Run by Ann Patchett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Run
Book Review: Subtle, touching, profound
Summary: 5 Stars
The surprising crypto-chief character in "Run" by Ann Pachett is the Joe Kennedy-like figure named Bernard Doyle. He is the driving force behind virtually every scene and plot element.
Sharing top billing, is the chief "runner" in the novel, an eleven-year-old black girl named Kenya (like the country). Not so strange, since her mother is Tennessee (like the state). Kenya is as fleet as the night, or the day (take your pick).
Kenya and Tennessee are the invisibles in the book. They are there all right, central and prominent, but the others simply and habitually don't see them. The others are blind to them. But the two invisibles sure have spent their lifetimes watching, listening, and evaluating the others. It's the old story -- blacks and whites, told in a new and confounding way. Who's black, who's white? What difference does it make? Does it in fact make a difference? All this in the confines of a single, eventually extended, family.
Tennessee is a great name for the mother. The book won't bore you with any of the historical facts, but I'll quickly recount a few: Tennessee was the state last to leave the Union to join the Confederacy, and the first to return after the war. More Tennessee soldiers than from any other state served in the Confederate Army, and conversely more Tennesseans served in the Union Army than from any other Southern state. In Tennessee you find the beginnings of the Ku Klux Klan and the murder in Memphis of Martin Luther King Jr.
In my reading, Tennessee the mother is the embodiment of all this history. She is intelligent, hungry for knowledge, politically inspired, humble, and utterly devoted to the physical and intellectual betterment of her given-away sons and of her beautiful and up-and-coming young daughter Kenya. There are parallels to Africa in Kenya's attractive character, but I'll leave this appreciation to the readers.
I have to confess that I had heard about this book a couple of years ago and didn't want any part of it: a white politician and his wife adopt two black sons. I am sick and tired, I said, of having my consciousness and sensitivities raised. I am sick of it and don't want to hear it any more.
But I was hankering for something really good to read, so I walked into a Borders outlet in one of the malls, and I specifically said to the clerk, "I loved Ann Patchett's `Bel Canto' and anything by Sue Miller, but I want to avoid whoever's book it was about the white politician adopting two black sons." She told me I was "safe" with "Run" and with "The Senator's Wife." Boy was she wrong, and boy was I wrong! For "Run" is another masterpiece by Patchett.
Back to Doyle, the chief character. He was the mayor of Boston when he and his wife Bernadette found that they could not have any more children after their first, named Sullivan. Bernadette badly wanted more, so along came one black boy, plainly named Tip. He became available, and soon after that, his infant baby brother, Teddy. The mother, Tennessee, did not want to split the boys up, so the Doyles eagerly and joyfully adopted them both. Later Kenya came into Tennessee's life. In the book, the two sons, Tip and Teddy are twenty-one and twenty to Kenya's eleven. The two sons are of advantage, living in the Doyles' nice house, having the best schools. And Kenya, the daughter from the projects, has this amazing talent to run and run and run, for miles and miles, and fast.
Doyle's first son, Sullivan, is responsible for a tragic car accident that kills his girlfriend Natalie. The scandal of the accident, along with adopting two black sons, spell the end of Doyle in Boston politics. So, like Joe Kennedy, Doyle grooms his sons to enter politics in his place, but without success.
Another horrific and heroic accident in a blinding snowstorm slams all the principals together: Doyle, Tip, Teddy, Sullivan, Tennessee, and Kenya. A wrenching tale told with the greatest subtlety and refinement. As I said before, who's black, who's white, what difference does it make?
And in a scientific and secular world, where do faith and the church fit in? Father Sullivan, a family uncle for whom Doyle's son Sullivan was named, is a living answer with profound insights.
"Run" is a deeply touching tale, not to be missed. Pachett is a master writer. Outstanding.
Book Review: Too much too soon
Summary: 3 Stars
The action promised to be tight, with an accident kickstarting a chain of events over the next 24 hours that threatens to blow former mayor Bernard Doyle's pastiched family apart.
Patchett aims for a commentary on the social and racial divide, albeit in a self-conscious and obvious manner. The Doyles are a mixed-race-single-parent family, with the requisite white (black sheep) son, Sullivan, and two black adopted sons, Tip and Teddy, whom foster dad has political ambitions for.
The author also tries for a little bit of Toni Morrison's 'Beloved', with an overly lengthy episode involving a hospital conversation between the dead and the near-dead, as an attempt to give readers the backstory to the adopted sons' natural mother, Tennessee. The problem with this scene is that Patchett tries to plump up an otherwise flat and 'comatose' character in a rush job manner.
A reasonably interesting read, which however, leaves the reader wanting to feel more connected to the characters and their motivations, and for me, a more satisfying conclusion for the wayward son, Sullivan.
Book Review: Unrealistic plot twists
Summary: 2 Stars
I just finished reading Run for my book club. I had heard of Bel Canto by reputation so when one of our members suggested Run, I thought how bad could a book by Anne Patchett be? I was wrong. For a story that takes place over a 24 hour period, there were far too many themes -- adoption, race, politics, family relationships, issues of nature vs. nurture, religion, death and loss etc. -- none of which could be fully developed. With so many themes and such a short timeframe, there was no opportunity for the characters to be fully developed. Finally, some of the plot twists were incredibly unrealistic to the point where they diminished what Patchett was trying to accomplish. I finished the book simply because I was curious about how it would end. However, it was not worth reading.Book Review: What does it mean to be a family?
Summary: 4 Stars
Unlike Bel Canto, the spellbinding novel that first introduced me to Ann Patchett's talents, Run doesn't immediately charm with a wildly imaginative setting and premise. But over the course of the book, Run shows the same deep insight into humanity that Patchett shares with other great writers, and builds to a conclusion that left me teary-eyed on the final page, something that I consider no small accomplishment from a work of art.
Run is set in present-day Boston, but as with Bel Canto, it is not the setting that is most important, or the novel's great strength, but it is the people, their intersections, and the questions they raise: about adoption, about family, about community, about politics, and about why we try to make of our lives what we do. One could argue (as is discussed in the worthwhile interview with the author) that the book is about any one of these things, but the way it touches on truths relating to all of these themes gives the story its power, regardless of your background.
I was hoping to simply read Run for enjoyment--e.g. not make notes, just drift along on the current of the story--but then I kept coming across effortlessly polished pearls of wisdom and so the moleskine had to come out. Observations like this: "His undoing had started out simply, as undoings often will," or "It was a sign of maturity that he could recognize a peaceful moment and decide to let it stand" show how Patchett, like other great writers, points us to truths about life that resonate even if we haven't experienced them. And that is one of fiction's greatest gifts. I will actively seek out more of Patchett's work in the future.
Book Review: a little disappointed...
Summary: 2 Stars
Granted, my expectations were unfairly high since I very much liked Bel Canto several years ago. I thought Run was a bit shallow, in terms of story line, character developement and general scope. I realize it took place in a 24-hr. period but, if an author is going to use that sort of time device in a story, he or she better pack those 24 hours full of stuff to keep me interested. To sum up, I did not have a hard time putting this book down. I've never read her other books besides Bel Canto, so I'll have to give those a try instead!