The Bicycle Runner: A Memoir of Love, Loyalty, and the Italian Resistance

by G. Franco Romagnoli

Like all boys growing up in Rome during the 1930s and 1940s, the author was expected to join the Balilla —Italy’s fascist Youth Organization. With political divisions running deep in the families within his palazzo , he and his motley group of friends were recruited into the underground Resistance. Racing around Rome on bicycles, they smuggled messages and weapons for the partisans. Later, the author fled to the Italian countryside and narrowly avoided German mop-up operations—despite being sold out by his most trusted of friends. But this is much more than a war story. Lyrical in language, rich in sentimentality, and possessing the magic of a classic Fellini film, Romagnoli’s memoir is a charmingly told tale of the search for manhood and the bonds of family and friendship .

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Memoir, World War II

320 pages, Hardcover

First published August 12, 2009

About the author

G. Franco Romagnoli, an accomplished chef and restaurateur, was born, raised, and educated in Rome, and moved to the United States in 1955. From 1974 to 1976, he and his late wife, Margaret, wrote and starred in The Romagnolis' Table, a television series on Italian cooking. Their cookbook of the same name and its sequel, The New Romagnolis' Table, have sold nearly 400,000 copies, and for ten years they owned three four-star restaurants in the Boston area. Romagnoli is the author of numerous cookbooks, a frequent contributor of articles on food and travel to newspapers and magazines, and a culinary arts professor at Boston University. Widowed in 1995, he remarried in 1998 to Gwen, a lawyer and writer.

Reviews

[A.L. Sowards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the library because I was wondering what it would be like to have grown up in Fascist Italy, and this was the only book on the shelves that looked promising. I got what I was looking for, plus some. I LOVED the author’s writing style. If his other books weren’t in a different genre, I would be adding them to my to-read list because the writing is so good.

This book is partly a growing up and coming of age story, partly a war memoir. It’s not heavy on the military history—he’s with the Partisans for about 1/6th of the book. It gives good insight into Italian culture, civilian life during war, and what it’s like to live through such upheaval. The author and the people from his past were painted very well. He made me feel like I’d met them. Some were admirable, some very much not so, but they did seem real. Here’s a quote from the book: “History books give a definite date for the end of our war: April 25, 1945. But for some it was earlier than that, for others much later. For a few it never ended, and they still carry it within themselves.” Romagnoli’s war took a few years beyond V-E Day to end, but it did end, eventually, and he was able to move on with life and offer forgiveness to those who had fought on the opposite side and offer hope to a few friends very much in need of hope.

I should note that the book isn’t completely clean. There’s some profanity. Most of it’s confined to one chapter, when as a boy he decides to swear up a storm because adults can swear and he’s ready to become an adult. Then his father walks past and he’s worried about his upcoming punishment, but his father assumes he’s just upset about Germany invading Poland, and the father is upset about that too, so no punishment follows. There’s also some sex—not very detailed, but present. So if that doesn’t bug you and you like history, I highly recommend giving this book a try.

[Hillary Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book from a perspective I'd never read about before. I liked the parts about friends forgiving each other after the war.

[Tebel Shaw · Rating 1 out of 5]

Raunchy beginning presages a raunchy read. DNF

[Rainy Days · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bicycle Runner review

From the start I felt like the book was obviously written by someone who’s first language wasn’t English and it was poorly edited. Towards the end of the book, I found out the author died and left the manuscript in a draw, where his second wife found it and published it. That explained a lot.
Because of the above reasons, I would disagree with the publisher’s description ‘lyrical in language, rich in sentimentality, and possessing the magic of a classic Fellini film.’ While it is a lovely story of growing up in fascist Italy, it’s not lyrical in language and does not really possess any magic.

Saying that, I did find the book a light and easy read that kept my attention. It got jumbled in places, but I find most memoirs are like that anyway so that didn’t put me off at all.

Towards the end though, once he returned to Rome, I got bored. I scanned most of the last few chapters like it was a chore to read which is a shame as I had enjoyed the rest of the book.

My favourite parts of the book were Frontale and its weird and wonderful characters, especially Zia Elena (yes, I did google earth the village), Magda’s ‘joie de vivre’ and honesty and was very pleased she found a man and Gian’s childhood in Rome. I loved his stories of all the mischief he got up to!

I would recommend this book if you didn’t know anything about Italy, fascism and their role in the Second World War as it’s simple to understand and not boring in regard to the politics involved. I would definitely recommend purely on his childhood stories alone.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe that the events of bicycle runner are similar to the current day events in Syria. In bicycle runner, When Franco was in Frontale, he joined the resistance against the Fascists. When he went to Elena’s house, he found her house and business occupied by German and Italian soldiers. The soldiers had taken away most of her house and business. Eventually, they kicked her out completely. Once the fascist Italian government was overthrown, Elena returned to her house.

Something similar is happening in Syria right now. The president of Syria is supporting ISIS, very similarly to the way the Mussolini supported Hitler. The Syrian soldiers are taking over homes, similar to Elena’s case with the Italian soldiers. There is a resistance, fighting against the Syrian government. Everything happening in Syria right now seems like a repeat of the Italian Resistance during WWII.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful portrait of the time, with heart felt descriptions of family and friends. Romagnoli writes such detailed descriptions of so many characters, yet not a single word is wasted or is unnecessary. I found myself rereading passages for the quality of the personal descriptions.

Romagnoli obviously loves his family, his friends, his country, his culture. I wish I could live my life the same way he did.

This book brought me to tears several times!

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disappointment. Audiobook. A story about a young man who lived in Rome during WWII. I found nothing really different from I would expect to have been the experiences of a youth during that time. There was way too much reference to sexual relationships - not really obscene but constant referrals to same. I would not recommend it. The one star came from the Italian references and vocabulary throughout the book were of interest to me.

[Valerie Davia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this memoir of a boy growing up in Mussolini's Italy and the stories of friends and family during an impossible time. Very moving and heartwarming, wonderful descriptions life in Italy. Should be a movie!

[Lisad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a very enjoyable read. When I think of WWII, I rarely consider events in Italy. This was an informative, personal look at the war from a unique perspective. I would totally recommend.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little less exciting than what I expected, but still a sweet story.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

good bio of real life reactions to fascism, not the greatest ever written maybe, but confirms many theories

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An heartfelt account of life in Italy during WW II. This book does an admirable job of capturing one boy-man's experiences.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A vivid and moving memoir of growing up in fascist Italy. I loved it.

[Mark Luongo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lyrical, sentimental journey through a young man's life in Fascist Italy during the late 1930s and World War II. It brought back memories of travels in the Italian countryside, food, Rome and my weak effort at remembering some of my Italian language.
It also provided some background as to the fighting between the partisans, Germans and the Fascist militia. Hard to tell as to who is on what side and who you could trust. The information will serve in good stead as I put together my "Italian partisan" impression for this year's Reading WWII event.
It was an entertaining read.