Again to Carthage by John L. Parker Jr.
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Book Reviews of Again to Carthage
Book Review: Good, but not worth the wait.
Summary: 3 Stars
If you're looking for a story about running, like Once a Runner is, then you're going to have to wait until about 150 pages into the book. If you can get past the descriptive-heavy chapters about deep sea fishing and South Florida, you'll enjoy the book when the plot finally turns to running.
Entirely too many typos for me not to mention it. Doesn't look like the final draft was even proofread.
As for the quality of the story, Once a Runner fans will enjoy the familiar relationships and quirks of Quenton Cassidy. The second half of the book is running literature at its finest.
Book Review: Bittersweet years
Summary: 3 Stars
John L. Parker has clearly given a lot of thought to an athlete's aging and the ways in which the bodies that work so beautifully when we're young begin to be a little less reliable. Overcoming the encroachments of age, as Quenton Cassidy does, makes for some thrilling descriptions of running and racing. Be forewarned, though, that those running scens are rather sparingly doled out--at one point it seemed like the sequel to "Once A Runner" would have been more accurately titled "Now a Fisherman." But, like running itself, pushing through the tedious patches sets you up for a rewarding finish.Book Review: Uneven, but probably worth it.
Summary: 3 Stars
As someone who loved OAR (and has read it several times), I was eagerly anticipating reading Again to Carthage. Parker does a great job when he writes about training and racing, but ATC is a literary jumble, with lots of purple prose, extraneous characters that haphazardly come and go, and a rambling storyline. The writing is mediocre (and filled with typos)... until you get to the race description, which is truly awesome. You have to suffer through 300 pages to get there, but it's worth the price of admission. A mixed bag, for sure.Book Review: High Hopes Dashed
Summary: 2 Stars
My first thought when I finished Again to Carthage (ATC) is "Dude, they used Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' during the race scene in Saint Ralph. You couldn't find another song?"
As a life-long runner...I gotta say...this book was horrible. It wants to be a runner's version of "The Natural" and comes off as Rocky IV (sorry, my depth of sports literature is thin beyond the Natural).
My overall impression is that he wrote the last 120 pages or so first, the story of Cassidy's decision to start running again and his training and the big race. Of course, 120 pages will not a novel make, so the editors sent it back and said, you need to add more. So he tacks on a hundred or so pages of background material to set up the mid-life crisis. This still leaves him 80 pages short, so he went back at it with a thesaurus, and everywhere he finds a verb he adds an adverb and everywhere he uses a noun he adds two or three adjectives.
My other problem with ATC, in addition to the overuse of adverbs and adjectives is the complete lack of any dramatic tension. No tension lasts for more than a few paragraphs. He has a ho-hum life. He starts running again. He gets up to 100+ mile weeks and gets in awesome shape with an awesome body. The only place I felt any tension was during the race - will he or won't he make the team? But it's so overwrought - the bloody footprints, the visions of dead friends...very cliched.
Feeling a bit bummed by this one...I was hoping for so much more....
Book Review: Very Disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars
Loved once a runner and anxiously awaited the release of Again To Carthage.
The typographical errors and editorial misses throughout the book make me wonder if anyone re-read the copy before it went to print.
The story seems to wander aimlessly for hundreds of pages and the only thing running related are the main character's daily outings.
Occasionally the author seems to feel a need to rework an overused, philosophical running cliche or name drop with references to former runners, researchers or shoe models.
If you are a runner reading the book is probably a must, and once started, I was determined to plow through. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs at times, and I found I hit the "Wall" several times before falling into a survival shuffle in the end.
If I knew then what I know now...I would have waited for a copy at the library or for a used copy to show up at the local bookstore.