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Come and Gone
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By Joe Parkin
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 (9 Reviews)
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List Price: $21.95
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Publisher:
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Velo Press
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Published:
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December 31, 1969 |
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Binding:
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Paperback
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Pages:
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208
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After five years of blue-collar cycling in Belgium (A Dog in a Hat), Joe Parkin returns to the United States looking for a ride. He joins the elite Coors Lite road team as a key member, but the adjustment to domestic racing, with small crowds, inexperienced teammates, and poorly promoted events, proves difficult. Disillusioned, Joe is ready to hang up his cleats when he is offered a contract with a pro mountain bike team. The freshness of mountain biking proves to be an elixir: Joe's career blossoms and he rediscovers his love of the sport. Come and Gone will instantly appeal to all readers of A Dog in a Hat, while winning a new audience held spellbound by this rare, frank, and intimate sports memoir.
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Customer Reviews:
Add Your Own Review |
 DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY, July 23, 2010
By gc
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do not waste your money. it's a diatribe of self centered "poor me", set on repeat. so much so i thought the printer had made a mistake and bound an identical extra signature (set of pages) somewhere around its content. there are so few english-written titles about flemish racing, and he hit it in the head with his vivid and passionate descriptions. he made me feel right there, i could smell the tire rubber and the embrocation's camphor, elements that made his first book an absolute gem. but not this one, which comes across as an afterthought, as if he started with a good idea, but then ran out of steam one third into the book. feels more like a hurried diary, with almost zero regard for story telling and more focused (if "focus" applies here) on his own excuses and explanations. I was partially interested on his coming back to the domestic scene, the differences between being a pro in europe vs a pro in the us, how much he loved the sport, his toils with sponsorship, etc. But then as the 2nd third of the book rolls around, his accounts of poor performance are hard to read. i had to suffer my way through the book, which ended anticlimatically, much like his own story. the only realization i had is to demand my money back. poor writing, tons of name-dropping, never bothered to streamline the prose, hard to read. seems like it was cobbled together last minute from the back of a van. if the contents alone were not so blatantly uninspired, the final slap in the face is the cover, which was ripped off from Tim Krabbe's "the Rider" (an infitely better book). Shame on velopress for thinking the readers are as lazy and boring as they are. save your money, buy a pint of duvel or go for a ride instead.
9 of 10 people found the above review helpful.
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NOT like Dog in a Hat., August 18, 2010
By Steve G (Warrenton, VA USA)
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I am sorry to say, I pretty much agree with "gc" who disliked Come & Gone. The book struck me as a long, wordy complaint. Parkin is a very capable writer, but Come & Gone is not worth buying.
6 of 7 people found the above review helpful.
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Disappointing, March 10, 2011
By Michael McKelvey (Portland, OR USA)
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If you liked "Dog In A Hat" because it portrayed bike racing from the perspective of someone who loved bike racing, you will not enjoy "Come & Gone". Parkin did not enjoy racing in the United States and writes with the perspective of a losing jock; not interesting. No need to read this book. If you enjoy reading an author that demeans the spectators of a race because they do not give him the time split he desires, you may enjoy this book.
3 of 3 people found the above review helpful.
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The Dog is Out of the Hat..., June 21, 2010
By Billy-Bob (So Cal, USA)
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I was really looking forward to this book, as Parkin's first book "A Dog in a Hat" was absolutely excellent. This one, not so much, it did not capture my imagination or pull me in as completely as the first book. "Come and Gone" just kind of came and went with several short stories with not a lot of detail in-between to complete the pages. As some of Parkin's rides were not his best efforts (as per his own admissions), neither was this book. It could have been much better if he had just added a little more insight or told a few more amusing stories. Parkin was on the cutting edge of mountain biking, yet he never does more than briefly touch on how good or bad the bikes were, what he liked or didn't like about them, what components he was using, etc. I would think that mostly cycling nuts will read his books and would be interested in that kind of information.
All in all, still a book most likely worth your time. I am sure I will re-read both his books sooner rather than later. Maybe Parkin just set the bar so high with his first effort it was not possible to achieve the same result twice.
Billy-Bob
2 of 3 people found the above review helpful.
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 Fun, light read about American bicycle racing, August 24, 2010
By Ronald Franklin (Cookeville, TN)
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I really enjoyed Joe Parkins first book "A Dot in a Hat", so I naturally wanted to read "Come & Gone". Though not as insightful as the first book, "Come & Gone" is still an enjoyable read. It does a adequate job of letting the reader in on the struggles of a man trying to make a career of racing a bicycle in a country that has yet to embrace the cycling culture. As an avid cyclist, I can certainly relate to some of his experiences but felt a little disconnected from the author this time around. I would still recommend this book as a fun read but don't expect any revelations about bicycle racing or the culture.
1 of 1 people found the above review helpful.
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 Come and gone, June 1, 2010
By Earl Hazekamp (Silverton, OR)
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Joe Parkin's part two (the American years) of the autobiography of his racing career is a great book. I found myself being completely inthralled by his story. I was being sucked into his greatest frustrations as well as his greatest triumphs. I would highly recommend this book, as well as his first book (Dog in a hat) to any cycling fan.
1 of 3 people found the above review helpful.
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A great sequel to Dog In A Hat, August 27, 2011
By Leo (Wisconsin, USA)
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I don't know why this book got so many bad reviews from other amazon users, because I thought it was a great sequel to the Dog In A Hat book. The main plot without giving away too many details is that the author comes back the USA and tries to make a living racing bikes, as he was doing in Europe. Anyone who has been involved with bike racing has seen racers trying to either get on a pro team or to make a living through the domestic racing scene, and this shows why the majority of them drop out eventually. I thought it was very entertaining, and I have met some of the people in the book through cycling, which makes this book even funnier.
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Real life of a professional cyclist, June 11, 2011
By cyclysm (San Diego, Ca.)
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Joe Parkin has a gift for letting you into the world of a professional cyclist. Just like his other book "A Dog in a Hat" Joe gives us insight into the day to day world of a professional cyclist who races because that's what he loves to do. Like so many others out there not making Lance money it's about the passion for sport. Joe has an everyman way of telling it like it is. If you are a fan of cycling (racing) then you have got to get this book!
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A Wonderful Description of the Pain of Profesional Cycling, February 22, 2012
By texasmike
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After reading the two books written by Joe Parkin, you begin to wonder why he ever got on the bike in the first place. It is a story of love and passion, all too common in most of our lives, one of intense desire and unplanned and unrewarded sacrifice. Ultimately, at the end of the road, all of us question why we ever made the journey.
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