Barefoot Runner: The Life of Marathon Champion Abebe Bikila

I bought this not knowing about the approach that the author had taken, and therefore it came as something of a surprise as I worked through the opening chapters to realise that this was not a biography, but something closer to a dramatisation. As a result, you have no idea whether anything you are reading is actually true (other than clear historical fact, such as Bikila's victories) or the invention of the author.

Uncomfortably, nowhere in the paperback version is the author or the publisher honest enough to own up to this. You would have to be pretty slow to not realise that there is a lot of imagination involved, simply because the book is largely dialogue and frequently told from inside the heads of the main protagonists. No sources are cited for any of it. For all I know, the author could have picked up the historical fact and just conjured the rest into existence. If he did use other sources, he's being a little naughty not crediting them.

The book itself evokes the Ethiopia of the time interestingly enough - but again, I have no confidence in the accuracy.

In the end, you are left confused and not at all clear what you have read. I suppose if the author had written this as pure fiction it wouldn't have carried the appeal that a biography of a fascinating character in athletic history would.

"Dubious" is the best word I can come up with. I'm inclined to avoid the author's other works. Having finished the book, I'm also a little annoyed that I might have completely wasted my time.

Therefore I'm unclear as to how this got shortlisted for the sports book of the year award. Perhaps every sports book published goes on there?

Good story, Poor writing (0/0 people found this helpful)

While I enjoyed discovering Abebe's story in this book - it certainly is a fascinating book, like the other reviewers I was left with a real feeling of it needing a much better author to make it come alive. Crowning triumphs like Abebe's marathon victories are reduced to little more than basic descriptions lacking any insight.

Passed the time, but ultimately unsatisfying. I can't believe it's been nominated for a William Hill Sports Book of the Year, there's got to be better sports books than this out there.

Bare-faced drivel (2/2 people found this helpful)

Here are the images that will stay with me from this dreadful book: the turgid imperial ceremonies rendered in even more turgid prose; the patronising descriptions of honest, simple, plain-dwelling folk; the laughable inaccuracies (I particularly liked the contention that Paavo Nurmi, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, was denied the chance to win a gold medal); the sense that the whole thing was concocted as a draft for a script for a particularly dull film (there's even a humdrum, unconsummated love interest). Abebe Bikila was an inspirational athlete whose life could have made a great book. Sadly, this isn't it: Paul Rambali is so set on flaunting his wafer-thin knowledge of African life and politics that Bikila is simply one sketchily-drawn stereotype among many. But in one sense, Rambali has emulated his hero in achieving what many thought impossible: writing a book about a world-beating runner that lacks any sense of pace.

easy runner (0/2 people found this helpful)

I enjoyed this book. It may not be great literature or 100% accurate, but if you can accept the fictionalised biography format it's a good read and a very interesting story.

Fictionalised nonsense (2/3 people found this helpful)

I agree with New Cross. This book is effectively a badly-written novel inspired by (some of) the life of Abebe Bikila. Avoid it, unless you like badly-written novels.

Barefoot Runner: The Life of Marathon Champion Abebe Bikila

Paul Rambali

Reader Reviews:

Interesting in many respects - but a big "BUT" (0/0 people found this helpful)

Good story, Poor writing (0/0 people found this helpful)

Bare-faced drivel (2/2 people found this helpful)

easy runner (0/2 people found this helpful)

Fictionalised nonsense (2/3 people found this helpful)

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