Magazine Column; "The Gear Hound" - Book review "The Runner's Literary Companion"

1. hound
Summer Reading
BY MICHELLE BOUR G
Ah, summertime.
You've already run
today, in the cool
of morning. Now the after-
noon's torpor is setting in like
a fog, and you've got the per-
fect excuse to stretch out in
the shade with a good book.
A good running story
would be perfect, if you can
find one. Books even periph-
erally about running are a ~
rarity on bestseller lists,
which is ironic, because run-
ning as a sport actually traces
much of its origins to the
world of literature. Cross-
country began with the
"paper chases" depicted in
Thomas Hughes' 1857 novel
"Tom Brown's Schooldays,"
and that contemporary phe-
nomenon, the marathon, is
the only major individual
sporting event directly inspired by a literary work:
French historian Michel Breal was moved by
Browning's poem "Pheidippides" to propose a
long-distance footrace as the centerpiece of the
inaugural Olympiad in 1896, lending a symbolic
link to the games of ancient Greece and helping to
crystallize the modern Olympic movement.
Although it isn't front and center on bookstore
shelves, good writing about running does exist.
Some of the best is collected in "The Runner's Lit-
erary Companion," a one-volume runner's summer
reading list with dozens of page-turning short sto-
st 200'1 WINGFOOT
ries, novel excerpts, and
poems that celebrate running
in all its aspects. Some are
familiar, like A.E. Housman's
"To an Athlete Dying Young;"
others will be new discover-
ies. An eclectic mix of authors
yields a wide range of styles
and moods: the sweetness of
Eddy Orcutt's "Wheelbar-
row," the cocky exuberance of
Toni Cade Bambara's "Ray-
mond's Run," the gut-churn-
ing tension of Lon Otto's "We
Cannot Save Him."
Although non-runners can
enjoy "The Runner's Literary
Companion," runners are at
the book's heart. This is clear
both from the selections
themselves and in their
arrangement. Each section
focuses on a different aspect
of the running experience,
and every runner- fast or slow, elite racer or week-
end jogger- will be drawn to one or more, whether
it's "The Milers," "The Marathoners," or "The
Sprinters." At different times, everyone will see
themselves in "Winning and Losing" or "Time,
Memory, and Age. "
Appetite whetted, you can turn to Roger Robin-
son's "Running in Literature," a lighthearted and
learned overview of running in literature from the
classical period to the present. Reading it is like
taking a Survey of Western Lit class from a witty
and engaging professor, minus the pop quizzes and

2. with lots more talk about running. This isn't coincidence: ic quality- purists and linguaphiles may want to re-read the
Robinson is a former world-class runner,
a professor of English at Victoria Uni-
versity in ew Zealand and the author
of several books on literature. His arti-
cles on running have appeared in Run-
ner's World, Running Times and
Marathon and Beyond.
If you tuned out in school, here's your
chance to get painlessly acquainted with
the classics. There's Atalanta, "surpassing
in her gift of glorious speed as in her
loveliness," and the Bible's "man of Ben-
jamin," whose 26-mile run to tell of
Israel's loss to the Philistines predates
Pheidippides' jaunt by some 600 years.
And the granddaddy of all classics, "The
Iliad," proves that slapstick and irony
aren't exclusively modem concepts, as
the goddess Athena "lifts [Ajax's) hands
and feet quick and high"-before caus-
ing him to sprawl face-first in a pile of
dung. (Note: Robinson's translations go
for accessibility at the expense of aesthet-
older translations).
The book continues towards the mod-
em era, looking at novels, poetry, nonfic-
tion, and even plays, citing works by such
diverse writers as Shakespeare, Heming-
way, Elmore Leonard and Tom Stoppard.
It spends an "unforgiving minute" with
Kipling and traces the several tales of
Pheidippides, as convoluted a literary
journey as the Greek hero's legendary
one. It concludes with an overview of
titles specifically about running, by writ-
ers like Hal Higdon and George Sheehan.
Throughout, Robinson illuminates the
topic with expert commentary, offered
from a runner's perspective as well as a
scholar's and peppered with wry humor.
Perfect for whiling away a summer
afternoon, "The Runner's Literary Com-
panion" and "Running in Literature" will
give hours of enjoyment as well as ideas
for further reading that will last long past
Labor Day. e
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