I bought this book on sale, thank goodness. It is a small book, and therefore the images are also small. You will likely need a magnifying glass to appreciate details. Apart from the images, there is no reason to buy this book. Organization seems arbitrary, explanations are brief and generally unhelpful, and the text is poorly written (a poor translation?) with spelling and grammatical errors.
First of all, take my review with a grain of salt since I stopped reading halfway through (p. 160 of the edition I have). Although the writing was beautiful, the relentless violence and cruelty started to really get to me. I had to read with two dictionaries beside me (one English and one Spanish-English) because I don't understand Spanish, and I started to wonder if I understood English as well. McCarthy's sentences and diction are beautiful and precise, poetic and kinda neo-Biblical. I learned many new words, which is a good thing. I suppose you could skip the dictionaries and just read along without getting hung up on comprehending every single word, but that effort didn't bother me… Read more
Well-written, devastating look at the culture of professional cycling. It sounds like it should be a downer, but for me it was not. I flew through the pages and loved it. While I don't have many positive feelings left for Lance Armstrong, you can sort of understand why these guys did what they did after reading the book. I don't condone their choices, but the book helps you empathize, and empathy is never a bad thing. Plus they were wicked athletes who loved their sport, paradoxically.
