- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Breakaway Books (Oct 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1891369504
- ISBN-13: 978-1891369506
- Shipping Weight: 789 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,907,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
John Parker's first novel Once a Runner is the cult novel for runners. Self-published in the late '70s, and for years sold out of the trunk of the author's car at running events, it went on to sell over 100,000 copies and achieve legendary status among runners, especially college and high school track and cross-country athletes.
It perfectly captured the intensity, relentlessness and sheer lunacy of a serious miler's life. Kenny Moore of Sports Illustrated-himself an Olympic runner-called it "by far the best fictional portrayal of the world of a serious runner . . . a marvelous description of the way it really is."
For over 25 years, fans of Once a Runner have wanted more. Parker has finally written the sequel, which begins in the early '70s where the previous book left off. The nation is mired in the dregs of Vietnam and the early intimations of Watergate. The protagonist of the first book, Quenton Cassidy, has lost his best friend and teammate from college, a helicopter gunship pilot who dies a horrific death after crashing in the jungle. Cassidy is plunged into a depressive spiral in which he is forced to re-examine his studiously carefree life as a single young attorney.
A former Olympic silver medalist, some painfully won insights into his own life and into his family's deep roots in the red clay of North Carolina ultimately lead him back to competitive running in an unpredictable way and he finds to his surprise that his fierce competitiveness and uncanny running abilities have not much waned. Parker's writing style is as deep, knowing and captivating as ever.
John L. Parker, Jr. is the author of Once a Runner, Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot and Runners & Other Dreamers. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida and Bar Harbor, Maine.
About the Author
John L. Parker Jr. is the author of Once a Runner, and a former editor of Running Times Magazine.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well done Mr. Parker,
By Denton (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Again to Carthage (Hardcover)
I read Once a runner and didn't have a desire to read Again to Carthage because I thought how could it match up. Well for me it surpassed my expectations and then some. Parker captures how runners think, feel, and the daily grind of running. I have both books and they have been going around from friend to friend.....well done!
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK,
By
This review is from: Again to Carthage (Hardcover)
It seemed to me to be like a forced sequel. It took a while to catch my attention. There was too much non-running material (i.e. fishing) at the beginning. Eventually it was interesting but nowhere near the original "Once A Runner". I found that Quenton's training regimen was more "normal" and less impressive than the original. It seemed more like any other runner training for a marathon as opposed to the massochistic runner who trained for the mile in the original.
2.0 out of 5 stars
could have been better,
By
This review is from: Again to Carthage (Hardcover)
Like most who picked up Again To Carthage, I assume, I was hoping for an entertaining sequel to Once A Runner. I was hoping for more of the excellent running descriptions that John L. Parker won over the running crowd with when he wrote OAR. Unfortunately, this was not the case at all with Again To Carthage.The running doesn't even start until after about 150 pages of fishing, lawyering, and I can't even remember what else. By the time that Cassidy actually starts running again, I found it pretty hard to re-find my excitement. Add in the unbelievability of it all and the incessant name-dropping of former running greats, and I was left wishing the story had ended in my mind with Cassidy happy at home with his silver medal from OAR. I'll give it the two stars, just because it is a running book, but I would have been happier with it finishing with OAR.
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