Taking a complete 360 degree turn from my last read is the first of the autobiographies of Lance Armstrong. It is the first autobiography that i have successfully been able to finish reading and it deserves credit for it :)
Its a very soulful description of how Lance Armstrong goes in and out of his battle with testicular cancer.Being a victim of something as deadly as cancer is harsh enough for a normal person, but the whole journey of this through the eyes of an international athlete for whom his/her body has to be perfect composure is even more painful.
It starts of with one of the very striking elements of the book.Lance's relationship with his mother.He shares a very kind and a highly understanding relationship with his single and struggling mother.The series of descriptions that Lance provides on his mother gives you an insight of where the root of Lance's strength comes from- his Mother. It talks about his journey from being a local hero to breaking international borders and venturing into the tougher cycling worlds of Europe and fighting through the vicious grips of cancer.
Its a great book to understand what passion is all about.
He talks purely about his passion and describes the art of being a cyclist in a very retrospectal way.Honestly i must admit that i am no sports fan and the only thing i knew about Lance Armstrong was that he was a 'stud' when it came to Tour de France...but what it takes to be there and win it...came to my understanding after reading the book.I thoroughly respect him for being the professional that he is and he truly deserves every victory that has come by his way professionally.The way he talks about his practice sessions..his struggle through the total understanding of the competitive world around him is quite an int resting read.He doesn care to hide the fact that he was/is an arrogant person but i think that's what made him what he is now.
The other aspect of the book is his fight through Cancer and how he is determined to fight it out because he wants to 'ride' again.The book is very well compartmentalised to describe the various stages of cancer he goes through and in each chapter he describes each element earnestly.He has one chapter on chemo...one on survivorship...all are worth reading through Lance's eyes.After surviving testicular cancer he goes on to be a father.This is such an important thing for him especially since he doesn have a strong fatherly figure himself and he badly wants to complete the void by being one for his own kid.
After reading the book the only complaint i have is the title of the book...I think 'Its not about the Bike' is a little hypocritical if i must say....i think the whole book was about the bike and about whether or not he would be able to ride it again.Lance always says in his book that amongst the 2 most important things (fighting cancer v/s being able to ride again) he would have chosen to fight cancer but honestly i think both of them were kind of symbiotic for him....he fought cancer as he was determined to ride a bike...and he wanted to get back to riding as he was determined to fight cancer off..
Another observation i would like to make after reading this book is that Lance is extremely lucky as an individual to have had the people he had around him.Be it his mother, his closest friends, his team mates, his manager Bill, his then wife Kik.I mean he wouldn have had even half as strength as he had without such a rock solid support system around him.
The book is also quite an eye opener on human nature...it gives us such a beautiful insight on how it its to be a struggling single mother who successfully provides all the necessities to his son, its about how it is to be a victim and survivor of cancer, its about how receptive people are to the world of cancer, how it is to be a supportive friend and guide (his manager Bill) to an athlete who just comes out of cancer desperate to meet his financial crisis and get back to riding in note-worthy competitions again when the cycling world has lost hopes on what Lance is all about, its about being a totally patient and thoroughly understanding wife who supports the athlete to do whatever it takes to get his dream back-even if it means leading a spineless nomadic life...
Its a book describing how hard it is to be Lance Armstrong -the cyclist, Lance Armstrong -the cancer victim(i hate to use the term cancer patient) and the Lance Armstrong-determined to punch the face of people who called his career an end after cancer.I think whats most commendable of his insights is that the book never begs for the reader's pity...Its just talking about Lance without giving you a chance to opine...as a reader you just want to know what happens next in Lance's life (and i think its a great factor in making this autobiography such a hit).Another element which makes this a good read is that you never feel very pained reading this as an autobiography...Its very realistic description of what Lance goes through and in all the cases it doesn hide the basic arrogant nature of Lance as a professional and also as an individual.
As always i have my favourites from the book.
There are 2 things i totally loved which Lance writes-
1) He says that people talk about living life like there is no tomorrow when you know your fighting a lethal disease.But he totally rubbishes this theory as something which is made for narrow minded people.He gives a very int resting description of how selfish life would be if you were to live each day as though its your last day.
2)One of the last few lines in his book totally appealed to me- He says that 'I did not beat cancer, the medicines did..the chemo did..the efforts of his doctors did...I just survived the cancer'..it takes a lot to think this way and pen it down too..
It a book on survivorship,on will power, on being hopeful that every dark cloud does have a silver lining after all.
