Against Gravity

Rating:
Summary: "Do the Dream!"
Review: As an owner of a 1986 280 GE Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen, I had heard of this book by Ed McCabe. The pitfalls and the struggle just to run a race are tremendous----much less a race across two continents! The author spends quite a lot of the book telling you of his preparation and the red tape just to enter the race. The final third of the book details the actual race from the start in Paris to the finish in the deserts of Africa. To anyone who knows the capabilities of this vehicle, the book is an interesting account of the ruggedness and durability of the machine. The human wear and tear was also a good read! This vehicle is not nearly as refined as some of the others in the race, and yet the brute strength saw it through. An enjoyable book for the Mercedes-Benz enthusiast.

Rating:
Summary: "Do the Dream!"
Review: As an owner of a 1986 280 GE Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen, I had heard of this book by Ed McCabe. The pitfalls and the struggle just to run a race are tremendous----much less a race across two continents! The author spends quite a lot of the book telling you of his preparation and the red tape just to enter the race. The final third of the book details the actual race from the start in Paris to the finish in the deserts of Africa. To anyone who knows the capabilities of this vehicle, the book is an interesting account of the ruggedness and durability of the machine. The human wear and tear was also a good read! This vehicle is not nearly as refined as some of the others in the race, and yet the brute strength saw it through. An enjoyable book for the Mercedes-Benz enthusiast.

Rating:
Summary: An flawed writer but an excellent read
Review: I am a huge fan of the P-D race and there is little written on it in the English language. Therefore this book is most welcome. The author/racer is not a fine human being but he is honest. I highly recommend this book to any motorsports or adventure fan.

Rating:
Summary: Resoundingly bad book
Review: It would be impossible to list everything that is bad about this book in 1,000 words, so I will stick to a few main points. First, 220 out of 280 pages in this book are not about the Paris/Dakar Rally, they are about getting ready for the race. Why? Because the author only gets a third of the way through the race before running out of gas, a point which is not mentioned anywhere until the book is almost over. I can only assume that this act of non-disclosure bordering on fraud was made in an effort to sell more books, thereby permitting the author to recoup some of the heavy investment he made to enter the race, which the reader learns about ad nauseum. Far worse than bad content, however, is the profoundly arrogant tone in which the author writes. e.g., I'm worth millions of dollars, I was in the advertising hall of fame at age 35, I only date beautiful women, and lots of them. With few exceptions, every decision the author makes is a good one, including dropping out of high school, while everyone around him is a bumbling lot of fools. Among the fools is his navigator and fiancee, who gets criticized for everything beyond breathing, and brought me my only happiness in the book when I learned in the epilogue that she broke up with him after the race. Not being an auto-racing expert, if you ask me, I would say that the biggest idiot would have to be the one who RAN OUT OF GAS. If that isn't enough reasons to hate the book, add in a complete lack of knowledge of the cultures and villages through which the author drives. e.g., the author writes that all the men in Mauritania hold hands, causing him to wonder what the AIDS rate is there. Does it ever occur to the guy that maybe Mauritanian culture permits men to hold hands without necessarily meaning that they are a couple? Obviously not, even though that is the case. I finished this book four days ago and am still mad that I wasted my time with it.

Rating:
Summary: An flawed writer but an excellent read
Review: The good part is Ed McCabe gives a fascinating view into what has to be the most masochistic race on earth. While the author spends too much time describing his preparation, he also does a masterful job of detailing the amount of work required to even attempt this endeavor. The bad part is McCabe's personality - angry, arrogant, obsessive, perfectionistic. The ugly is the writing - there are some glaring errors and it looks like McCabe decided he could be his own editor. Wrong! A good editor could have made this a much better read - nonetheless it's still a fascinating first-hand description of a race only a maniac would enter. Most pathetic -- after a nearly a year of preparation and a penchant for obsession over details, McCabe blew it by running out of gas. Since his car eventually made it to Dakar it seems he could actually have run the course if only he'd topped off that morning.

Rating:
Summary: The good, bad and ugly
Review: The good part is Ed McCabe gives a fascinating view into what has to be the most masochistic race on earth. While the author spends too much time describing his preparation, he also does a masterful job of detailing the amount of work required to even attempt this endeavor. The bad part is McCabe's personality - angry, arrogant, obsessive, perfectionistic. The ugly is the writing - there are some glaring errors and it looks like McCabe decided he could be his own editor. Wrong! A good editor could have made this a much better read - nonetheless it's still a fascinating first-hand description of a race only a maniac would enter. Most pathetic -- after a nearly a year of preparation and a penchant for obsession over details, McCabe blew it by running out of gas. Since his car eventually made it to Dakar it seems he could actually have run the course if only he'd topped off that morning.