Point Out Of Books Racing the Rain
Title | : | Racing the Rain |
Author | : | John L. Parker Jr. |
Book Format | : | Hardcover |
Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 368 pages |
Published | : | July 14th 2015 by Scribner |
Categories | : | Fiction. Sports. Historical. Historical Fiction |
John L. Parker Jr.
Hardcover | Pages: 368 pages Rating: 4.1 | 1002 Users | 128 Reviews
Commentary Concering Books Racing the Rain
From the author of the New York Times bestselling Once a Runner—“The best novel ever written about running” (Runner’s World)—comes that novel’s prequel, the story of a world-class athlete coming of age in the 1950s and 60s on Florida’s Gold Coast.Quenton Cassidy’s first foot races are with nature itself: the summer storms that sweep through his subtropical neighborhood. Shirtless, barefoot, and brown as a berry, Cassidy is a skinny, mouthy kid with aspirations to be a great athlete. As he explores his primal surroundings, along the Loxahatchee River and the nearby Atlantic Ocean, he is befriended by Trapper Nelson, “the Tarzan of the Loxahatchee,” a well-known eccentric who lives off the land.
In junior high school, quite by chance, Cassidy discovers an ability to run long distances, but his real dream is to be a basketball star. Still, Cassidy absorbs Nelson’s view of running as a way of relating to and interacting with the natural world. Though he is warned of Nelson’s checkered past, Cassidy dismisses the stories as superstitious gossip, until his small town is stunned by the disappearance of a prominent judge and his wife. Cassidy’s loyalty to his friend is severely tested just as his opportunity to make his mark as a gifted runner comes to fruition.
John Parker’s prequel to the New York Times bestseller Once a Runner vividly captures how a runner is formed and the physical endurance, determination, and mindset he develops on the way to becoming a champion. Racing the Rain is an epic coming-of-age classic about the environments and friendships that shape us all.
Mention Books During Racing the Rain
ISBN: | 1476769869 (ISBN13: 9781476769868) |
Edition Language: | English |
Setting: | Florida(United States) |
Rating Out Of Books Racing the Rain
Ratings: 4.1 From 1002 Users | 128 ReviewsJudgment Out Of Books Racing the Rain
This book is a wonderful cap to the Quenton Cassidy trilogy, each of which (Once A Runner, Again to Carthage) have cemented Parkers lonely position as the greatest author to have written fiction about running. The only reason I didnt give it five stars was because a murder plot drops into the last eighth of the book and does little to move the plot. I suspect Parker pulled something about the real Trapper Nelson into the novel, and his afterword indicates an appreciation of the man. I struggledI read this because I liked "Once a Runner" and because I'm familiar with the running scene in "Kernsville" in the early 70's. I also tried out for both basketball and cross country as a kid coming up and living just off "the bacon strip." It is a little formulaic, but I really enjoyed being taken for the ride. The basketball scrimmages and games and the running workouts and race passages are pretty good slices of those experiences as far as I'm concerned. For some reason I put this down after
Good prequel to "Once a Runner." A lot more of this book is about basketball than I expected (and I am far more into running than basketball) but Parker is good at describing any kind of athletic endeavor, and the running scenes once again are terrific. There's a slightly weak-ish plot point thrown in there, but it doesn't detract much. The characters and setting are sharp and well-drawn, and this is a fine third book in the series.
Sorry, but there was no chance I could give a dispassionate, objective review of this one. I've known, and become emotionally attached to, Quenton (the protagonist) for too long. I'll come back to the original, cult classic, Once a Runner, but ... like the long-delayed sequel, Again to Carthage, I lost significant sleep quickly plowing through this one, reading through the night and well into the morning. And it made me smile.Full disclosure: I remain squarely in the camp that proclaims Once a
And they were thrilled as only children can be thrilled to exist for a moment at the very edge of thingsRacing the Rain is a novel that took me to the extremes, and not in a good way.I was drawn in by the lovely 1 page-opening chapter. It is entrancing. The text moves right along, tightly paced with short chapters. By page 100, you are in the middle of the novels 21st chapter. And the author writes running pretty well. The physical and emotional components of a race.And that is about it for
Great insight into running!This is a great prequel to the previous Parker books featuring Q. Cassidy. It is the best book about running since Born to Run. If you just like to run or know someone who does, you will want to read this book. You don't have to be a runner to enjoy it. It is a great story of growing up in a time without the dangers the world today holds.
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