The running ground A father, a son, and the simplest of sports

Review by Booklist Review

Thompson had a fraught relationship with his father, Willard, a brilliant, depressive alcoholic who spent most of his life running from failed relationships and financial ruin. When the author was with his father, he would find himself surrounded by chaos and instability. Despite this, Thompson found many things to love and admire about his father, especially running, the one thing they shared. When Willard dies, Thompson starts to reflect on his relationship with his father as well as with the other runners who have helped him along the way. This book is the culmination of those findings and an homage to the "simplest of sports." Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, does an excellent job of describing the hard work and dedication running requires and the toll it can take on personal relationships. Some readers may wish he would acknowledge his privilege in being able to spend so much of his life dedicated to running, but the universal theme of fathers and sons will resonate with most readers.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this pensive memoir, Atlantic CEO Thompson (The Hawk and the Dove) ruminates on the lessons he's learned from fatherhood and distance running. From the first time he ran a mile alongside his father at age five, running became a source of connection for the pair, with Thompson believing "it would both bring me closer to my father and help me to avoid becoming him." Thompson's childhood was bumpy: his father came out as gay while working for the Reagan administration, leaving his mother to raise the author largely on her own. As he recalls his sometimes strained efforts to keep his relationship with his father alive, he muses on teaching his own sons to run and shares proud anecdotes including the time one of his sons asked Joe Biden what his favorite book was during a CBS Mornings taping. Interspersed throughout are interviews with five professional runners (including Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon, and Michael Westphal, a marathoner with Parkinson's) about the significance of the sport in their lives. The book's family angle is often more stimulating than Thompson's rapturous reflections on running, but he manages to weave everything into an appealing whole. It's a satisfying self-portrait. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn, CAA. (Oct.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Writer and editor Thompson recounts a family tradition of lacing up and running out the door--and running, and running. Now CEO ofThe Atlantic, Thompson grew up running under the tutelage of his father, an admired professor who, in midlife, realized that he was gay, breaking their patrician family apart. That did nothing to detract father and son from their shared devotion to running, in the son's case to long-distance runs that recently landed him a world's record in the 50-mile event in his 50+ age group. Some of Thompson's narrative is given over to discussing his father's foibles, from overdrinking and overspending to enduring the indignities of aging. "My father believed in experience, and the more the better," Thompson writes admiringly, after having expressed some impatience with his undisciplined lifestyle. "My entire life, I never worried about waking him up when I called, because he was always awake," he adds. Some of the narrative comprises autobiographical notes, from marrying and having children of his own--a family that, he allows, deserves sainthood for putting up with his addiction to running--to achieving steady success as a writer and editor (including eventful stints atThe New Yorker andWired) and surviving cancer. But the best part of the book is the runner's equivalent ofZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, when Thompson applies lessons learned from marathons and other long-distance journeys on foot to daily life, including acquiring discipline of his own and gaining mastery of useful life skills: "You don't get ahead by putting in more time. You get ahead by training smarter and with more focus." Peppering his narrative with visits to other runners, including octogenarian Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, Thompson exudes calm and wisdom, as when he notes, elegantly, "You're not running to seek shelter; you're running because you seek the storm." An exemplary memoir of a life spent on the run. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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