Product Description
New York corporate lawyer David Gross is invited to move to Bologna as the “corporate image consultant” to a legendary Italian motorcycle company. Diving into his new life in the uproarious, style-obsessed city, he is seduced by motorcycle speed, which taps into parts of his self that were just waiting to be unleashed…. More >>
#1 by Robert J. Crawford on July 2, 2010 - 6:57 pm
This book was a very odd experience for me to read. I know the author professionally and lived in Bologna, had even done some work in Ducati and so have met many of the principal protagonists. However, what I know of David and the company is all from the outside: this book, which is written in an elegant and lively style, portrays it from the inside, very personally. It can be read on a number of levels.
First, there is David’s career: he was going the corporate lawyer route, but felt he wanted something different, so he chucked it all when the CEO of Ducati suddenly offered him as job. He left a stable, if stressful, environment for a rollercoaster of career, essentially re-making the brand of the most interesting motorcycle company around – and moved to EUrope in the process. Now, a lot of people would want to do such a thing, but lack the guts. David really did it and changed his life in the process. When you read about this, you feel his inspiration, his fear, and his courage.
Second, there is the story of the company: Ducati was on the verge of bankruptcy, another “Italian” company with unique engineering excellence but poorly run. He and his boss took it over and re-made its image, turning it into a kind of lifestyle brand in addition to continuing to make great bikes. Interestingly for me, this is what I wrote about when I met David, and it is an amazing story. The detail you get is far more personal and introspective than what I wrote (for a business school).
Third, there is David the person. He is gay, seeking a partner and fun, and in wonder of Italian culture and Bologna. Even though I lived there for 4 years, I often felt he was writing about an entirely different place than the one that I knew: I was raising kids rather than chasing young sex partners; I aged there, I didn’t feel like I got younger (as David did). Again, David evokes the scene with truly wonderful style, a window into an experience that few Americans will ever know. I do not mean the gay scene, so much as the way you can become a different person when you learn a language and insert yourself into a cultural milieu that you want to embrace. It is one of the most stimulating and fun things that you can do (I have done it 3 times), though few Americans can even conceive of it and have no idea what they are missing. David gets this and wonderfully succeeds in portraying it.
Finally, though I was never a motorcycle afficianado, David introduces the reader to that world. Even better, he alludes to how he was changing it, or at least changing Ducati to fit into it. Once again, it is a world and culture few of us would enter. His “letting go” to become a serious rider is a major theme in the book, in a way what holds it together as a literary work. And it does cross the bar into literature, in my opinion. One can only hope that David will write more.
Warmly recommended.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by Amos Lassen on July 2, 2010 - 7:22 pm
Gross, David M. “Fast Company: A Memoir of Life, Love and Motorcycles in Italy”, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
Living in the Fast Lane
Amos Lassen
I love books like David Gross’ “Fast Company” because they tell so much about learning how to live. What we have is a journey and this is a journey of life. Gross takes us on a ride that is an exciting trip of understanding how to experience a new country a new career and a new relationship all at the same time. He meets personal challenges that are similar to the personal challenges all of us meet and his persona story becomes our own.
Leaving the legal profession to go to Italy and ride a cycle is a brave move especially since life in Italy is very different from what a Wall Street lawyer is accustomed to. Gross comes across as a rebel who will not be tied down to corporate America and leaves it all to find himself in a foreign country. He goes to Italy to advise a motorcycle company on how to go public and in doing s takes the Ducati ride of his life. What is so amazing is how there is a tinge of sexuality in almost all that he writes whether it be the Italian coutryside or the social classes of the country.
I have never been really interested in riding a motorcycle but after reading this I want to get out and buy a bike and hit the road. Gross explains his love for life in the way he shows his love for babies and his view of the world as theater with all of us being bit players on the world stage. His love for his fellow man is reflected in the way he related his love affair with another man.
The book entertains completely and is filled with wealth and humor and honesty above all else We get such a unique picture of Italy and a wonderful look at the loneliness of what it is to be an American living in a foreign country. The characters that Gross gives us are wonderful; a group of misfits, lost and lonely souls, and those with very sharp egos. Reading the book is like what I imagine a ride on the autor’s motorcycle might be.
We get a look at the inside of a company with its wild personalities and clashes of interests that manages, despite executives who preen, to produce motorcycles that have dominated the world of racing and are recognized everywhere in the world, For a book about the motorcycle business there is also a great deal of sex.
As I said before, the book itself is a motorcycle ride. Gross gives such astute observations on everything from being an American lawyer, to describing the countryside of Italy, to corporate branding and relationships that are unfulfilled that you really feel that you are there with him. His talent for description is vivid so much so that I see myself sitting down beside him and having a cappuccino while observing the Italians walking by.
A word or two about the author–he is a gay man who is looking for a partner and he spent time looking for young sex partners. Ashe lives in Italy, he seems to turn back the clock and become younger. He enters a world that few of us have the opportunity to enter and he lets himself go and takes us with him.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by M. Bromberg on July 2, 2010 - 10:21 pm
This book has quietly created a new genre: it is part travelogue, part business book, part memoir–and throughout all of its parts, defined by an incredible level of character development and a fresh, compelling voice. I can not recommend it more highly. It reminds me of Paul Theroux with a business twist. Just read it. You wont be sorry.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Douglas B. Frederick on July 3, 2010 - 12:28 am
Within captivating literary style, Gross’s portrayals illuminate an Italian world as it is now, and this is clearly not the world of “Room with a view”. Surely the Italian journals and “Corriere della Sera” are well versed with the struggles of Italian boutique businesses trying to meet the challenge of growth to an international level, but to follow the chain of events of Ducati from within and during a major transitional effort is a special gift. To become acquainted with personal and detailed snapshots of corporate design processes and the trials of prima donna designers is equally rewarding, and sheds a fair light on recent Ducati products. From the beach exploits and dreams of characters depicted, one senses the struggles of modern young Italians. Add to this the author’s struggle to rationalize infatuation with a young and arrogant love, and one finds another level or dimension of the Italy of today. This love may have equally been heterosexual, it’s characteristics in modern day Italy would have been the same. The vignette descriptions ranging from learning to ride a motorcycle, different bikes, and tours reach out to the motorcyclist in all of us, as these motivate us to reach beyond ourselves whether or not a leg is thrown over a bike. This is a book for everyone where one truly gains a view into the beauty, challenge, and flavor of Italy today. On other levels, having been an Italian ex-pat for three years, ridden motorcycles for 30 years, and a Ducatista for 15 years, this book has touched on many levels and reminds of the need to return.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Ralph Hummel on July 3, 2010 - 3:05 am
The best thing one can say about this book, and it is a compliment, is that it reads more like fiction than a memoir. The author’s descriptions of places and people are vivid and interesting. The color he uses in limning exotic locations and characters pulls the reader in and provides information and entertainment. It is rare that memoirs do that.
It’s a surprise to learn the author was formerly an attorney because he writes too well for a lawyer. The book displays literary talent beyond that required for legal writing.
While centered on motorcycling, the book offers pleasing digressions into unrelated subjects like language (e.g., figo and figa) and women’s shoes. Most books about motorcycling limit themselves to that core-topic and rarely stray beyond it. This work is broader in scope and its tangents add interest.
I recommend this book for an enjoyable read. Those with little attraction to machinery should try it anyway for travel stories and pure literary delight.
Rating: 4 / 5