Finished: January 9
Pages: 295
Looking over goodreads, it seems that people are of two opinions, you can only either hate or love this book. I can say that I loved this book, and I don't particularly care about the complaints that others have about it. Patchett is a beautiful writer. I think that she could write about anything, and as long as her turn of phrase stays the same, I will probably read it, and I will definitely enjoy it.
Run is poetic and a little stalker-y. I like books that connect characters in interesting ways. The idea of the interconnected character isn't new, per say, but I didn't see all the twists and connections coming. Although I could see where the story drew inspiration from the Kennedys, it didn't distract me from the narrative. I liked the characters. All of them. Even "terrible" Sullivan and all his mistakes had redeeming qualities and tries so hard to do the right thing and still manages to be smarmy and wonderful at the same time. I love tat all these disparate men: ex-mayor of Boston and father Doyle, ichthyologist Tip, loving goof off Teddy and his mentor and role model Father Sullivan, the aforementioned fuck up Sullivan were all drawn back together by the sacrifices of a mothers love and the needs of an unknown sister. I would have been disappointed if the book had turned out any other way, even if it was more than a little obvious from the beginning where it was going.
The language in Patchett's books are what I really appreciate, more than her apparently shoddy discussions of race relations and religion (comments from goodreads, not my own opinion there) and I'm going to put my favorites down so I don't forget them.
Somewhere along the line Teddy's love for his mother had become his love for Father Sullivan, and his love for Father Sullivan became his love for God. the three of them were bound into an inextricable knot: the living and the dead and the life everlasting. Each one led him to the other, and any member of the trinity he loved simply increased his love for all three. The question wasn't did her ever think of his mother. The question was did he ever think of anything else. (76)
Tennessee, the mother, while listening to Jesse Jackson speak:
She wanted to ask Jackson a question but she never raised her hand...I do appreciate your inspiration and leadership, she wanted to say, but I need some more specific advice. I need to know how to keep my child safe in public schools, safe from guns and chipped lead paint and pushers and bullies who have been bullied too much themselves. I need to know how I can walk her straight to the door of her classroom in the morning and still get to work on time and how she can learn enough to get to college when there are thirty-five other children in the room and half of them did not get breakfast. Can we talk, sir, about those things? All these speeches were so inspiring, yet every time she left the building with no more information than she had come in with. Politicians never mentioned the details of life because of course the details that appealed to one person could repel another, so what you would up with in the end were a long string of generalities, stirring platitudes that could not buy you supper. (114)
And then one of the many reasons for the title of the novel:
She wasn't racing anything but the sight of her mother being hit by the car...It was her plan to outrun all of that, and somewhere in that running she had started to fly. She no longer felt like touching all the dirt and the much she had so patiently submitted herself to so that people would think she was a very nice girl. She was not such a very nice girl. Nobody who was very, very nice would ever work this hard to take something they wanted only for themselves. Nice girls did not demand that everyone stop what they were doing and look at them but that was exactly what she asked for and what she got. All the other runners on the track had stopped now, the way dancers will stop when the soloist steps forward to dominate the floor...Anger and sadness and a sense of injustice that was bigger than any other thing that had happened stoked an enormous fire in her chest and that fire kept her heart vibrant and hot and alive, a beautiful, infallible machine. They were no longer waiting to see how fast she could go, they knew how fast she could go. Now they wanted to see how long it would be before she crashed, and if that was what they were waiting for they might as well sit down and get comfortable. (242)
I love that the book starts off with a family legend. I love that the next paragraph blows the legend out of the water. I like that it's predictable in dealing with the fact that the ex-mayor of Boston adopted two black children, and that it's awkward to talk about. I like that the idea of family is fluid and also a little bit of politics. For the first book of the year, I think I made a good choice. I hope they are all just as good.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
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