Marathon Man (1974)

This review from the Washington Post says it all...

"There are two literary virtues that one wishes hadn't become cliches: 'It's a good read' and 'It exists on several levels.' One wishes these hadn't become cliches because they are the two obvious virtues of William Goldman's MARATHON MAN. It is one hell of a read. And it does exist on several levels, all of them superb."

I've been picking it up lately just to poke around and re-re-re-read certain chapters, scenes, snippets of dialogue... I loved it back in high school when my mom insisted I read her old paperback copy, and I still love it today. ( )

A classic thriller from the author of [b:The Princess Bride|21787|The Princess Bride |William Goldman|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51244A5RWML._SL75_.jpg|992628].

In the late 1970s my father had a rather serious heart attack. Neighbors thoughtfully brought over books for him to read while he was bedridden. Naturally enough, they picked the bestsellers of that time. I'm not sure if Dad read all of them, but I did. [b:Shogun|402093|Shogun|James Clavell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1191871792s/402093.jpg|1755568], [b:Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy|18989|Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy|John le Carré|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167175744s/18989.jpg|2491780], and Marathon Man were among them.

By an odd coincidence, all of those books have ended up being lifetime favorites for me.

In many ways, Marathon Man is quite dated. It was written in the early 1970s, and is very much a work of its time - both in the writing style that Goldman uses, and in the plot. A graduate student, the son of a celebrated intellectual who was destroyed by McCarthyism, finds himself caught up in a bizarre situation with Nazis, torture, family, love, and murder. And running, of course; he's a marathon man. Despite the early-70s feel, however, the book works.

Every reviewer talks about the dentistry scene. That's understandable, since it's very memorable. But good as it is, there are at least two other scenes in the book which are better than that one. And one of them has never yet failed to give me the shivers and make the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

Even though I've read the book at least ten times in the past thirty years - and to be honest that's just a guess, I'd bet it's closer to twenty times - and even though that scene has always stuck in my mind, it still never fails to get me. If you'd like to know which scene I'm thinking of, read the book; if it isn't obvious to you after that, drop me a line.

A good book, well worth reading. I liked the movie too. ( )

A classic thriller from the author of [b:The Princess Bride|21787|The Princess Bride |William Goldman|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51244A5RWML._SL75_.jpg|992628].

In the late 1970s my father had a rather serious heart attack. Neighbors thoughtfully brought over books for him to read while he was bedridden. Naturally enough, they picked the bestsellers of that time. I'm not sure if Dad read all of them, but I did. [b:Shogun|402093|Shogun|James Clavell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1191871792s/402093.jpg|1755568], [b:Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy|18989|Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy|John le Carré|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167175744s/18989.jpg|2491780], and Marathon Man were among them.

By an odd coincidence, all of those books have ended up being lifetime favorites for me.

In many ways, Marathon Man is quite dated. It was written in the early 1970s, and is very much a work of its time - both in the writing style that Goldman uses, and in the plot. A graduate student, the son of a celebrated intellectual who was destroyed by McCarthyism, finds himself caught up in a bizarre situation with Nazis, torture, family, love, and murder. And running, of course; he's a marathon man. Despite the early-70s feel, however, the book works.

Every reviewer talks about the dentistry scene. That's understandable, since it's very memorable. But good as it is, there are at least two other scenes in the book which are better than that one. And one of them has never yet failed to give me the shivers and make the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

Even though I've read the book at least ten times in the past thirty years - and to be honest that's just a guess, I'd bet it's closer to twenty times - and even though that scene has always stuck in my mind, it still never fails to get me. If you'd like to know which scene I'm thinking of, read the book; if it isn't obvious to you after that, drop me a line.

A good book, well worth reading. I liked the movie too.

I honestly had no clue what [b:Marathon Man|21796|Marathon Man|William Goldman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167323623s/21796.jpg|1098285] was about before I started reading it. I started a book club when I moved to Seattle a year ago and each month we pick a new genre and roll with it. We picked thriller/suspense for January and then looked to see what the mostly highly shelved and rated books in the genre were and added a few to our poll. This won so I acquired it and jumped in. I think it made it quite a bit more fun having no clue what the story was about or where it was going (I haven’t seen the movie) so I’ll try not to ruin anything in this review. [b:Marathon Man|21796|Marathon Man|William Goldman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167323623s/21796.jpg|1098285] opens with two angry old men in a road rage situation in New York City which results in a string of events involving Nazis, espionage, and a Jewish grad student who runs marathons. It is basically an adrenaline-fueled rush all the way to the ending.

Babe Levy, the aforementioned grad student, has the uncanny ability to remember historical facts, just like his father before him. The father whose life and career were ruined by McCarthyism. Babe’s only family is his brother Doc, whom Babe resents a bit for doing corporate work of a sort and collecting hoity-toity interests. After Babe begins dating a German student and writes to Doc about his feelings, his brother shows up at his apartment and Babe finds out that several things are not as they seem. And that is about as far into the plot as I can go without spoiling it all.

I had rather high expectations going into this book because it was written by [a:William Goldman|12521|William Goldman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1198704782p2/12521.jpg], of [b:The Princess Bride|21787|The Princess Bride |William Goldman|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518KYVLJatL._SL75_.jpg|992628] fame. I’d hoped that he could write a thriller with the same humor he injected into both that book and the movie screenplay based on it. Was there humor? Not really, but he certainly knows how to keep the reader intrigued and there are several scenes I won’t soon forget. Something that might be a positive for readers is that the pacing roars along, allowing readers to frantically flip pages until they’ve finished the book in one sitting. However, I thought the characterization lacked a bit because of it. There are several German characters I kept confusing with each other and they, along with a few other characters, left me practically begging for more of the backstory. It reminded me of the characters in [a:Jasper Fforde|4432|Jasper Fforde|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1241065899p2/4432.jpg]’s BookWorld who try to invent interesting tidbits about themselves to interject into their acting. Character 1: generally evil henchman, German, broad-shouldered. I found it perplexing, though, that some complete randomness was interjected instead of helpful characterization—did we really need to know about so-and-so’s favorite Argentinian laundress?

I will say that Goldman knows how to write torture, death, and chase scenes which really covers all the bases in a thriller. And I liked the seventies feel to it. Thrillers are more interesting to me when they aren’t utilizing the newest technology and people have to base their life and death prospects on skill and luck rather than their knowledge of advanced weaponry. Plus, who doesn't love reading about assassins going after assassins?

Now that I’ve read the book, I can’t wait to see the movie, which stars Dustin Hoffman as Babe Levy. I want to see if the film captures the anxiety I felt during the dentist scene, the point when Levy finds out about the double-crosser, the bank escape scene, and the ending. (these are pretty general, non-spoiler mentions. If you think I should spoiler them, let me know)

3.5 stars. ( )

What a brilliant book! Excellently drawn characters; plot twists and turns; murder, suspense and betrayal.

I've seen the film adaptation a few times, but lastly some years ago, so I had the dual advantage of Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier reprising their parts in my head (perfect casting) but couldn't clearly remember the plot, and got all the mystery, too.

The early chapters follow several seperate strands, building suspense because you KNOW that they are all connected. The way that Goldman gathers the threads together and delivers a wholly satisfying conclusion is just masterful.

Read this book and enjoy - but don't plan any dental work any time soon! ( )