The Memory of Running.

The Memory of Running

Ron McLarty

Viking Adult

ISBN: 0670033634 $24.95 368 pp.

Rating 4 stars

One could define Smithy Ide as a typical middle-aged loser--unmarried with a dead end job and nothing to do but eat and get drunk. We see them every day and pay little attention. Ron McLarty provides us with an extraordinary window into one such person. The Memory of Running is a rare opportunity to get to know Smithy Ide, the caring, big-hearted man who takes care of his mom and pop and constantly worries about his older sister Bethany, afflicted with the voice of a demon which despite numerous doctors and hospital stays, refuses to let her go.

All through his childhood, Smithy's own life takes a back seat to his sister's illness. As if this wasn't bad enough, his neighbor Norma insists upon intruding in his already dysfunctional family until a freak accident renders her a cripple.

Smithy experiences an awakening when his mom and pop are killed in a horrible automobile accident. He returns home to discover a letter addressed to his father concerning matching dental records and Bethany's body lying unclaimed in a morgue in California. He knows Norma is watching him from behind a closed blind in the house next door. He's felt her watching for years. Bethany's voice echoes through the empty house, 'Don't ever stop running Hook. If you stop, you become a fat ass."

Well, he did stop running and he did become a fat ass. Retracing his childhood haunts, he jumps on his old bike and rides down to the old fishing holes where he spent much of his time ... and just keeps on going all the way to the west coast.

Ron McLarty produces a solid first novel with The Memory of Running. Told in the first person narrative, it is an insightful tale of the turning point for Smithy Ide, who both loses himself and finds himself on a cross country journey to claim his sister's body and reclaim a part of him that had been put on hold for too long. Along the way, he mends the rift between himself and Norma and finds in her a best friend who's loved him in silence for a very long time.

McLarty combines vibrant and real characters, a gripping plot of personal growth, and awe-inspiring descriptions of his cross-country adventure into an absolute joy of words. It has a relaxing start and pulls you into the story until you can't put the book down. The telephone relationship between Smithy and Norma begins as choppy and unclear dialogue and ends with the understanding of Norma's pain and Smithy's initial inability to cope with her accident when he was younger. The pace with which McLarty pulls the reader from past recollections to present day can be a bit exhausting, but the journey is well worth the effort.