The Memory of Running

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less

READ IT - It resonates

I don’t remember where I picked up this book, and when I finally started reading, I was a bit put off by the constant derogatory remarks on Smithy Ide’s weight. Even Smithy gets into the act.

But as I read on, I realized that Smithy is full of self-loathing but doesn’t seem to realize where that self-destructive attitude originates. As circumstances start off horribly wrong for him, he begins a journey that he doesn’t understand. Just a need to propel himself across the street on his old bicycle, a once beloved object of his young mastery. It’s a rough start but as he awkwardly progresses, memories of his youth return and in the quiet recesses of his mind, he comes to terms with the terrible consequences show more of growing up in a “damaged” family. Where all the focus is set upon his beloved and mentally ill sister.

How much can a family give of themselves to try to save someone so troubled? Apparently, if you’re not careful, you can lose it all and still not make a difference.

I read this book some 3 months back and it lingers with me still. I believe it to be one of the most loving, confusing, life-affirming novels I have read in a very long time. Quite worth the bumpy bike ride! show less

I really wanted to like this book. It was recommended to me by a close friend and Stephen King wrote an entire page why you should read it. These things got in my way:
I didn't like the main character. In fact, I thought that he was weak and bland. He had an almost weird obsession with his sister's beauty and her memory. I often wondered if he had a low IQ or was as schizophrenic as his sister.

I also couldn't sympathize with his sister. I know that she was mentally ill and we were supposed to, at some level, sympathize with her, but she was unlikable. Even when she wasn't having a psychotic break.

Come to think of it, I didn't love ANY of the characters.

Ron McLarty has an obsession with breasts and I really didn't feel like reading about show more one more pair of them. Yes, I realize that his CHARACTER was supposed to be obsessed with breasts but, after being introduced to each female character's chest, I decided it was Ron who has the problem. It would seem that he also has a problem with police.

Finally, there was an incident of animal abuse that was never properly brought to a close. It was extremely disturbing. I started skimming the book after that so that I could be done with it.

Good plot idea. So so execution. show less

A sympathetic tale about a lonely, passive blob of a man who sits around, drinks, has a dead-end job and answers most questions with "I don't know." Smithy is haunted by memories of his schizophrenic sister who disappeared long ago and for a long-time he has just been biding time. With the death of both parents in a single car crash, Smithy is jolted into action. He takes off on his childhood Raleigh with just the clothes on his back on what turns out to be a cross-country journey. He encounters some wonderful characters along the way and slowly, subtly Smithy emerges as a guy who takes action, makes a plan, has opinions and realizes he cares deeply for the girl-next-door. She, a parapalegic, quietly encourages Smithy on his quest with show more her periodic phone calls. This is a sweet book, quickly read. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more "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. show less