TEN POINTS A Father's Promise, a Daughter's Wish - How a Magical Season of Bicycle Riding Made it All Come True

Narrator Chuck Kourouklis is a pro and so can handle the clash of generations in this memoir by the executive editor of BICYCLING magazine. Running his voice plaintively up the scale, Kourouklis characterizes Strickland's 5-year-old daughter and convincingly portrays her mother and the author, as well as Strickland's own father, a sadist who is gone but by no means forgotten. Bill Strickland promises his little girl that he--an amateur--will score 10 points in the Thursday night Criterium, a bicycle race in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, that is clotted with professionals. The brutal extremes of sport as well as the tenderness and demands of fatherhood excite memories of his own father, who broke his son's nose with a hammer and made him eat dog feces. The story will turn your stomach. It will also break your heart. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]