What We Thought: The Memory of Running

Combined Book Club Potluck!

This evening’s Book Club meeting began with a hot and cold dish supper enjoyed by everyone.  Afternoon and Evening Book Club members look forward to the biennial event show casing tasty treats including vegetarian casseroles and home style favorites of chicken, spicy sausage and other tempting ingredients.

After dinner the group moved from the Community Room to the Library’s  front room for desserts; decorated cake, trifle, cookies, and even chocolates and a discussion of author Ron McLarty’s The Memory of Running. This book evoked strong reactions and opinions about family issues and the treatment of psychiatric disorders during the past fifty years.

 

All agreed that the author wrote a beautiful story about difficult subjects. There was enough humor to lighten up the overall sadness of the character’s lives. Familiar locations in Rhode Island enhanced the background of events as the characters moved through the highs and lows of life.

The story revolved around family and the love and devotion of parents and children as well as goodness radiating from all of them. The Memory of Running is a story of hope and resilience that exists throughout experience despite life’s trials.

This quote from one of the group inspired Book Club members and was a fitting conclusion to the evening’s program, “In a dog-eat-dog world Smithy wore Milk-Bone underwear.”

This Month's Selection: The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty

This month is the special Combined Book Club Potluck meeting, when Evening Readers and Afternoon Readers get together for supper and conversation. The Combined Book Club Potluck is Tuesday, August 20, at 6:00 p.m.

 

Bring a dish to share that night, or join us on the blog the next day!

 

This month's selection is The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty. Here's what some reviewers have said about this debut novel:

 

"Smithy is an American original, worthy of a place on the shelf just below your Hucks, your Holdens, your Yossarians." —Stephen King
"Endearing . . . it’s a ride worth taking." —USA Today
"In The Memory of Running, professional actor and long aspiring novelist Ron McLarty has invented a character so fully and elegantly defined that the book soars with originality and life." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Captivating . . . McLarty unspools passage after passage of devastating grace and melancholy, and his taciturn hero hooks himself to your heart." —Entertainment Weekly
"Riders who hop onto the back of Smithy Ide's bike and ride America with him will cherish the journey. I loved this sad, funny, life-affirming novel." —Wally Lamb

 

Click here to read an excerpt from The Memory of Running.