I'd heard this was a good book, & after reading, I think this may be my favorite of the year thus far. It's the story of a middle-aged man's self-discovery & the quest for his sister, but it's really a lot more than that. Flashing back between past & present, it actually reminded me a lot of Forrest Gump. A great blending of seriousness & humor, I found Ron McLarty's writing style right down my alley, & I'll definitely be looking into more by this author.

As an audiobook, this was excellent, read by McLarty himself. He's known for his voice, & I don't believe anyone could've read this better than he did. ( )

Sedated into meaningless day to day existence partially brought on by hurtful circumstances in his life, 40 something, Vietnam vet, and single Smithson "Smithy" Ide drinks and eats himself into oblivion every night and supervises the placement of arms and legs on an action figure toy at a factory during the day.

Smithy’s life is turned upside down when his loving and caring mother and father are killed in an automobile accident and upon opening some mail at their home, discovers that his long lost mentally ill sister, Bethany, remains are being held in California awaiting family retrieval.

In a drunken act, an obese Smithy begins to ride an old Raleigh bicycle he had as a teenager toward a fishing hole he frequented as a youth and then passes out on a grassy knoll. The next day, in almost a mindless state, as if being programmed to ride, this very sore muscled over-weight man continues to bicycle town to town, state to state toward California to claim his beloved sister’s remains.

Akin to Forest Gump who decides to run across American for his own reasons and grow his hair and beard, Smithy Ide to most people appears to be a homeless bum on a bicycle. Hate, fear, prejudice and sickness are encountered on his quest, as well as help and kindness from strangers and a wheelchair bound neighbor, Norma, who has always been in love with Smithy since they were children.

Smithy’s story unfolds from his point of view in simple thoughts and words. In many tangled situations, when an explanation composed of sentences would have helped him out, silence or one or two word responses seem to be his only means of communication leading the reader to empathize and root for this bumbling troubled man.

The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty was an easy read, finishing it quickly in a week. Read it for a book club and enjoyed the story.

This is the story about the Ade family, living under the shadow of the oldest sister Bethany's mental illness. It's also the story of her younger brother Smithson's almost accidental journey of self discovery - across America on a bike. The story is told by Smithson in a hesitant, awkward and self-loathing way, which gives the book a strong personal voice.

A very sad book this, but also moving and often beautiful. The journey through America lets Smithson meet with both suspicion and kindness, but everyday goodness dominates. Also, in balancing the tales of the nice people Smithy meets with the pitch black desperation and despair of the past, the book never falls into the really sentimental. Rather, it seems the very definition of "bittersweet".

Smithy is a very interesting charcater, moving and believable in all his clumsiness and awkwardness. Even his naive sexism is pretty touching. It's his voice that carries the book, along with a keen sense of situation from McLarty. Indeed, there are quite a few situations in this book that I can't recall having ever read before. The horror of being shit-faced drunk when getting word of your parents being in a fatal car accident for instance. Or the overwhelming sadness Smithy feels when getting confronted by his Bethany's psychiatrist with his sister's made-up abuse accusations. All in all, this was a rewarding read, fresh in it's realism. ( )

A guy with insomnia comes across some strange scenes out in the middle of th enigh and becomes drawn into the lives of these people. ( )

This was enjoyed by the majority of the book club. We were all rooting for Smithy Ide. ( )

Nostalgia – the wistful yearning for something past, something irrecoverable. We spend the early, frenetic days of youth rushing towards an adult life, eager to see the world with mature eyes and taste it with a distinguished palate. At some point in the middle of our lives, we find that the youthful days, when we experienced the subtleties of life for the first time, stand out as the best days. Call it a mid-life crisis or a turning point or whatever, but what we seek is that irrecoverable feeling, that youthful quickening; we seek to overcome the numbness of experience and recapture an insatiable appetite for life; we seek to live as we lived then rather than to subsist on just the vague memory of those tender days.

In the evening after burying his parents, Smithson Ide, oiled up with liquor and still dressed in his funeral suit, climbs onto his boyhood bicycle for a ride on a once familiar route. Awakening the next morning in a field, hung over and bruised, Smithson decides not to return home but to ride across country, bound for Los Angeles and the funeral home which holds the body of his missing sister. Smithson’s last name itself, Ide, heralds his very place in time, a mid-point or a crossroads. Since returning home from service in Vietnam, he has gained 150 pounds and taken up a deadened existence, numb to everything around him, including the liquor and food he senseless consumes. As he travels, shedding weight, Smithson charts a new course for his life, rich in feeling and taste and experience, opening himself to the possibility of connecting with the world and with people again.

McLarty’s book starts off slow, but that was probably intended to match Smithson’s own pace and rhythm. I noted in reading a couple of other reviews that readers had a hard time with the passive and sluggish beginning. So, McLarty could probably have gotten to the meat of Smithson’s trek a bit quicker. But once Smithson is on his way, so are we, excited to find out about his next encounter and flesh out more of his past. The story rolls along, tinged with aching emotions, at once biting and pleasing.

The characters overflow with human inconsistency, well intentioned fallibility, and hope. Each person Smithson meets, in telling their own story, opens him up to the world around him, both bad and good. McLarty’s hero, Smithson, is the best of these characters, flawed and infuriating but endearing for his ability to reflect our own self loathe and craving for a better, more vital life; a life of which we may only have vague, nostalgic memories.

4 bones!!!!

Bottom Line: A solid, if somewhat slow starting, read. It is worth the trouble, so stick with it until Smithson starts his trek. McLarty’s other books warrant a try based on this first effort. ( )

discusses Smithton "Smithy" Ide's way of dealing with deaths in his family; charming adventure story; he reminds me of Forrest Gump

Everybody in my adult book club enjoyed this. ( )

Smithy Ide's story -- both running away from and running to something -- is told in beautiful, simple prose that entices the reader further into the book from the very first page. And everything that develops from there makes the book better and better as you go in. Smithy is a wonderful creation: unsophisticated but wise; knowing but uncorrupt; imperfect but good. ( )

I loved this book! Smithy Ide is such a loveable character, along the lines of Forrest Gump with his naive and trusting view of the world. The characters he meets on his journey do not always treat him with the trust and compassion that he deserves. MccLarty paints a fasinating and wholly believable view of the wide range of people and views present in modern-day America. A beautiful read! ( )

Read for Bookclub. Brilliant. Loved it from the first page and agree it is a lot like Forrest Gump in that it provides us, the readers, with a snapshot into the 60s, 70s, and 90s. Told as Smithy Ide bicycles his way from one side of American to another to recover the body of his homeless, psychotic sister, it is 2 stories - one of his past and the second is of the now.
His past unfolds heartbreakingly linked to his beautiful sister Bethany, whose mental illness was such that when "the voice" didn't have hold of her, she was smart, funny and dangerously insightful. This held Smithy, and his father and mother in an eggshell existence, just waiting for the next incident - of self-harm, of betrayl and of disappearing. There is also Smithy's own self-harm; his guilt over the shunning of the wheelchair bound Norma, the alcohol, overeating and cigarettes - and the terrible self-pity of being wounded in Vietnam while taking a leak. Fast-forward to the Now (1990s) and Smithy's inability to cope with his Mom & Pop's deaths; his confrontation with Norma and then the awful letter that tells him of Bethany's death - and he suddenly grabs his bike and starts to ride. The journey takes him through the lives of many people - a guilty priest, a man dying of AIDs, a lost boy in a snowstorm, a wife whose husband has turned to alcohol and the streets, and a truck driver whose brother was a heroin addict who killed their father - and he discovers that everyone has problems, and as Norma says, you just "get up and get going" and don't feel sorry for yourself.
I can see why they want to make this into a movie and also I think that it is wonderful that it was an audiobook first and then (after Stephen King heard it) it was published. Excellent.

Note : this book is not suitable for YA as it has lots of swearing, Smithy's obsession with breasts and a rather graphic description from the psych on what he supposedly did to his sister, as well as descriptions of his "first time" in Vietnam.

I listened to this as an audio book, and at the beginning wasn't at all sure I was going to like it. After the first 45 minutes or so, I really started to get into it.
It is a novel that reads like a memoir. The story of a 43 year old man's journey to rediscover himself by taking a bicycle trip across the country after the sudden death of his parents. The story is heartwarming, thought-provoking, and humorous all at the same time. The cast of characters he meets on his excursion are funny, interesting, and frightening at different moments.
A definite winner in my book!!! ( )

Interesting story. Wanted to keep reading. ( )

A highly enjoyable travelogue of a man's quest to find himself. The cast of characters and incidents along the road were engaging. When I finished to book, I had an overwhelming urge to grab a bag of bananas and hit the road on a bicycle--I could stand to lose a pound or two myself! I feel like I'm best friends with Smithy Ide now. ( )

Great book a bit slow, but interesting ( )

Smithy Ide is 43 years old, obese, a smoker, a drunk, never been married, and has a job at a toy factory. After his parents pass away, Smithy finds his old bike in their garage, which he used to ride when he was young and skinny. On impulse, Smithy takes off across the United States, from Rhode Island to L.A., to take care of business having to do with his schizophrenic sister Bethany. The story goes back and forth between the present and the 60s and 70s. It is so beautifully written, though, that it is a pain-free experience for the reader. Smithy's bike ride across the country is sometimes beautiful, sometimes scary, and sometimes downright painful, but Smithy also begins to lose weight, quits smoking and drinking, meets quite a few very interesting people, does a lot of thinking and starts some long overdue healing from the many blows dealt to him from having a mentally ill sister to his stint in Vietnam. He also finally finds love from a most surprising source. Wonderful book from start to finish. ( )

Quick read and just very suprising in its tone. Simple character seeing the world. ( )

Smithson “Smithy” Ide is a runner, a cyclist, a reader, and one skinny kid. At least he used to be. As a boy, he ran to go fishing. He often had to run as part of his family’s efforts to find his sister, Bethany, afflicted with a voice that insists on violence and leaves her in a catatonic pose. Smithy’s searches were accelerated when his pop bought him a new maroon three-speed Raleigh bicycle, the kind we all wanted at his age. He would ride every day after school. Can you remember that feeling?

Years later, Smithy is fourty-seven; now he is running away from life. He is numb from the escalating violence of Bethany who finally disappeared and cannot be found. He is indifferent about his old neighbour girl, Norma, who used to be like one of the family, but became house-bound and was forgotten because of Bethany’s affliction. Smithy smokes and drinks; he is a 270 pound fat-ass. When Smithy is called upon to arrange the funeral of his parents, he finds a letter confirming that Bethany is dead, identified by her dental records after being found in the streets.

Smithy finds his old Raleigh in the garage. “All of a sudden I gave the Raleigh a few steps, sat ridiculously on the seat, and began to coast on the flat tire rims of my bike, down our little hill.” Thus begins a crazy journey from East Providence, Rhode Island to Venice, Los Angles where his dead sister is being kept in a funeral home. Sleeping in corn fields and later in a tent, Smithy is aided by Benny, a wayward priest trying to make amends; hit by Carl, whose illness leaves Smithy rushing him to the hospital; and disappointed by an old war-buddy who once saved Smithy’s life. As the pounds melt off, Smithy forgets his addictions. I ached in pleasure at times sharing Smithy’s rediscovery of cycling, his joy in sweet but wholesome bananas, and the company of a good book. I cheered when Smithy learned that his absence had cost him his dismal job. Visions of Bethany guide him on his trip, and phone calls from Norma promise love at the end of it all. It is a journey of remembering and redemption, a mid-life chance for a good-hearted loser to make good on life.

http://johnmiedema.ca/2007/10/04/the-... ( )

THIS IS an extraordinary book, part love story, part road trip, entirely an examination of how people react to grief and change. Obese, chain-smoking alcoholic Smithy mounts a bicycle for the first time in 30 years when his parents are killed and doesn’t stop until he has crossed America. As he cycles, we learn of his past, his mad sister and how her problems affected her family. Sentimental, vibrant and lovable, it should achieve modern classic status. ( )

A fat man on a bike Forest Gumping it across the country in order to "find himself"...what is not to like. This novel is funny and touching. McLarty takes us on a literary journey along with Smithy. ( )

I favor nonfiction, particularly memoirs and biography. So this story was a bit of a challenge in the believability department. Despite this, I did develop a an abiding affection for this small band of misfits. McLarty does do a nice job of putting into words those internal doubts that we all share in our moments of honesty. If you like a story with a sweet (though predictable) ending, this one is for you. ( )

Bizarre story...but I always love wacky characters. This one is of an overweight adult who loses the 3 most important people in his life during the span of one week. In an effort to resolve issues, he hops on his bike and rides across the USA. ( )

I was a little underwhelmed by this book. Not that I didn't enjoy it on some level, but it was far less enjoyable than I was expecting.

Smithson Ide is a vastly overweight, middle aged loner, who numbs his pain with alcohol and food. As the beginning of the book, his parents get killed in a road accident, and shortly afterwards, he finds that his sister, who disappeared years previously, has also died. Smithson takes his old Raleigh bicycle, and just starts pedalling. And then he just carries on.

I have a feeling that this is supposed to be one of those 'life affirming books' that makes you feel good. It isn't, and it doesn't. I actually found it quite depressing, and the main character is really not all that likeable.

Not awful, but I won't be reading anything else by this author. ( )

Smithy Ide is a fat lazy slob who has just lost his entire family. Finding his old bicycle in his father's garage, he starts a cross country bicycle ride. Along the way he will discover a lot about himself, his family and the girl he ignored and neglected for years.

The book alternates between past (mostly the story of his mentally ill sister) and the present, mostly his journey across america. I hated Smithy Ide as much as he hated himself. He had redeemed himself a little by the end, but I still found it difficult to grasp what moved him or those around him. I liked finding out about his sister Bethany. But I wish the book would have filled in a little more about her. ( )

A stunning novel. It reminded me of Zen And The Art of Motorcyle Maintainance - a road trip of self discovery that was uttterly enthralling. The main characters obsession with his complicated sister Bethany was very believable - not so sure about the relationship with Norma - the wheelchair-bound neigbour whose unrequited love for him doesn't quite carry the same conviction. Also, I didn't really buy the bike being stolen when it was - he seemed quite careless with it and the theft felt a little contrived and predictable when it came.

But these are minor quibbles - it's a great book, highly recommended, looking forward to that oh so difficult second novel! ( )

This is a debut novel that I enjoyed very much. It features a main character who has lost his way. He has a crazy sister and a woman in a wheelchair who loves him. When his parents die in a car accident, he rides his bike from Rhode Island to Los Angeles to claim the body of his sister, who has recently died on the street. An excellent read and a wonderful voice. I look forward to future books by this author. ( )