What do you think?
Bicycle
Somewhere between prose poem and sacred incantation lies Bicycle. In spare, comically surreal and beautiful prose, Paul Fattaruso does for bicycles what Richard Brautigan did for trout—he elevates them to the status of an idol. An intimate, inventive, and vibrant book.
Paul Fattaruso is the author of Travel in the Mouth of the Wolf. His work has appeared in Volt, Jubilat, Fence, Black Warrior Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Tiny, and others. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife Kristin and his son Max. He rides a silver bicycle.
Paul Fattaruso is the author of Travel in the Mouth of the Wolf. His work has appeared in Volt, Jubilat, Fence, Black Warrior Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Tiny, and others. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife Kristin and his son Max. He rides a silver bicycle.
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 30, 2008
I read this book at work today. It took about fifteen minutes. I admit that its brevity (one or two sentences a page) was an impetus in me opening it, but what was inside burrowed into my heart like a weird subliminal love song. Fattaruso's 93-page wonder is like a feverdream/epic haiku/love letter to a bike. Or perhaps several bikes. Or perhaps a woman who he thinks is a bike. Obviously if you are a bike geek, you would do well to read this. I imagine its effect on you will be like reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull back in the 70s. It will make you feel light and magical.
Excerpts:
"Though it does not complain, my bicycle is clearly uncomfortable on the couch."
"The night of the new moon, all the children adjust their reflectors."
"Yes, I miss you. Yes, I am pedaling."
Excerpts:
"Though it does not complain, my bicycle is clearly uncomfortable on the couch."
"The night of the new moon, all the children adjust their reflectors."
"Yes, I miss you. Yes, I am pedaling."
July 23, 2011
I found this book in the small press section of Powell's in Portland and bought it expecting a bit of afternoon entertainment while I waited for a flight back to the East Coast. While I was definitely entertained, I was even more taken aback at the way in which Fattaruso constructs, with brilliant minimalism, a truly thoughtful, emotional treatise on the title object, the bicycle. Each page is filled with not more than a few lines, often but a single sentence, but each thought, almost lost in the middle of the blankness of the page, contains some startling moment of wisdom, as if casting a new light on the mundane or, more profoundly, giving us new eyes with which to take in the light that's already there. While the individual moments are great, it's their cumulative effect that is most moving. Somehow, by the end of the story I knew "bicycle" like I know a character in a novel, but not one specific bicycle; I knew the concept of bicycle. That concept is expanded out into all the things that it could mean, beyond the physicality and the utility of the object itself. Fattaruso's nonspecific bicycle embodies sadness and regret and humanity and mystery and, in the most rewarding moments, joy.
In talking about the deepness of this book, I've yet to hit on the initial reason I bought it: entertainment. While it is doing all those other things I listed above, it is always entertaining. It is clever and funny without forcing itself upon the reader. It is quick to read. I read it twice in a coffee shop, then thumbed through my favorite passages a third time. Since then, I've read through it once more. The illustrations, which appear intermittently throughout the text, are themselves insightful interpretations of the bicycle, deconstructing and decentering it. And that's the power of the book as a whole, this decentering, shifting the reader's mind away from the everyday consideration of an everyday object. I'm always grateful when a book is able to grant me a new perspective.
In talking about the deepness of this book, I've yet to hit on the initial reason I bought it: entertainment. While it is doing all those other things I listed above, it is always entertaining. It is clever and funny without forcing itself upon the reader. It is quick to read. I read it twice in a coffee shop, then thumbed through my favorite passages a third time. Since then, I've read through it once more. The illustrations, which appear intermittently throughout the text, are themselves insightful interpretations of the bicycle, deconstructing and decentering it. And that's the power of the book as a whole, this decentering, shifting the reader's mind away from the everyday consideration of an everyday object. I'm always grateful when a book is able to grant me a new perspective.
June 12, 2010
Wonderful text, wonderful drawings. I think the "fiction" designation on the back cover is wishful thinking. This is way closer to poetry. Perhaps haiku. Or perhaps it's its own genre.
I can't help but think this was designed to be on shuffleable loose cards.
Hotel St. George Press rocks.
I can't help but think this was designed to be on shuffleable loose cards.
Hotel St. George Press rocks.
January 22, 2022
Fattaruso's bicycle is reminiscent of Buster Keaton's bicycle (as described by Lorca)...
Excerpts from Fattaruso's Bicycle...
Do you prefer the machinery of the bicycle, or the softer machinery of a bird?
*
If the bicycle squeaks, that means something is trying to kill it, however patiently.
*
Like an angel, the bicycle is born with an innate choreography, which it cannot fail to understand.
*
Though it does not complain, my bicycle is clearly uncomfortable on the couch.
*
Consider the bicycle of paradise, its meerschaum frame, its wheels of feathers.
*
My sister's bicycle bursts into flame there in the front yard, and burns like that for a few weeks, disrupting the whole neighbourhood's dreamlife.
*
After too long apart, I discover that my bicycle has grown a fine layer of down, which stands in the cool of a later winter morning.
[...]
The bicycle has a single dimension. It is able to enter books and to expand itself even into operas and coalmines. The bicycle of Buster Keaton does not have a riding seat of caramel or sugar pedals like the bicycle bad men ride. It is a bicycle like all bicycles except for a unique drenching of innocence. Adam and Eve run by, frightened as if they were carrying a vase full of water and, in passing, pet the bicycle of Buster Keaton.
- "Buster Keaton's Ride", Lorca [Translated by Jack Spicer]
Excerpts from Fattaruso's Bicycle...
Do you prefer the machinery of the bicycle, or the softer machinery of a bird?
*
If the bicycle squeaks, that means something is trying to kill it, however patiently.
*
Like an angel, the bicycle is born with an innate choreography, which it cannot fail to understand.
*
Though it does not complain, my bicycle is clearly uncomfortable on the couch.
*
Consider the bicycle of paradise, its meerschaum frame, its wheels of feathers.
*
My sister's bicycle bursts into flame there in the front yard, and burns like that for a few weeks, disrupting the whole neighbourhood's dreamlife.
*
After too long apart, I discover that my bicycle has grown a fine layer of down, which stands in the cool of a later winter morning.
[...]
Read
August 22, 2026"Do you prefer the machinery of the bicycle, or the softer machinery of a bird?" An 85-year-old friend found this in zir library and inscribed it to me.
June 20, 2008
yum.
clearly, the man is in love. it would be hard to select just one of these poems to illustrate the warmth and majesty of his book, but here are a few i really like:
the bicycle cannot know it is a bicycle. it cannot even suspect.
if the bicycle squeaks, that means something is trying to kill it, however patiently.
thought it does not complain, my bicycle is clearly uncomfortable on the couch.
by all means hang your bikini on my bicycle.
clearly, the man is in love. it would be hard to select just one of these poems to illustrate the warmth and majesty of his book, but here are a few i really like:
the bicycle cannot know it is a bicycle. it cannot even suspect.
if the bicycle squeaks, that means something is trying to kill it, however patiently.
thought it does not complain, my bicycle is clearly uncomfortable on the couch.
by all means hang your bikini on my bicycle.
June 16, 2008
I found this hiding on the shelf next to the Fitzgerald books and bought it on a complete whim, and I absolutely love it. Fattaruso creates such a beautiful and intricate world from a rather ordinary object; he truly understands what it means to be a poet.
February 17, 2008
I can barely wait for this book to come out. Paul Fattaruso is a beautiful & brilliant man, and I'm so very excited that he's apparently written a book about bicycles.
March 13, 2008
Small and beautiful.
August 4, 2008
4 stars for gorgeous proselets, 3 for their organization
January 8, 2009
Claudette and I love this book. It helped us to fall in love again this winter. Ring!
March 17, 2011
My review on my blog:
http://throwshiswords.wordpress.com/2...
http://throwshiswords.wordpress.com/2...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews