Product Description

Novelists can no longer take it as an insult when people say their novels are like good television, because the finest American television is better written than most novels. Ann Patchett's new one has the texture, the pace and the fairy tale elegance of a half dozen novels she might have read and loved growing up, but the magic and finesse of Run is really much closer to that of Six Feet Under or ER or The Sopranos, and that is good news for everybody, not least her readers....

Run is a novel with timeless concerns at its heart - class and belonging, parenthood and love - and if it wears that heart on its sleeve, then it does so with confidence. And so it should: the book is lovely to read and is satisfyingly bold in its attempt to say something patient and true about family. Patchett knows how to wear big human concerns very lightly, and that is a continuing bonus for those who found a great deal to admire in her previous work, especially the ultra-lauded Bel Canto. Yet one should not mistake that lightness for anything cosmetic: Run is a book that sets out inventively to contend with the temper of our times, and by the end we feel we really know the Doyle family in all its intensity and with all its surprises'

ANDREW O'HAGAN

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160755 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-20
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Synopsis
It is just a few weeks after Christmas, and the unforgiving New England weather has taken a turn for the worse. Doyle has dragged his reluctant sons, Tip and Teddy, to a speech by Jesse Jackson. Though his own political career is over, dealt a fatal blow by a family scandal, Doyle is still fired by Jackson's rhetoric and perplexed by his sons' indifference. The two boys, both adopted, are close enough in age to be taken for twins, but in character they couldn't be more different. Teddy - open, affectionate, the gentle dreamer - thinks he has found his calling in the Catholic Church. The elder by a year, Tip is more serious, reserving his own passionate interest for ichthyology: he is happiest alone in the warmth of his lab, labelling and categorising fish specimens. When they are involved in a violent accident in the treacherously icy road, the Doyles are forced for the first time to confront certain truths: about how the death of Bernadette, Doyle's beloved wife, has affected the family, and about the anonymous figure, never discussed, who is the boys' real mother.

Full of warmth and humanity and singing, graceful prose, "Run" is a moving story about our fragile hopes and fears for our children and the lengths we will go to to protect our families. It is a stunning new novel from the prizewinning author of Bel Canto.

Customer Reviews

9 out of 10
Ann Patchett has written a beautiful book.
I loved the way the reader suddenly finds that his preconceptions are jolted and a new reality takes their place.

Having had one child, Sullivan, Bernard Doyle and his wife Bernadette find themselves unable to have more. They decide to adopt, taking into their family an African American baby, Teddy, ten years younger than Sullivan. They can't believe their luck when Teddy's one-year-old brother, Tip, is also offered to them. Life is perfect - until the tragic loss of Bernadette throws out their comfortable existence.
The loss affects the boys differently and Sullivan is the hardest hit. His life loses its direction and he eventually goes to live in Africa.
The younger boys compensate by doing everything they can to please their father, right up to their college days.
When a passing stranger saves Tip from walking in front of a car, she and her thirteen-year-old daughter suddenly become part of their lives.
Nothing will ever be the same again.

My only hesitation with this book was the ending which I found abrupt and frustrating. So many questions that could not be answered and sudden changes in direction that I did not feel warranted.
In spite of this I gave it 5 stars as I unjoyed every page until I reached the last chapter.
Excellent.

Extraordinary read
I loved this book, and read it through a sleepless night.

Run contains the questioning and honesty that shines through in her writing.

The characters and plot grab you from the very first page.

Unsatisfying, bland read
I didn't like this novel at all and couldn't finish it. I found the story unsatisfying and narrated in a curiously detached fashion. There seemed little action to drive the story - it is a story where love and acceptance can supposedly heal all wounds, and it doesn't dig deep enough into the issues it raises - single-parenting or adoption; the author just glosses over them to the point of boredom! I would not recommend.