The Memory of Running Author: Ron McLarty
	Book Information Publisher: Penguin Book Type: Paperback Rating: 58 ISBN-13: 9780143036685 - ISBN-10: 0143036688 Publication Date: 12/27/2005 Pages: 368 Book Reviews

Smithy is a 279-pound, hard-drinking, chain-smoking, 43-year-old misfit who works in a G.I. Joe factory putting arms and legs on the action heroes. He is also the most beguiling anti-hero to come into view in a long, long time.

The first sentence of the book is: "My parents' Ford station wagon hit a concrete divider on U.S. 95 outside Biddeford, Maine, in August 1990." This tragic accident eventually claims both their lives. It is on the day of their funeral that Smithy finds a letter to his father about Bethany, his beloved and deeply troubled sister, stating that, "Bethany Ide, 51, died from complications of exposure... and she has since that time been in the Los Angeles Morgue West." Beautiful Bethany, given to taking off her clothes in public places, holding impossible poses for long periods of time, responding to voices that only she can hear, and disappearing for no known reason. This time, she has been gone for many years and now Smithy knows that she died destitute and alone. When he reads the letter, he is drunk, grief-stricken and, despite a house full of people, he is alone. He goes out to the garage to smoke and have another drink and spies his old Raleigh bicycle. He sits on it, flat tires and all, wheels it to the end of the driveway, and Smithy doesn't know it yet, but he is going to ride a bicycle from Maine to Los Angeles to claim his sister's remains.