bike race, the book contains revelations and explanations that those who are unfamiliar with cycling will appreciate. For those who have descended twisting roads, at screaming speeds, from within the peloton, there are great tid bits. The dreams of the grisanti (the domestique) one day raising his arms in victory -- NOT! The crazy old one, leaving six hours before the riders start and finishing after dark, determined to conquer the entire course. Age defying time. The home town rider, "in crisis just two days before" who wins the stage in front of his teachers, his family, and the president of his local cycling club who once presented him with his first bike. Read this book! You'll either jump on your bike in fantasy or save for that next flight to Genoa. I am grateful it has finally been translated into English.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Tale of Two Tours
11 May 2000
By Christian Thompson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Despite a feeling of something lost in translation, I highly recommend Buzzati's tale of the '49 Giro to anyone interested in Italy, cycling, sports journalism or even World War Two. The book takes the reader the length of Italy from Sicily to the Alps, giving a lyrical look at life in post-war Italy and at times pushing the race into secondary importance. But the race is indeed the story and as a cycling fan I found that the author, who personally admits to a certain ignorance of the sport, had an insight into the race that an aficionado might have overlooked. If you like a mix of fact and fiction, muscle-ache and metaphor, mountain stage heroics and their Homeric interpretations then this is the book for you.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
well written
2 Dec 2004
By john
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book gave quite a good look inside post-war Italy and the caravan of the Giro mid-century. Buzatti's writing, while intended as sports reporting, is also much more. This is not a book written by a cycling fan, but a fan of the sport simply by dint of being Italian, and you can see it in the expectations put upon it's heros. To say it is an unbalanced account would be an understatement- Buzzati had never seen the Giro before beginning these reports and it shows through in his tone, elevating his protagonists, Coppi and Bartali, above the entire peleton and up amongst the gods and heros of Homer. This is sport writing at it's most epic and romantic, and for the subject matter it definitely works. Writing about cycling in Italy feels like it should be passionate and over-blown. (Even if that is, perhaps, a stereotype) The translation was not great, but was balanced enough to give a sense of Buzzati's prose while keeping all of his references and allusions to Italy and Italian history -too many cycling books are dumbed down for english-speaking audiences. That having been said, the writing was still a little bit too clunky, you get the feeling it could have been quite poetic in the right hands. As literary cycling prose this book is quite good as non-fiction, but not quite up there with Tim Krabbe's fictional The Rider.
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3.8 out of 5 stars
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