This month's selection was made by Jen, The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty. Here is a blurb from the publisher:
Every decade seems to produce a novel that captures the public's imagination with a story that sweeps readers up and takes them on a thrilling, unforgettable ride. Ron McLarty's The Memory of Running is this decade's novel. By all accounts, especially his own, Smithson "Smithy" Ide is a loser. An overweight, friendless,chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk, Smithy's life becomes completely unhinged when he loses his parents and long-lost sister within the span of one week. Rolling down the driveway of his parents' house in Rhode Island on his old Raleigh bicycle to escape his grief, the emotionally bereft Smithy embarks on an epic, hilarious, luminous, and extraordinary journey of discovery and redemption.
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I just finished this book, and like Smithy, I just don't know. At times, I thought it was really good. Other times, I don't know. It wasn't bad, exactly, but I'm just not sure how I felt.
There's a blurb on the back cover where Stephen King is comparing Smithson to "your Hucks, your Holdens, your Yossarians" and...well, I was thinking more Forrest Gump. It's not necessarily a bad thing. The characterization was really well done, and the bits with Bethany were great, and rang very true, to me. But there were times during The Bike Ride that...didn't seem to have the same degree of truth in them, if that makes sense. I don't know how to better explain myself. And these were the bits that veered off into Forrest-Gumpishness, into...oh heavens, even a little like Billie Letts (I read her book "where the heart is"--a book that is supposed to be a story like this one--inspirational redemptive journey blah blah blah--that fell rather flat, for me). Oh, I wish I could define it better! But there were parts that I just didn't buy.
And I really didn't like Norma at all. It seemed like every time the author talked about her, he spent a lot of time making her annoying, but not really...loveable?
Also, I'm not a big fan of sex scenes, or sex talk, or lewdness in general. Most of it seemed necessary to the story, of course: Bethany's date to...what was it? The Junior Prom? Smithy's, er, affairs with the lovely ladies of Viet Nam. Okay. And his obsession with breasts--yeah, that could be just a part of his characterization. Okay. But I didn't enjoy those bits. (Except for what happened to Bethany's prom date. I did like that.)
I just finished the book. I personally liked the story. (Except the sex scenes and the obsession with breasts. I think they could have been less detailed or left out and the story would have moved on just fine.)
I relate to Smithy on some levels. Never quite fitting in, but managing just fine. Kind of like gliding through life hoping for the best. I think Smithy spent his life just trying to get through it without being noticed to much or without being a burden. But after losing his entire family, he had no choice but to look back at his past. The bike ride was more for the journey through his memory, it couldn't have been a car ride, the point of the story was how he transformed physically, mentally/emotionally. He was the guy that stood away from crowds, he hung by the walls and stood in the darkest corners, avoiding people and life, to jumping right in, meeting new people and seeking adventure. He was a sad lonely guy who didn't feel he had purpose. His purpose had been to find his sister, but when she went missing for all of those years, he had nothing but the alcohol. When he found the letter of her death, he found his purpose again. The story was uplifting for me, it may be a corny story, but with all of the bad things that happened to him, he is an eternal optimist. Things will get better, the ending is just another beginning.
I do agree with Wynne and Sharon about Norma. Despite trying to sound as though her wheelchair didn't bother her, she brought it up at every moment to remind him that she was capable of things, and Smithy never once thought she couldn't.
This morning I saw a spot on the Today show about a real-life Smithy--this guy who walked from San Diego to New York City to lose weight and to help him get his self-respect back. Kinda cool. It made me think about the book all over again.
And I think I have figured out what bothered me so much about parts of the bike ride. Jen described Smithy as a guy who went "gliding through life hoping for the best." And he did--he never actively chose anything in his life--life was what happened to him.
And the thing about the bike ride--he starts off riding away from home, running away from pain mostly, and he does it on a completely subconscious level--but at least he has finally started to *do* something. So it starts out well enough. And as he goes, I kind of expected (subconsciously) that as he continued his journey, he would more and more start to exercise his own agency, and start to actively choose what he did, and actively choose how to react to the things that happened to him.
But it didn't go like that. It was just more of Smithy coasting through life and having more things just happen to him, Forrest-Gump style. And I found that disappointing.
I still think the characterization was very well done, and the bits with Bethany were brilliant. And about Bethany--she was the biggest thing that happened to Smithy, and kept happening to him--I guess it was mostly because of her that I wanted him to start fighting back a little and start making things happen for himself.
Anyway, by the end, I still felt he was a passive passenger in life--he hadn't really changed in the best and biggest way there was for him to change. I mean, even him trading in his beer for bananas wasn't an active choice. There was a little of that, later, but it wasn't as much of a struggle as I was expecting.
Anyway. I wanted to cheer for him, but the author never gives you the opportunity. There. Now I'm really really finished.
I see your point Wynne, about Smithy still gliding through life, his choices not his own. The only conscience choice that me makes is to go to his sister. Other than that, he just coasts through. Your right, the story would have been better had Smithy had some sort of reaction to the things that were happening to him. That is pretty crazy someone walked from CA to NY.
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