Unsolicited Book Review: Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation

Short Review:  Go buy this book.  If you aren’t pleased with it, email me through Jonn and I will buy the copy from you, because I want to share this book with damn near everyone who can read.

Video of the Book:

Longer Review: I read non-stop, but I seldom do book reviews, and usually only when I had the book sent to me.  So, when I come out and do a book review on a book that I had to pay full price for, and am under no moral obligation to tout, you can bank on it being good.

For a host of reasons, I have been in an absolute funk lately, not helped by the week-long cold that is still crushing me.  My usually recourse is to dive into reading, since I generally read about 3 to 4 books a week.  But since I finished the “Iron Druid Chronicles” by Kevin Hearn a few weeks ago, I’ve been reading books that were adequate, but not altogether stand-outs by any stretch.   (Hearn’s books though are outstanding in every way, and should be read.)

So anyway, yesterday I was in an even bigger funk, and enroute to church I was bemoaning that I didn’t even have anything to read when I got home.  In a moment of serendipity, a lady named Aili McConnon came on the radio to discuss with some host her new book, “Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation.”  To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really intend to read it, but I wanted to buy it because the story seemed like one that should be told.  I’m weird that way.  I buy a ton of books I probably won’t read, just because I think the author should be applauded for actually writing it.

Anyway, I decided to crack the first chapter yesterday about 3pm.  I finished reading the book at 9:30 last night.  And, yeah, I would definitely place it in the top 5 non-fiction books I ever read.  If you liked “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, you will love this book.  And, I am not too proud to admit I did get choked up reading it a couple of times.

Now, I don’t want to ruin too much of the book, on the off chance any of you will actually read it, but a couple of things.  First off, the author did a great job of doing what I want all non-fiction authors to do, largely get the hell out of the way on a story that doesn’t need too much literary frills.  When I read Joseph Conrad, I do so for a clever turn-of-phrase, etc, when I read books like this, I’d rather not even notice the story-teller, vice the story itself.  Which is not to say she didn’t write superbly; I mean she just didn’t make it all about her writing style, which I appreciated.

Because this story is all about Gino Bartoli, and if you don’t know who he is, you should.  A sort of pugilistic, cantankerous and devoutly Catholic Italian, Bartoli won the Tour de France in 1938, and again ten years later in 1948.  But it’s what he did in-between that truly makes him a hero, as during WWII, at the behest of a local cardinal of the Catholic Church, Gino smuggled documents around inside the frame of his bicycle for Jews who were hiding in the area.

Some of my favorite moments of the book showed just what kind of a tough bird this dude was.  At one point in the middle of a race a spectator began yelling anti-Catholic things at him.  He pulled his bike over, dismounted and punched the dude in the grape.

During the 1948 Tour, Gino was off to a rocky start, and the media had turned on him pretty bad, claiming that he was too old, and just didn’t have it anymore.  On July 15^th, back in Italy, the leader of the Communist party was shot, and it looked like Italy might descend into total anarchy.  The media in Gino’s hotel got the call about the events, and they all made to leave.  When Gino saw them leaving he erupted:

Go! Go home!  I know what you’re thinking.  I’m old.  You came here and tired yourselves out for nothing.  There’s no point in following Bartali’s race, that poor old man, eh?  But I’m warning you: a stopwatch won’t be big enough to record the amount of time by which I’ll beat the others.  And don’t come back to interview me when I have the yellow jersey.”

 I remember one time watching the Tour de France late at night with a couple of suds in me.  I’m not absolutely certain, but pretty sure I was watching Armstrong.  Anyway, he was struggling badly.  Just couldn’t settle into his seat, seemed to be overheating, kept unzipping his jersey etc.  Was pretty clear dude was screwed, and so some of the other contenders took off.  All of a sudden the guy looked at the camera, and his face took on this sublime look and he zipped up his jersey and winked at the camera.   And off he went.  I just got chills watching it.

 Well, Gino pretty much invented that move in 1948.  Down by like 17 minutes he won the event the next day by 16, even though it was snowing in July, and he was nearly starving to death.  Then the old man went out the next two days and won each of those by substantial margins as well.

 Anyway, even if you don’t care about cycling, go buy this book, even if only to read about his heroism during the war.   Only, it took 70+ years to come out because he decided not to tell anyone what he had done, explaining that:

 I don’t want to appear to be a hero.  Heroes are those who died, who were injured, who spent many months in prison.

I’ve been watching You Tube videos of this guy all morning, even though the vast bulk are not even in English.  While everything is about his cycling, I just keep looking at him and marveling at this guy’s depth of character.  He literally risked his life repeatedly, and then didn’t tell anyone.  And this quote that is at the end gave me chills:

 If you’re good at a sport, they attach the medals to your shirts and then they shine in some museum.  That which is earned by doing good deeds is attached to your soul and shines elsewhere.

 My only complaint, and I mean literally the only one, is that I can’t find the author’s email address, and when a book moves me, I like to let the author know.  So if anyone finds it, can you share it with me?

Either way, go buy this book.  It’s not really about cycling, that’s just the back drop.  It’s about a poor kid growing up in Italy who would become a household name for something that wasn’t even his greatest accomplishment in life.

Category: Politics