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Carregando... The Memory of Running (2004)de Ron McLarty
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Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. A6 (2004)Pretty good chronicle of one man trying to cope with the loss of his parents and sister all within weeks of each other. He finds himself on a cross country bicycle ride on a 3-speed Raleigh and starts out at over 280 pounds, heavy smoker & drinker. Transforms himself by the time he gets to Los Angeles. I was surprised to like this book. When the person who lent it to me gave me a brief synopsis of the story -- a guy who just starts biking one day after his family died and keeps going -- I immediately said "That sounds like [b:The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry|13227454|The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry|Rachel Joyce|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335816092s/13227454.jpg|18156927]." It is very similar, but different enough that I would not say they are the same stories on either side of the pond. Both involve someone unlikely to start a pilgrimage who do just that, both have contact with a woman "back home", both have to figure out themselves and get perspective on life, both meet interesting people along the way, and both are interpersed with a story from the past. This book is humbler than Harold Fry, both in how it tells the story and the protagonist himself. It is always first person POV. And of course, this one is about cycling, not walking. I like the back story in this book better, Smithy's sister Bethany who suffers from schizophrenia or maybe multiple personality disorder (whatever it currently is called) and how the family has to continually search for her. The weird part of this book is Norma, the girl next door who has loved Smithy since she was a child. She still harbours a deep love for him, but it is so weird. He's barely talked to her in 30 years; she (and the author) insist that she is a strong, independent person, yet her love is obsessive and founded on a childhood dream. Yes, their relationship develops through Smithy's journey, but it's premise is not realistic, to me. Still, worth a read. The therapist character on HBO's "In Treatment" gave this novel a new life. Paul seemed ready to dump his girlfriend because she blew off his recommendation of this book. Maybe a scriptwriter's conceit, plugging a book by an actor with a recurring role on "Law & Order." Or maybe an ironic joke, name-checking a book populated by clueless characters, in a series filled with unreliable narrators. Well, I stumble through life stumbling on books about men stumbling through life. Must be part of the zeitgeist. The police procedural fits an awkward man comfortably in border-town life. Here an alcoholic assembly-line inspector flees his troubles, or sorts through them in flashback. He's haunted by her crazy sister's ghost, the most believable part of a picaresque trip in which Smithy cheerfully endures all manner of abuse. After cycling cross-country Smithy hasn't traveled very far, or at least it's no spoiler alert that he ends up clean and sober with the girl next door. He's still kind of clueless, but maybe it's comforting to Middle Age Man that he's working on it. No idea why it was on my wishlist, as I didn't track that way back when. Good book - Smithson "Smithy" Ides is an overweight middle aged guy whose whole family is gone within a week - Mom and Dad died of injuries from a car accident, and emotionally troubled sister Bethany turns up in a homeless morgue in LA. Smithy finds his old bike in the garage, and sets off on a quest to get to Bethany from Rhode Island to LA, along the way turning into the man that he wants to be.
Although Mr. McLarty's book is not wildly original, it has a generic likability and the upward trajectory of a shy guy's recovery from loneliness. Its itinerary is also wry enough to sustain interest, as when Bethany winds up in a hippie commune that believes in the sanctity of vegetables. Smithy's actual bike trip is punctuated by encounters with people and books (his revived interest in reading provides a small, amusing subplot) that affirm its underlying faith in human nature. For all the hardships and wrong turns it describes, "The Memory of Running" amounts to a string of happy accidents. In this story, which has a dark side but no real shadows, even being hit by a pickup truck can turn out to be a life-affirming vignette.
Fiction.
Literature.
Thriller.
Humor (Fiction.)
HTML:"Smithy is an American original, worthy of a place on the shelf just below your Hucks, your Holdens, your Yossarians." â??Stephen King Every so often, a novel comes along that captures the publicâ??s imagination with a story that sweeps readers up and takes them on a thrilling, unforgettable ride. Ron McLartyâ??s The Memory of Running is this decadeâ??s novel. By all accounts, especially his own, Smithson "Smithy" Ide is a loser. An overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk, Smithyâ??s life becomes completely unhinged when he loses his parents and long-lost sister within the span of one week. Rolling down the driveway of his parentsâ?? house in Rhode Island on his old Raleigh bicycle to escape his grief, the emotionally bereft Smithy embarks on an epic, hilarious, luminous, and extraordinary journey of discovery and redemption. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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