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racer2c
10-13-10, 03:54 PM
I've never been one for reading various race drivers biography's, but being a Senna disciple (yes, for many years prior to Imola) I have a handful of books on Ayrton that I've read multiple times. Not great reading on a literary level. A few of the Christopher Hilton books are downright boorish especially in recapping Ayrtons younger years (why do Brazilians repeat descriptions "He was always going faster...faster...faster.". If I had a dollar for every time I read that in a Hilton biography. I assume Hilton interviewed everyone in English which is why all of the Brazilians in the book seem intellectually equivalent to a 5th grader. It would have been more effective in my opinion if he had a translator capture responses in their native language. The unintended result is the feeling that no one really knew Senna, or was it intended? Player after player, Hilton introduces them as Senna's best friend, or as the closest confident only to have that person quoted as saying they never really got that close to Senna. The claim was made that he was closest with his family...but, no one from the family was interviewed. Bummer.
So by the end of the book you read about a naturally talented racer, an introvert from a wealthy family who no one really knew, who rarely spoke and when he did he was complaining about something who unfortunately died on track surrounded by controversy and conspiracy theories that took 10 years in an Italian court to dismiss. I have a couple of old VHS documentaries of Senna that portray a more realistic version! I would expect so much more from a book.
Anyway, I digressed into Senna when my intention was to ask if anyone has read a quality biography of a race driver or is the genre typically fluff?