Benjamin Cheever

Right away Cheever wants you to laugh out loud. How could you not with an opening like this? "That was the summer I worked for the Westchester Commons. I was in love with Amy Snodgrass Rose. Amy was in love with David Hitchens. David was in love with Gloria Thomas. I was in Westchester. Amy was in Washington State. David was in Montreal. Gloria had gone to Paris. The sex was very safe" (p 1). I know I was thinking, "oh the poor schmuck" until I got to last sentence. At least the guy has a sense of humor. It's even funnier when you find out the person speaking, the main protagonist Nelson, is a virgin.
So the gist of the story is this: Nelson narrates the story about his life with "Uncle", "Aunt" and sister Narcissus in Westchester, New York. Nelson is 20 years old, and as I mentioned, in love obsessed with Amy. "Uncle" really isn't Nelson and Nar's uncle. Jonas Collingwood and his wife Elspeth, took over raising Nelson and Nar after their adoptive father died. Jonas is a revered author on the verge stardom when a newspaper article hints his last book was a thinly veiled autobiography of his time in wartime Italy. He receives a huge advance to write a real memoir but what ensues is a comedy of errors and tragedies. Cheever has a dark side to him and while most of the story is relatively funny (Nelson is someone I would love to hang out with), there are moments is subtle uncomfortableness. My favorite scenes involve the car.… (mehr)

The subtitle of this book is a little misleading. There are some stories about running throughout history, but they’re almost all purely anecdotal. There are a few citations at the back, but they’re fairly sparse, and much of the history is actually myth. I would describe it more as a musing on running, comprising many humorous and touching anecdotes about the author’s experience with the sport. This includes everything from doing a 10-K in Baghdad to participating in the wine-drinking marathon mentioned above.

There were parts of this book I liked a lot. I liked that the author interviewed professional athletes and other experts to add to his own perspective. I liked his perspective, especially on his own experiences, since these were often told with the most humor. And I liked seeing the enthusiasm and love the author clearly feels for running. As a non-runner, it was interesting to see what draws people to running and what the challenges are. It sounds as though on of the great benefits of running is the feeling of community. That was conveyed through a variety of poignant stories.

One downside of the book was the complete mix of topics, from funny to moving stories and from myth to history to musings on running. The author would often make a point, relate a few anecdotes, make that point or another point, and than return with more anecdotes. As a result, the book felt somewhat choppy. I also would have liked to see more research and more history, both of which were smaller components of the book than I expected based on the description and subtitle. Of course, someone looking for something different, particularly someone looking to read another runner’s thoughts on running, might enjoy this book a lot more. Given how funny some of the anecdotes were, I might pick up a memoir or a comedy he’s written since those might be more for me.

This review first published on Doing Dewey.… (mehr)