The Book:Run, by Ann Prachett
The Story: (from Goodreads) 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 Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children–all his children–safe.
Set over a period of twenty-four hours, “Run” takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard to a home for retired Catholic priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you’ve never even met. As in her bestselling novel “Bel Canto,” Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories into one surprising and endlessly moving narrative. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, “Run” is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.
What I Thought: One little thing tainted my reading of this book: The fact that I had read and enjoyed Saturday by Ian McEwan just a few months before that. Especially in the first few chapters, I swear I had to check and see if I had read this before. They are so similar it is a bit uncanny. Their stories are pretty similar (car accident after/during big event that spurs tons of action) and the writing (reflective/literary fiction) are even pretty close. All that to say that I could.not.stop comparing Run to Saturday as I read it and it maybe messed the book up for me….
Because, in my opinion, it just wasn’t as good.
I think what made this not great for me was it just wasn’t honest. It seemed like Ann Patchett wanted to write a book target specifically to Oprah (I mean, I get it… Oprah’s Bookclub is big money!). It was just this PC drivel. She wanted to explore these deep issues of race, religion, family, love… but instead of just doing it, she chickened out. She created cardboard characters that operated only in these really expected ways. Their feelings and actions and words and… just their whole characters… were really blah. There weren’t any that I felt connected to because they all just felt so fake. At some point, I wanted someone to show a genuine emotion but for me it never happened.
The plot itself was alright- plot twists here and there to keep you interested, but nothing that left me shocked or excited. I think that the problem with books set over 24 hours is that… well… not a whole lot happens in 24 hours most of the time. I think to read this you kind of have to suspend belief at the time aspect, but I’m ok with that. I get what Ann Patchett was going for in the plotting department and for me this was the strong point of the book- a well thought out storyline.
I think that Ann Patchett can write. I also think that when authors get stuck in the “literary fiction” genre that sometimes they start overwriting. I thought Bel Canto was beautiful, mainly for the crisp, perfect writing. In Run, it seemed like she let herself try the more “lyrical” or “stream of conscious” styles of writing at times and it was almost painful. There were sections here that were written in a similar style to Bel Canto, but much of the book felt like experimentation. Bleh.
Conclusion: Overall just…. bleh. Would probably make a pretty good movie, but I think some bad decisions (character/writing wise) on the author’s part made this book less than a success.
