Rating: 
Summary: Rain and resentment vs. ego and compulsion
Review: Storm
By Allen NorenI am an avid motorcyclist, but I found this story very frustrating. It is not so much about motorcycling or traveling as it is about ego and obsession. The author is driven by his compulsion to complete The Trip, despite the horrendous, record-breaking stormy weather, over 6000 miles of northern European roadways. He presses on, focused on all the details of the challenge of coping with a bike in the most extreme weather conditions. But his girlfriend, the pillion passenger, has nothing to do but suffer. She has nothing to occupy her mind but resentment. Cold, wet, allergy riddled, bored, pissed, frustrated... this is what we see of her. She exists on this trip, to hear Noren tell it, like another natural curiosity to be observed while traveling, like the lakes, seasides, forests and of course the storms. This book breaks down at the same place that their relationship breaks down. He is a rider, she is a passenger. Never will the passions of the two be comparable. Noren never gets to this point, though. The entire story is told through his obsessive self-centered perspective. We barely get a glimpse of her thinking, and when we do, it is interpreted through Noren's crazed compulsion: she betrays him by losing her connection to The Trip. But he avoids the point that a pillion passenger is passive and detached from the essence of motorcycling, with no control, and a feeling of literal and figurative coat-tailing to the rider. It IS his trip, and she becomes ever more an afterthought to him, as her alienation metamorphoses into her own obsession to have the trip just be over. It is inevitable that the reader grows ever more sympathetic to her plight, and ever more convinced that he is little more than a neurotic jerk. All that said, the writing is quite good. The book reads quickly. The style is engaging and the observations are unique and interesting. Noren does an excellent job of detailing the inner workings of a motorcyclists' mindset.... As our loved ones will attest, we are all a little obsessive, a little insane. The lessons for me: avoid taking my wife on very long trips as a passenger (something I already knew). Make your mate get her own bike, so she can see the trip through the same eyes that you do. Oh, and buy good rain gear and heated clothing, too!
Rating:
Summary: Rain and resentment vs. ego and compulsion
Review: Storm
By Allen Noren I am an avid motorcyclist, but I found this story very frustrating. It is not so much about motorcycling or traveling as it is about ego and obsession. The author is driven by his compulsion to complete The Trip, despite the horrendous, record-breaking stormy weather, over 6000 miles of northern European roadways. He presses on, focused on all the details of the challenge of coping with a bike in the most extreme weather conditions. But his girlfriend, the pillion passenger, has nothing to do but suffer. She has nothing to occupy her mind but resentment. Cold, wet, allergy riddled, bored, pissed, frustrated... this is what we see of her. She exists on this trip, to hear Noren tell it, like another natural curiosity to be observed while traveling, like the lakes, seasides, forests and of course the storms. This book breaks down at the same place that their relationship breaks down. He is a rider, she is a passenger. Never will the passions of the two be comparable. Noren never gets to this point, though. The entire story is told through his obsessive self-centered perspective. We barely get a glimpse of her thinking, and when we do, it is interpreted through Noren's crazed compulsion: she betrays him by losing her connection to The Trip. But he avoids the point that a pillion passenger is passive and detached from the essence of motorcycling, with no control, and a feeling of literal and figurative coat-tailing to the rider. It IS his trip, and she becomes ever more an afterthought to him, as her alienation metamorphoses into her own obsession to have the trip just be over. It is inevitable that the reader grows ever more sympathetic to her plight, and ever more convinced that he is little more than a neurotic jerk. All that said, the writing is quite good. The book reads quickly. The style is engaging and the observations are unique and interesting. Noren does an excellent job of detailing the inner workings of a motorcyclists' mindset.... As our loved ones will attest, we are all a little obsessive, a little insane. The lessons for me: avoid taking my wife on very long trips as a passenger (something I already knew). Make your mate get her own bike, so she can see the trip through the same eyes that you do. Oh, and buy good rain gear and heated clothing, too!
Rating:
Summary: Fractions
Review: This book is 1/2 travel journal, 1/4 relationship journal and 1/4 motorcycle journal. Noren's longtime girlfriend requires comfort (physical and otherwise) along with maturity, and riding a motorcycle through whipping rains and wind on dangerous roads, cars passing you at warp speed, provides none. The journey is an eye opener for him and a confirmation of his girlfriend's adult life needs. The passages describing the colorful European characters are great fun to read, while the relationship passages are just the opposite, albeit transposed in a good way. The ending leaves a bit of a tease. Noren's writing voice draws in any gender reader; he's not a macho Hog-riding hardass, nor is he the other extreme, "the sensitive male." There is enough of the relationship aspect to satisfy female readers, and enough of the description surrounds riding the bike, satisfying to motorcycle enthusisasts. If you enjoy reading motorcycle journeys, this is a good one, with some added aspects that others miss, making it entirely unique.
Rating:
Summary: Fractions
Review: This book is 1/2 travel journal, 1/4 relationship journal and 1/4 motorcycle journal. Noren's longtime girlfriend requires comfort (physical and otherwise) along with maturity, and riding a motorcycle through whipping rains and wind on dangerous roads, cars passing you at warp speed, provides none. The journey is an eye opener for him and a confirmation of his girlfriend's adult life needs. The passages describing the colorful European characters are great fun to read, while the relationship passages are just the opposite, albeit transposed in a good way. The ending leaves a bit of a tease. Noren's writing voice draws in any gender reader; he's not a macho Hog-riding hardass, nor is he the other extreme, "the sensitive male." There is enough of the relationship aspect to satisfy female readers, and enough of the description surrounds riding the bike, satisfying to motorcycle enthusisasts. If you enjoy reading motorcycle journeys, this is a good one, with some added aspects that others miss, making it entirely unique.
Rating: 
Summary: True tales, we've all had
Review: This is simply a GREAT book. This is how motorbike journeys (and relationships) can all too easily become. None of the "romantic bike journey's" here. Simply a true trip, describing the baltics. Defenitly a book for people who love traveling and know the up's and down of a trip on two wheels.
Rating:
Summary: A passionate tale of love on a bumpy ride
Review: When "Storm" arrived in the mail, I opened it to page one, intending to read the first few paragraphs. I didn't put it down until I'd read the first three chapters. From those first few sentences, Noren drew me into his story with vivid and harrowing descriptions of his motorcycle ride around the Baltic Sea. Even more compelling are his honest accounts of how the trip affected his relationship with his long-term partner Suzanne. Noren's descriptions of the landscapes of Scandinavia and the Baltic states let me picture these places in my mind's eye, and his accounts of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia just after they broke free from the USSR are fascinating. Like most of the best travel writing, Noren understands that travel tales are ultimately about people, and the characters he introduces keep the narrative moving. While in the midst of "Storm" I looked forward to the next free moment when I could pick up the book and continue along with Allen and Suzanne, in eager anticipation of where their journey would take them next.
Rating:
Summary: A passionate tale of love on a bumpy ride
Review: When "Storm" arrived in the mail, I opened it to page one, intending to read the first few paragraphs. I didn't put it down until I'd read the first three chapters. From those first few sentences, Noren drew me into his story with vivid and harrowing descriptions of his motorcycle ride around the Baltic Sea. Even more compelling are his honest accounts of how the trip affected his relationship with his long-term partner Suzanne. Noren's descriptions of the landscapes of Scandinavia and the Baltic states let me picture these places in my mind's eye, and his accounts of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia just after they broke free from the USSR are fascinating. Like most of the best travel writing, Noren understands that travel tales are ultimately about people, and the characters he introduces keep the narrative moving. While in the midst of "Storm" I looked forward to the next free moment when I could pick up the book and continue along with Allen and Suzanne, in eager anticipation of where their journey would take them next.
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