Finished Again to Carthage — It’s A Keeper
Posted on Mar 15, 2008 under Running Books |Well, in the first night, I got two-thirds of the way through Again to Carthage, John L. Parker, Jr.’s sequel to his cult classic novel, Once A Runner. And then I finished it last night. I was pleased with this novel. It’s a keeper. I will read it again.
Now, to be honest, it does spend more time off in places that don’t pertain directly to Quenton Cassidy’s running and the goal he sets for himself than did Once A Runner. But there are very good reasons for this, and reasons that someone as old as I am can truly appreciate. The demands of a career, deaths of friends and family, facing the finite mortality of others and yourself, and the even more finite limits to the athletic potential of others and yourself, are all things that someone my age really knows of from a very personal perspective. In other words, I can definitely relate.
I can also, very definitely, relate to the dream Quenton latches onto, how it drives him, and why. I will never run like Quenton, but I know why he wants to and why it motivates him to go for it with everything he has within him and more. I got swept up into the whole flow. I laughed at times. I cried at times. But always, I understood.
I was a little let down about Jerry Mizner, especially, and about Bruce Denton, but I was pleased that Brady showed up where I least expected him to and that even Jack Nubbins played a role in Quenton’s big race.
