We Begin Our Ascent

Sol and Liz are a couple on the cusp He s a professional cyclist in the Tour de France, a workhorse but not yet a star She s a geneticist on the brink of a major discovery, either that or a loss of funding They ve just welcomed their first child into the world, and their bright future lies just before them if only they can reach out and grab it.But as Liz s research slows, as Sol starts doping, their dreams grow murkier and the risks graver Over the whirlwind course of the Tour, they enter the orbit of an extraordinary cast of conmen and aspirants, who draw the young family ineluctably into the depths of an illegal drug smuggling operation As Liz and Sol flounder to discern right from wrong, up from down, they are forced to decide What is it we re striving for And what is it worth We Begin Our Ascent dances nimbly between tragic and comic, exploring the cost of ambition and the question of what gives our lives meaning Reed melds the powerful themes of great marital dramas like Revolutionary Road with the humor, character, and heart of a George Saunders collection Throughout, we re drawn inside the cycling world and treated to the brilliant literary sports writing of modern classics like The Art of Fielding or End Zone. Read We Begin Our Ascent Author Joe Mungo Reed – kino-fada.fr You re a beast , I said You re a monster What Riding like that after a week of training camp Oh I love it , he said I love all of it I like the smell of grease That s not it , he said I like feeling strong in a race The sense that you havestrength than others No, he said That s not it The thing itself The riding You love riding I said Every minute of if All of it There is only all of it I m good at it, I said, I like parts of it I love You re a beast , I said You re a monster What Riding like that after a week of training camp Oh I love it , he said I love all of it I like the smell of grease That s not it , he said I like feeling strong in a race The sense that you havestrength than others No, he said That s not it The thing itself The riding You love riding I said Every mi...This is excellent Really, really good debut novel about a professional cyclist on the Tour de France Sol is married to a geneticist, Liz, who is working on an important research project They have an infant son, Barry, who they call B Both Sol and Liz are high achievers driven, confident, almost smug in their little cocoon of ambition In the midst of the Tour, Sol s Tour ...Years ago, according to one character in this fine book, a doctor wrote about a man riding three horses at a circus He said it was important not because of what the man was doing but because it increased our sense of human capabilities For Sol, a professional cyclist racing in the Tour de France, the sport is not about individual winning His duty is to get our team leader, Fabrice, across the twenty one stages of this tour in as little time as possible Sol views his job as a type of perfo Years ago, according to one character in this fine book, a doctor wrote about a man riding three horses at a circus He said it was important not because of what the man was doing but because it increased our sense of human capabilities For Sol, a professional cyclist racing in the Tour de France, ... I have done speeches at sporting events Whoever introduces me always says that I the Tour is the hardest sporting contest in the world I am just an artifact, proof that it is done by men I am something it has happened to, like a blot from a disintegrating spacecraft and recovered from a cornfield after the event, to prove that all that motion and brutality really existed I accept this perspective, because this nobles this activity, dignifies the fact that I am aging and breaking myself I have done speeches at sporting events Whoever introduces me always says that I the Tour is the hardest sporting contest in the world I am just an artifact, proof that it is done by men I am something it has happened to, like a blot from a disintegrating spacecraft and recovered from a cornfield after the event, to prove that all th...This is a book about a sport that is wildly popular when there is big news about it and when the Tour de France is running, but unless you are a fan, there is much to know that goes on behind the scenes I find it amazing that Reed himself is not a competitive rider, his insider knowledge is vast I ve only read one other book about cycling, Gold by Chris Cleve, but that wascharacter study and was about a different version of the sport Here, Solomon, the narrator...DNF at 50% I was lucky enough to win an ARC of this book through Goodreads It takes a lot for me to DNF a book, this is actually the first book in 18 months that I disliked so much I refused to push through.The premise sounded very interesting to me, even if I am not a fan of sports any sports A story about doping, and the family of the athlete being involved etc was fascinating I don t exactly know what ...Sol has been a professional cyclist for years but has never achieved any real fame or fortune His wife, Liz, a geneticist, and their son, Barry, are back home in England while Sol is busy trying to help his teammate, Fabrice, win the Tour De France In a sport in which some people are willing to cheat their way to victory, Sol is forced to decide what he is willing to risk to get to the top.For a decent portion of the book, I wasn t really feeling the story or characters but by the end I came t Sol has been a professional cyclist for years but has never achieved any real fame or fortune His wife, Liz, a geneticist, and their son, Barry, are back home in England while Sol is busy trying to help his teammate, Fabrice, win the Tour De France In a sport in which some people are willing to cheat their way to victory, Sol is forced to decide what he is willing to risk to get to the top.For a decent portion of the book, I wasn t really feeling the story or characters but by the end I came to appreciate how it ended up being a bit different from what I normally read While I enjoy most sports, cycling has never been my thing and in all honesty until reading this book I never entirely understood the whole working as a team, but there s only an individual winner in the end conc...Joe Mungo Reed has written a debut novel that had me in its grips from the first chapter It deals with professional bicycling, focusing on the people and competition in a race not unlike the Tour de France It is also about a marriage, one that is fairly new and finding its set point with the birth of a baby boy Sol is a professional rider and is given to obsession and dedication He must spend weeks apart from his wife Liz and his son Barry, who he calls B The microcosm of the elite biking Joe Mungo Reed has written a debut novel that had me in its grips from the first chapter It deals with professional bicycling, focusing on the people and competition in a race not unlike the Tour de France It is also about a marriage, one that is fairly new and finding its set point with the birth of a baby boy Sol is a professional rider and is given to obsession and dedication He must spend weeks apart from his wife Liz and his son Barry, who he calls B The microcosm of the elite biking profession is described from Sol s perspective, almost ethnographically, while providing the reader with an overall description of what being a competitive rider entails Liz is a research biologist doing her postdoc She is studying the genetics of zebra fish Both are consumed by their careers but the bulk of Barry s ...I enjoyed all the references to bicycle racing.Very good explanations of racing terms.Disappointed in the ending Feels like a loose end Or a beginning for Book 2This one grabbed my attention with its cover, it s an awesome cover But then it also had such accolades from well known names, most auspicious for a debut, so why not It actually turned out quite a good read Thing is though I don t like competitive sports, I don t get the appeal, can t relate to the sort of maddening dedication it requires or understand the singlemindedness it takes just to get to the finish line before the other guy My idea of a competitive sport is Jeopardy Ok, to be comp This one grabbed my attention with its cover, it s an awesome cover But then it also had such accolades from well known names, most auspicious for a debut, so why not It actually turned out quite a good read Thing is though I don t like competitive sports, I don t get the appeal, can t relate to the sort of maddening dedication it requires or understand the singlemindedness it takes just to get to the finish line before the other guy My idea of a competitive sport is Jeopardy Ok, to be completely honest the concept of ambition ...

• English
• 13 February 2017
Joe Mungo Reed
• Hardcover
• 247 pages
• 1501169203
• Joe Mungo Reed
• We Begin Our Ascent