I have recently polished off some more jack Higgins books.
- Night of the Fox
- Sheba
- Something else, I forget.
Guess what? The Nazis are still bad guys and the Allies are still the good
guys. I’ll cut to the chase. Good guys win.
*****
The Memory of Running : A Novel
by Ron McLarty
This is one of the better books I have read in at least a year. Thank you, Jay
for passing it on.
Smithson Ide, our main character, has got some serious issues. It isn’t
just that he is a fat, under-achieving loser with no self esteem or motivation.
It is much worse than that, he is pretty weird, too. He mounts an old bicycle
in a fit of grief over the loss of his parents and sister, and heads out to Los
Angeles from Rhode Island.
This is more than your average road trip story. We learn of Smithson’s
past in every other chapter as he crosses the country and has great adventures along
the way. Turns out, this 40 year old couch potato has enough heart to make him
an interesting person and we end up caring that he makes it. This character
is reminiscent of the hero in The Shipping News, and certainly more
likeable than Ignacious in A Confederacy of Dunces.
Read this book. It just might get you to turn off your T.V. and move a little.