This book used to be titled "The Noiseless Tenor", but in this newer edition it has been retitled and given a few extra editorial words. This is a wide-ranging survey of references to the bicycle in mostly-20th-Century works; sometimes the reference is a stretch and Starrs points this fact out. Occasionally he has to piece together fragments of a scene to make the bicycling reference clear. Starrs' piecework is always in italic type -- and occasionally I wondered if he'd ever get to the author's words. But this collection is well-done, and Starrs obviously loves everything to do with the bicycle. His children show up occasionally (mostly in the form of recollections from a cross-country tour while they were growing up), and his own experience influenced the selection. Everything from Ernest Hemingway's flat observational prose to a truly fantastical five-rider cross-country race (against a locomotive) is fair game here, and this book suits its stated purpose of being a volume that can be stashed in the thinking cycle tourist's pannier.

This nicely bound book will give you a highly balanced grasp of one of the most important American writers, William Saroyan - you will not only enjoy his short stories but also find out (more) about what this writer thought about his writing activities, how energetically he engaged himself with his work, his life, his death.

My only regret is that the book contains a rather large number of typos, which should have been avoided had it been the editor's wish to introduce this ingenious, productive writer to those who have not read many of his works; hence the four stars. Otherwise, it is joy to read, and I highly recommend it.

Well, I lived in Fresno for a while, so I decided to read this little book of short stories. Saroyan is not exactly a pleasant writer. There's a certain anger in his writing that flares up here and there. Besides, some of these stories are rather simplistic in their development, almost too contrived, like the first one, The man with the heart in the Highlands. The repetitious pattern of sentences made this story read like a college assignment. However, I enjoyed "Many miles per hour", a story about two brothers who befriend (and end up adoring) a race car driver. This story alone is worth getting the book. The youngest brother is the narrator, a little guy only 10 years old, and he does such a good job. My other two favorite stories are "Madness in the family" is possibly an autobiographical tale of eccentric relatives, and "A Fresno tale", so funny because it is extremely short and missing an ending.

I bought this book of stories before buying "A daring Young Man on the flying trapeze" simply because it was cheaper and I wanted to see if I would like Saroyan that much. Collectively the stories are very good with "The Duel" and "Heart in the Highlands" as my favorites. I liked the book enough to buy "trapeze" and have to admit that the stories and "Trapeze" are on a different level than most of these tales. But this collection while not as good still has enjoyable stories in a small book you can carry around anywhere and read if you find yourself getting bored.