Product Details
Fast Company

Fast Company
By David Gross

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Product Description

It's the thick of the mid-1990s boom, and David M. Gross is racking up billable hours for a Manhattan corporate law firm and thinking that there must be more to life. Out of the blue, a friend calls with a tantalizing and risky proposal: How would he feel about moving to Bologna to help turn around a legendary, down-on-its-luck Italian motorcycle company, known for its dominance on the track and its inability to turn a profit? After a brief soul-search and popping his first (unintentional) wheelie during his maiden ride on the company's monstrous superbike, he signs on.
 
And so Gross heads to Bologna, fabled home of marbled meats, radical leftist politics, and bespoke shoes, diving into his new life as the "corporate image consultant" to gearheads and learning to navigate the giddy mores of Bolognese society. He meets the CEO, who can relax only on planes between meetings; the manic, bellicose bike designer, convinced that only his genius can save the company; and the director of the museum, obsessed by the factory's role in World War II. Gross sparks the business's "spectacularization" with sexy ad campaigns starring factory workers who, when not on strike, strut to the espresso machine clad in Versace. 
 
Above all, he falls in love with motorcycles, seduced by speed, and realizes that becoming a better rider means tapping into dormant parts of his self that, as it turns out, were just waiting to be unleashed. And when he picks up a handsome, young--and closeted--skinhead, things really get interesting . . .
 
In sensuous, hilarious, and wildly entertaining prose, Gross pens a wry yet ecstatic love letter to an uproarious city and its style-obsessed denizens, and to the motorcycle that gave him the freedom to live life at its very fastest.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #715485 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-05-17
  • Original language: English
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 336 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In the economic boom of the mid-1990s, Gross was a corporate lawyer working nonstop for a Wall Street law firm. Miserable, his life "a prison of routine," he instantly accepts his friend's proposal to revive the legendary motorcycle company Ducati Motor Holding in Bologna, Italy. Equipped with only a backpack and the basic knowledge of how to ride a motorcycle, Gross meets a wacky array of fellow employees, learns about Bolognese life and feels the thrill of the open road. His book is filled with insight on the city and corporate color, especially the chapters devoted to his co-workers, who include the World War II–obsessed company historian and the volatile, eccentric chief of design. But aside from his tumultuous affair with a skinhead mama's boy and his birth as a rider, Gross is a passing character in his own memoir. Amid all of the personalities and business chaos, he doesn't establish a consistent connection with the reader. Years pass in his narrative, and outside of some discotheque activities and buddy-buddy revelry, the swirl of triumph and fear accompanying a major, life-changing decision is absent. In examining Italian corporate and social culture, Gross (who has written for Time and the New York Times) has done a solid job; the lack of a personality behind the observations, however, is a liability. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Dont expect a leisurely ride through the Italian countryside. The author--a lawyer who is suddenly transported abroad to promote the image of a famed motorcycle company--finds himself immersed in a different culture. He quickly jumps on for the ride, and so will listeners, thanks to Grover Gardners delivery, especially his accents, which vary appropriately with the scenery. Assorted Italians, transplanted Brits, and apartment roommates make for lively characters. The young Italian man the author begins dating is given a consistent identity. Gardners pronunciations are spot-on, giving listeners the feeling theyre gaining an Italian lesson as well as a slice of culture. Gardners expressive intonation and passionate voices make the journey amusing. M.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
It was the middle of the 1990s, and at the author's New York law firm, the work was long and hard, leaving no time for a personal life. Gross was good at his job, but it wasn't what he wanted to be doing. Then a friend offered him a new and very different job. Suddenly he found himself living in Italy, spearheading the rebirth of a world-famous motorcycle company. Talk about culture shock: Gross had no idea, when he signed on with Ducati Motor Holding in Bologna, that he would have to learn a whole new set of social rules and a whole new way of living. Except for the fact that its author was an adult when he made the transition from one life to another, the book reads like a traditional coming-of-age story: over the course of the book, Gross discovers what kind of person he is, what kind of dreams he has for himself. The book is also something of a comedy of manners, as Gross, the typical American, fumbles his way through the considerably more laid-back Italian society. Lots of fun. Pitt, David