The Lost Cyclist by David Herlihy It's very different reading non-fiction compared to fiction.
 
In some ways the story, plot and ending are already done and all that needs doing is threading it together. Then again in some ways maybe it's harder to write non-fiction because you are bound by the facts and if the facts are not that interesting then....There really were some fascinating moments in this book. Franl Nez's trip through countries and place where white people had seldom be seen and bicycles even less.If you take this book at face value and think that it is about a Lost Cyclist then I guess you will be disappointed. If you read it as an extraordinary adventure of one man on a bike then you might even like it.I do read non-fiction and always look forward to it. I'm finding of late that I'm often disappointed. This book is another one of those disappointments. At the end I thought that maybe the author felt they had to present ALL the facts when I thought that LESS facts better presented would have made a better book. But hey, what do I know?Don't even think about it! ( )

The author tells the story of Frank Lenz, who lost his life -- murdered -- while cycling solo through the Ottoman empire, intermingled with the story of another world-touring cyclist, William Sachtleben. This made the book harder to read and made no sense until towards the end of the book when Sachtleben is sent to Turkey to find out what happened to Lenz. Then it made sense, but it was too late to redeem my confusion. ( )

Much as I was obstructed by Herlihy's sort of quaint 1890s prose style, I eventually did get caught up in this remarkable story, set in a world I knew absolutely nothing about. First, an 1890s America gone bonkers over bicycles, then into Ottoman Empire Turkey and the horrendous genocide of the Armenians, and finally the struggle of the young Midwestern American thrown into the middle of the atrocities, trying to discovered who murdered the world-circling Frank Lenz. A pretty damned interesting sidelight into American history. So I guess I liked it after all. ( )

A fairly interesting read that just falls apart in the end. Rather than just end with what was last known about Frank Lenz, the author descends into a series of conjecture about the wheelman's fate. Deeply unsatisfying. ( )

An adventurous and fascinating personal history covering the early rise of cycling. The mystery in the second half is interesting but a bit procedural at times. The overwhelming moral: it always pays to bring a buddy when attempting to undertake any significant journey. ( )