Run
by Ann Patchett
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ann PatchettEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-07-29
ISBN: 0061340642
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Run
Book Review: Family Stories
Summary: 5 Stars
Ann Patchett is a wondrous writer, capable of small miracles of grace that come seemingly from nowhere, illuminating her characters and bringing joy to the reader. Even though RUN, her latest novel, may have flaws, how can I give it less than five stars for the joy it gave me throughout? The joy that kept me reading from one magic moment to the next. The joy, even more, that would make me put the book aside, the better to savor the anticipation of what might lie ahead.
As she had done in her first novel, THE PATRON SAINT OF LIARS, Patchett begins with a prologue that is half miracle, half folklore. This concerns a rosewood statue of the Virgin Mary that has been in the family for generations, passed down from mother to daughter. Two stories are told about its origin, the first romantically heartwarming, the second more realistic and largely contradicting the facts of the first, but satisfying on an even deeper level. This prologue does two things. It sets up the basic family unit: a young mother recently dead, leaving a son of her own (Sullivan) and two younger boys (Tip and Teddy, African-American, adopted), to be brought up by the widower, a former mayor of Boston named Doyle. It also demonstrates the power of storytelling, to reveal things in one light and then to illuminate them from the other side, making them seem entirely different. The whole book will be about families and their stories, the stresses that pull families apart, and the miracles that knit them together again in unexpected ways.
Flash forward a dozen years. Despite Doyle's hope to steer his adopted sons into politics (look at their names), Tip is becoming a marine biologist and Teddy is considering the priesthood, following the example of a beloved uncle, Father Sullivan; the other Sullivan, the eldest brother, has become estranged and now lives in Africa. An accident in the snow at night after a lecture by Jesse Jackson brings two other people into their lives: an unwed mother named Tennessee, and her eleven-year-old daughter Kenya, both black. The main action of the book will follow these seven characters for the next twenty-four hours. If Patchett were writing an opera, almost all her scenes would be duets; she has a way of bringing her characters together in different combinations, and to reveal something new about them each time. Essentially, this is the same structure as in her celebrated BEL CANTO; none of the scenes here, though, are love duets in the conventional sense, but all are suffused with love in other ways, and this is perhaps the greatest miracle of all.
It is hard to illustrate this without giving the plot away, but perhaps I can quote from one of the few solo scenes in the book, where the old priest Father Sullivan contemplates his death. "He had started to wonder if there was in fact no afterlife at all . . . How wrongheaded it seemed now to think that the thrill of heartbeat and breath was just a stepping stone to something greater. What could be greater than the armchair, the window, the snow? Life itself had been holy. We had been brought forth from nothing to see the face of God and in his life Father Sullivan has seen it miraculously for eighty-eight years . . . This was not the workings of disbelief. It was instead a final, joyful realization of all he had been given."
RUN is right up there with all but one of Patchett's previous books, although its African-American characters and theme of parenthood brings it closest to TAFT. But some readers looking for a repeat of her masterly BEL CANTO, its immediate predecessor, may well be disappointed. The brushstrokes -- that texture of close personal interactions -- are exactly the same, but the canvas here is smaller. The hostage situation in BEL CANTO allowed Patchett to set small scenes within a large political context; she has remarked that she thinks of RUN as a political novel too, with Doyle a kind of Joe Kennedy, but really her essential focus is on the human level. I also have to say that the climactic scene in RUN does not have quite the same cogency of those that lead up to it, and not all the loose ends are tied up; but to be honest, I recall being disappointed by the ending of BEL CANTO too. Nonetheless, my discovery of Ann Patchett's work five years ago almost single-handedly restored my delight in reading, and I rejoice that even in a slightly imperfect book she can still bring such pleasure now.
Summary of Run
Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard cares about is his ability to keep his children?all his children?safe.
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