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[52] A mesmerizing five star read - this story swallowed me completely. The book describes the complicated history between two very different velodrome cyclists who are best friends and long-term rivals both on and off the track. The focus of the present is the single spot available for the London Olympics that only one of them can have despite being equals to the thousandth of a second. The cuts between the past and the present and the multiple points of view (including their shared coach) made this feel like unwrapping a present. book “'Life' is a big word, isn't it? Let's break it down into smaller segments. Let's find a level of granularity we can plan around; we could say we'll take it a month at a time, or a week at a time, and treat each of those modules almost as a training unit...” [299] star star star star star #GoldBook #ChrisCleave #ModernMrsDarcy #BookReview #Bookstagram
Quotes:
Tom Voss still remembered how it had felt for him, back in Mexico in '68 to miss out on Olympic bronze by one-tenth of one second. He could feel the anguish of it even now, in his chest, raw and unavenged. Forty-four years later he still noticed the sharp passage of every tenth part of every second. The inflections of time were the teeth of a saw, bisecting him. This was not how other people experienced time. They noticed its teeth indistinctly in a blur of motion and were amazed to wake up one day and find themselves cut in half by it, like the assistants of a negligent magician. But Tom knew how the cut was made. [41]
"Sometimes he felt like a clawed animal who'd been given a rose to hold. He knew just enough to know it was beautiful, but not enough to know how to look after it." 139
Mum was quiet for a moment, then Sophie heard her kiss Dad.
"Thanks," she said.
"My pleasure. Now piss off and win. Call me when you've annihilated her, okay?"
"Jack..."
"Shh. No drama. You're the best. Get out of here."
"I love you, Jack."
"While I am only an actor paid to impersonate a man who loves you."
"I hate you."
"While I am merely indifferent."
[257]
“'Life' is a big word, isn't it? Let's break it down into smaller segments. Let's find a level of granularity we can plan around; we could say we'll take it a month at a time, or a week at a time, and treat each of those modules almost as a training unit...” [299]
Slowly, she remembered something she had forgotten in the bitter aftermath of Kate's victory: that this job Kate had been doing wasn't something that she herself could do. It wasn't just hard, it was always a wheel-length ahead of impossible. Looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting. [312]
https://modernmrsdarcy.com/quick-lit-january-2020/
When my husband, Will, was on the podcast, he named this as his favorite book possibly ever—and so I made it a winter break priority. I LOVED it and read it in two days. The story centers around two velodrome cyclists who are best friends and arch-rivals, training under the same coach for their last remaining shot at the London Olympics, while respectively navigating personal crises and the life-threatening sickness of a child (note that content warning, please). I was riveted as Cleave set out the complicated history between the two women and kept raising the stakes in the present. The story is told from multiple points of view to great effect; the coach's point of view made the book for me.
Quotes:
Tom Voss still remembered how it had felt for him, back in Mexico in '68 to miss out on Olympic bronze by one-tenth of one second. He could feel the anguish of it even now, in his chest, raw and unavenged. Forty-four years later he still noticed the sharp passage of every tenth part of every second. The inflections of time were the teeth of a saw, bisecting him. This was not how other people experienced time. They noticed its teeth indistinctly in a blur of motion and were amazed to wake up one day and find themselves cut in half by it, like the assistants of a negligent magician. But Tom knew how the cut was made. [41]
"Sometimes he felt like a clawed animal who'd been given a rose to hold. He knew just enough to know it was beautiful, but not enough to know how to look after it." 139
Mum was quiet for a moment, then Sophie heard her kiss Dad.
"Thanks," she said.
"My pleasure. Now piss off and win. Call me when you've annihilated her, okay?"
"Jack..."
"Shh. No drama. You're the best. Get out of here."
"I love you, Jack."
"While I am only an actor paid to impersonate a man who loves you."
"I hate you."
"While I am merely indifferent."
[257]
“'Life' is a big word, isn't it? Let's break it down into smaller segments. Let's find a level of granularity we can plan around; we could say we'll take it a month at a time, or a week at a time, and treat each of those modules almost as a training unit...” [299]
Slowly, she remembered something she had forgotten in the bitter aftermath of Kate's victory: that this job Kate had been doing wasn't something that she herself could do. It wasn't just hard, it was always a wheel-length ahead of impossible. Looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting. [312]
https://modernmrsdarcy.com/quick-lit-january-2020/
When my husband, Will, was on the podcast, he named this as his favorite book possibly ever—and so I made it a winter break priority. I LOVED it and read it in two days. The story centers around two velodrome cyclists who are best friends and arch-rivals, training under the same coach for their last remaining shot at the London Olympics, while respectively navigating personal crises and the life-threatening sickness of a child (note that content warning, please). I was riveted as Cleave set out the complicated history between the two women and kept raising the stakes in the present. The story is told from multiple points of view to great effect; the coach's point of view made the book for me.