Every decade seems to produce a novel that captures the public’s imagination with a story that sweeps readers up and takes them on a thrilling, unforgettable ride. Ron McLarty’s The Memory of Running is this decade’s novel. By all accounts, especially his own, Smithson “Smithy” Ide is a loser. An overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk, Smithy’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 parents’ 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. “Smithy is an American original, worthy of a place on the shelf just below your Hucks, your Holdens, your Yossarians.” —Stephen King “Endearing . . . it’s a ride worth taking.” —USA Today “In The Memory of Running, professional actor and long aspiring novelist Ron McLarty has invented a character so fully and elegantly defined that the book soars with originality and life.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Captivating . . . McLarty unspools passage after passage of devastating grace and melancholy, and his taciturn hero hooks himself to your heart.” —Entertainment Weekly
The Washington Post - John McNally
… the novel will doubtless find a wide audience, in large part because Smithy Ide is a character readers will root for. They'll root for him because Ron McLarty clearly loves him. My only hope for McLarty's next novel is that all of his characters, small and large, earn that love.
Categories:
- Literature & Fiction
- Genre Fiction
- Family Life
- Genre Fiction
Publisher : Penguin Books
Author : McLarty, Ron
Language : English
Edition : Reprint
Published :2005-12-27
Number Of Pages : 384
Binding : paperback
ISBN-10 : 0143036688
ISBN-13 : 9780143036685
Item weight : 0.75 lb
Dimensions : 0.9 in x 5.1 in x 8.3 in
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