the memory of running, by ron mclarty

i've had this book for ages. but i don't know why i've never blogged about it or highly recommended it to someone else. i guessed it just faded away after i read it. maybe it didn't get as much hype as "the kite runner", or it wasn't written by someone who had massive success with previous books, like mitch albom's "the five people you meet in heaven". so i guess it got lost in my collection.. until last week. i spent a slow week re-reading the book and i really appreciated it.

a fat slob who is a alcoholic and depressed, smithy ide is forty and sad. he hates his job and his apartment. smithy doesn't have friends and still goes on vacation with his parents. his sister, bethany suffered from a mental illness that led to her disappearance. the tragedy never detached itself from the ide family.

when his parents die because of a car crash, smithy goes on the road on his bicycle, one night in a drunken stupor and carried on across america. he meets all kinds people - sick, in need of help, unreasonable. he helps and listens, falls in love along the way. with a bag and his bicycle, smithy ide is on a quest that leads him to a better life.

this is a debut novel but it is filled with lots of heart. smithy's emotions are real, and you feel his happiness and pain, wonder and sickness. you read with fervor when smithy talks about bethany's past, and many chapters leave you hanging on to the very last word, as you wait for the author to go back to that incident. the novel is a joy to read and now's the time to say it.

I HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!