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Fiction of the Highest Caliber! Kudos to Viken Berberian!
relevant and nuanced work
How Did This Ever Get Published?
Style over Substance
amazing work of literature

The Cyclist: A Novel
Viken Berberian
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743222830

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In his debut novel, Viken Berberian offers a rich and vital portrayal of a prospective Middle Eastern terrorist. The Cyclist explores the background and motivations of its unnamed narrator, a Lebanese terrorist-in-training given the task of detonating a bomb (delivered on his bicycle) at a luxury hotel outside of Beirut. Much of the novel's first half takes place in a hospital, wherein the narrator, seriously injured after a collision on his bicycle, shares details of his past and ruminates on his extreme political sentiments and love of food and bicycling. As the day of his planned sacrifice draws near, new obligations arise and he gradually realizes the possible ramifications of his proposed retaliatory strike. Berberian skillfully constructs a humanizing account of a man who is a witness to acts of cruelty, who is driven by fear, anger, and hope of retribution.

In recognizing the cyclical nature of Middle Eastern conflict, the novel suggests the courage required of those similarly victimized to resist fatalism and act nonviolently in support of peace. Berberian displays sensitivity toward--and insight into--a difficult subject, and his evocative, detailed descriptions enliven this often maligned and misapprehended region. The novel's vibrant metaphors and similes associate typically contrasting elements, illustrating the complexity of life in an area where the relative frequency of bloodshed colors and politicizes every aspect of it. Berberian's perceptive and unconventional eye adds dimension to a region and a growing ideology in desperate need of understanding, and makes The Cyclist an important as well as enjoyable work. --Ross Doll

Book Description

The enigmatic narrator is a young trainee of the Academy, a terrorist group in the present-day Middle East. This unnamed, transnational pawn has a single mission: to deliver a bomb by bicycle to a hotel, where it will explode, killing hundreds of civilians. But his story is anything but simple.

Combining surrealism, tragedy and humor, The Cyclist is a journey into the unsettling workings of the terrorist mind. Even as the narrator ponders his mission, only his musings about food and love reveal clues to his nationality and his agenda. But can such a zestful connoisseur also be a true agent of political violence?

Witty and wildly inventive, The Cyclist is a remarkable debut from a gifted novelist.

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The Cyclist is a stunningly original novel about food and political violence. It's a psychological ride into the tropics of terror, to the edges of our national and existential borders: the ones set at birth, the ones we are born into. The enigmatic narrator is a young trainee of the Academy, a terrorist group in the present-day Middle East. This unnamed, transnational pawn has a single mission: to deliver a bomb by bicycle to a hotel, where it will explode, killing hundreds of civilians. But his story is anything but simple. Combining surrealism, tragedy and humor, The Cyclist is a journey into the unsettling workings of the terrorist mind. Even as the narrator ponders his mission, only his musings about food and love reveal clues to his nationality and his agenda. But can such a zestful connoisseur also be a true agent of political violence? Witty and wildly inventive, The Cyclist is a remarkable debut from a gifted novelist.

Customer Reviews:

Fiction of the Highest Caliber! Kudos to Viken Berberian! .......2006-02-10

Our unnamed protagonist, "The Cyclist," explains, "What makes our land such a volatile place is not that people get killed. It's that they get killed while waiting for a school bus, or they are blown apart in an open market, or they get shot eating hummus."

From a small village on the Galilee, our cyclist is a member of a progressive multicultural family. His father is a Druze, a small Arab minority which adheres to the principles of Islam, but "is not in the strictest sense of the word, Muslim. The Druze faith spans Sufism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity." And while it is never actually stated, I believe his mother is an Israeli Jewess. Both parents are intellectuals - one creates art, one teaches it. Their son, the cyclist, is an epicurean when it comes to food and one young woman, his girlfriend Ghaemi. He is also a terrorist. His political radicalization and dedication to violence were born with the tremendous bomb blast that splattered the blood of his neighbors, including his girlfriend's parents, all over the village square and shattered his innocence forever.

Enraged, he is determined to repay this terrible injustice with a terrible injustice of his own. He and Ghaemi join the Academy, a terrorist organization which schools them well. Their retribution is to plant a bomb at the Summerland, a five star hotel located along the Beirut coast. It is equipped with twin 12,000-gallon fuel tanks which, along with their powerful contribution, should light up the night quite well.

While terrorists are almost always portrayed as anonymous "evildoers," ruthless fanatics filled with blind hatred, Viken Berberian's cyclist epitomizes much of what is good in the human spirit - with the exception of his goal to perpetrate violence. When the novel opens, he is in a coma in a hospital room as a result of a horrendous bicycle accident. The initial narrative takes place in the patients head, a perfect place to get to know him as it is impossible to disguise one's thoughts when the reader is right there inside them. This is as up close and personal as it gets. The book, Berberian said in an interview, is an attempt "to slip inside the head of a man in the business of terror."

Berberian, with wit, insight and outrageous, poetic descriptions of food - of all things - makes manifest our terrorist's humanity, and his dilemma. The author's references to a delicious melting pot of cuisine - Eastern European Jewish, Israeli, Arab - give us a taste of how divided yet how united the peoples of the Middle East are. Hummus, babaganoush, noodle kugel, mujaddara, gefilte fish, are mouthywateringly described. He writes "as British as bacon and eggs," surely on purpose, so that his American readers will be brought up short, knowing that it should be "as American as bacon and eggs." Is falafel Israeli or Arab?

The prose is powerful. In a sentence or two the author can paint a clear historical picture that historians would need volumes to explain - "...in the Middle East, a year is an eon, the largest division of geological time; a centimeter of land can be more vital than a hectare, and every shred of memory is etched in ancient stone. In the Middle East, even the branches of the same olive tree fall in different countries."

I am truly surprised that a novel of this high caliber has not received more popular acclaim. "The Cyclist" is a real sleeper. I can only say that if you read this review and are considering purchasing or borrowing this book, by all means do so. I did, on the advice of a friend and found one of the best works of fiction I have read in many a moon. Highly recommended!
JANA

relevant and nuanced work.......2005-08-31

This is a somewhat strange and very relevant treatment of the
thoughts of a suicide bomber. Written well before 9/11, it
provides a 1) prescient treatment of a transnational globalized
bomber. 2) he is almost secular in his motivations as olivier
roy described in globalized islam years later.

How Did This Ever Get Published?.......2005-04-04

Amazingly bad prose combined with an anemic plot, an unsurprising denouement and fuzzy characters, this book isn't worth the paper it's printed on. It does absolutely nothing to elevate one's understanding of the forces at play that lead to suicide bombings in the Middle East. I had hoped to gain an understanding of those last-minute chaotic thoughts that rush through the mind of someone carrying out such a terrible mission, but this novel was a pure waste of time. Perhaps the worst element? His habit of rhyming within sentences which made me wonder whether his book had received any editorial guidance whatsoever.

Style over Substance.......2004-04-14

This absurdist debut is notable for its distinctive prose style, a highly manufactured cadence that sometimes sparkles with playfulness, and other times is cheezy and labored. The storyówhat little there is of itóconcerns a would-be terrorist whose mission is to deliver a bomb by bicycle to a luxury Beirut hotel in time for a major conference. Most of the book finds the roly-poly cyclist in intensive care in a hospital, recovering from a training accident. He lies there reminiscing over the events that took him to this place, and the people in his life, all of whom come to visit. The final part describes the actual day of the plot and the decision facing the cyclist when he instructed to graduate from delivery boy to suicide bomber.

If this sounds like a thriller, it isn'tóthere no dramatic tension, and there really isn't supposed to be. Instead, there is a series of loosely arranged vignettes, which serve to instill impressions rather than a concrete sense of the people or story. The terrorist in training belongs to a fringe group called "The Academy", whose views are ever-shifting but are apparently (per page 85) some kind of Israeli-sponsored "destabilizing" commando unit. The cyclist is given some motivation (a marketplace bombing in his village as a youth), but his group and his mission are so absurd (he's supposed to enter a cycling race in order to "blend in"?) that his situation can't be taken seriously as an insight to terrorist thought. What's more interesting is that he's an Israeli of mixed Druze/Jewish parentage, a choice Berberian makes for a reason, but it's not clear what that reason is. This is a point several reviewers have gotten completely wrong, calling him Lebanese (When he refers to fighter jets over Beirutóonly Israeli jets fly over Beirutóhe calls them "ours", and at one point he is brought a package of Bamba snacksóan Israeli productóto "remind him of home"). Other characters are ciphers: the flamboyant leader of his group, the loyal lover/childhood friend, the wizened grandfather, etc.

However, sights, sounds, and especially smells are quite vividly conveyed, especially when it comes to food, which is the central concern for the narrator. Indeed, foodies will revel in the lush descriptions of a wide variety of Middle Eastern dishes which Berberian writes about with a deft touch. Less deft is his use of simile: consider groan-inducing phrases such as "my dimensions were as big as a de Kooning canvas" or others like it. The prose is liberally dosed with rhyming couplets which can be fun to hunt for (they're not set off), but are at times too labored and coy. A neat trick, but in the service of what? Altogether, it's far too self-concious for its own good, and reads like a writing class project rather than a finished work.

amazing work of literature.......2003-01-22

Let me begin by saying that this is not a breezy, feel-good page turner. This is serious literature that is meticulously crafted and meant to be thoroughly chewed before digesting. It is, however, an uncomfortable book, which is a good thing as great art often challenges us. Had Berberian offered terrorism as a septic endeavour, a facile pursuit, it would not only be disingenuous, it would be insulting to the reader.

What struck me in particular about this book was that it is new. You really don't see writing these days that is so carefuly arranged and so vivid. Instead, we often read self indulgent first person screeds that play on ad infinitum. Berberian has a slightly surreal style with hints of Albert Camus dotting his lyrical landscape. You can tell that he has learned from the greats. There is a gravity and earnestness of purpose that is hard to ignore.

If you are interested in the work of one of today's brightest young writers, please consider "The Cyclist." (I'm not sure how "old" Berberian is, but judging by the look of his handsome picture on the back flap he appears to be pretty young.)

The Literary Cyclist (Breakaway Books Series)

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Old favorite, new cover

The Literary Cyclist (Breakaway Books Series)

Manufacturer: Breakaway Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
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Bicycle: The History
Breaking Away

ASIN: 155821562X

Amazon.com

There are some big wheels at work here. Mark Twain, William Saroyan, W. Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, P. D. James, Iris Murdoch, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, and Dylan Thomas are among the many who spun the bicycle into their work, sometimes as a mere prop for conveyance, sometimes as an object of adoration, and sometimes just because its tires were there to kick. This sprightly and comprehensive anthology of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry is filled with so many delights and surprises that it manages to create a literary traffic jam.

Customer Reviews:

Old favorite, new cover.......2000-09-22

This book used to be titled "The Noiseless Tenor", but in this newer edition it has been retitled and given a few extra editorial words. This is a wide-ranging survey of references to the bicycle in mostly-20th-Century works; sometimes the reference is a stretch and Starrs points this fact out. Occasionally he has to piece together fragments of a scene to make the bicycling reference clear. Starrs' piecework is always in italic type -- and occasionally I wondered if he'd ever get to the author's words. But this collection is well-done, and Starrs obviously loves everything to do with the bicycle. His children show up occasionally (mostly in the form of recollections from a cross-country tour while they were growing up), and his own experience influenced the selection. Everything from Ernest Hemingway's flat observational prose to a truly fantastical five-rider cross-country race (against a locomotive) is fair game here, and this book suits its stated purpose of being a volume that can be stashed in the thinking cycle tourist's pannier.

Road touring in eastern England: A guide for motorists, motorcyclists, and cyclists (The Roadfaring series)

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Road touring in eastern England: A guide for motorists, motorcyclists, and cyclists (The Roadfaring series)
Reginald Wellbye
Manufacturer: E.J. Larby
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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