John L. ParkerBesprekingen

Runner's World called Once A Runner "The best novel ever written about running." Personally, I agree with the running part of that compliment. I loved the descriptions of both the physical & mental demands placed upon runners. Unfortunately, I didn't like the "hero" of the novel Quenton Cassidy, at all. I couldn't help but wonder why a runner blessed with such a natural gift had such a negative attitude on just about everything in his life. After awhile I just got tired of his self indulgent whining.

I started running in the mid-1970s in Middle School, discovering a love for running it Cross Country and Track. This book brought me back to this era with all the descriptions from the shoes to the attitude of racing when the U.S. was catching the spirit of the running boom. Some parts of this book dragged for me, others were great.½

An okay novel, but pretty much perfect encapsulation of endurance sport and running in particular. The author grasps the essentially indescribable nature of dedicating your existence to repeating over and over and over again the same basic mechanical actions and somehow believing that it is the greatest thing you could possibly be doing.
Beautifully captures the despair, longing, childish delight, monotony, aching thrill and wild surges of adrenaline that come with trying to get yourself to go ever so slightly faster.

My co-worker gave me this book to read. All his said was, "This is a must read if you are a runner." I could not put it down once I started. I know first hand that runners are "rare-breads." This book is able to put what every runner thinks into words in a hilarious fictional text. At times I thought that the Quentin Cassidy was one of my former college teammates. I am happy to recommend this book to other runners!

If you've run competitively you've probably already read this, everyone else can skip it.

Not a half bad approach to training, but really you could sum the whole thing up with: progress in training requires true hard runs followed by recovery runs.

Not for the casual runner.

It does what they say it does. A deft description of the mind of a runner. I felt the plot was a bit thin to truly hold up as a classic novel. It felt more like an extra-long short story where the characters can be a bit thin. Still, the elucidation of the mania and fear that running engenders is spot-on. While I've never run a track race, I identified most with the main character's point that often when running, we reach a point of near unconsciousness. That's a big reason why I run and it was great to see it pointed out so well.

This took me awhile to get through. Maybe because I'm not really a runner myself, the apparently inherent tension between the pain of training and the joy of running (or winning?) wasn't really exciting enough in and of itself to draw me in. The first half of the book seemed to me mostly a combination of discussions of the physical and technical aspects of distance runners' training, interspersed with reflections on the emotional and psychological makeup of those who decide to do it.

About halfway through, though, the plot developed some external, event-driven tension, and I found myself really rooting for the main character, even through all the endless descriptions of different tracks, times, speeds, training schedules, intervals, etc. I gave this four stars because at the end, I felt really satisfied with the story, and even felt myself itching to start running a little bit.

This is a book about a. basketball, b. running and c. coming of age in America in the mid-20th century. It is, however, 90% about 'a' and 'b'. If you're not really into one (or preferably both) of these, you'll find it very boring. Sure, there's a bit of crime, mystery, and adventure thrown in, as well as a tiny, tiny bit of teen romance, but I think these have probably been added by a writer who really knows or cares very little about anything except sport.
I have a great affinity with the activity of long distance running, so I tolerated the seemingly endless and dense descriptions of basketball tactics and moves in order to get through to the real stuff - running. It was a kind of romantic retrospective imagination of what my life could have been like, I guess, so there was some emotional connection with me. I'm not expecting John L. Parker Jr to be picking up the Nobel prize for literature though

The absolute cult classic of distance running. I have read this so many times I can't remember. If you ran in college or high school competitively and seriously it it required reading-but really once you start it is a pure joy. Doubt anyone can read this slowly. It is a book you devour.

way too much technical basketball play details and for running , but a good story never the less

A sequel novel (to the book, Once a Runner), that follows the training of a former Olympic runner in his bid to make another Olympic team as a marathoner. The ending was good and well-paced, and the author did a nice job of introducing plot lines that kept the story fresh, even though moving through to a well-known culmination could have been much more predictable. On the other hand, the book did drag in parts.

I like running. Hell, I LOVE running. But this one definitely does not pass the test of time. It's a 5-star, cult classic, that is, if you are a male, high school track star in 1978. Even if there was an easing of the horrific similes and metaphors, this feel-good, uber-predictable runner's story, still falls as flat as a worn pair of Addidas...

A mark of a favorite book is that it shows new treasures on repeated readings. Parker's novel seemed simple and amaturish on a first reading, but I keep finding things, new things, that bring me joy with repeated readings.


September 2013
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I like this book. It has charmed me so that I find its faults endearing rather than off-putting. Parker is an amateur writer but not amateurish. It has a first-novel feel, but Parker has an eye for a story. I didn't mind when it meandered and I felt engaged with both the author and the character on the pages.

Also, I loved the runner's insight. It should be noted that Quentin's views on training volume and over-training are purely fictional. Parker captures well the elite athlete's drive and conveys the gap between people who run and elite endurance athletes. However, his description of over-training and his character's scorn for recovery periods doesn't mesh with the advice given by the actual coaches he had or other top coaches (read more: http://www.runnerspace.com/news.php?do=view&news_id=6362) It does do a great job as a literary device for communicating the essence of being an elite runner (as far as this non-elite can tell) but it isn't practical training advice.

A worthy successor to Once a Runner. Very enjoyable from both a runner's perspective and to watch the author develop his craft. May not be engaging for the non-running reader, but I think it stands on its own rather well.

The sequel to Once a Runner, this book initially seems like a cheap attempt to sell two novels for the effort of one book. However, this book grew on me. Again, John Parker draws parallels with the real world, both in events of the Cold War, and in the power trips of the athletics governing bodies.This may not be the novel for someone into masterpieces of fiction, but it was an easy read and kept my interest.

"What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials."

It was very difficult to get through this book. Once A Runner was a lot more upbeat, and Again to Carthage is like the emo sequel. Everyone dies, Cassidy has his third-life crisis, and a there's a lot more introspection than hijinks. A lot of this book made no sense to me, for example how one can just up and leave work for a few years without getting fired (must be the same nepotism that got him hired by his dad's best friend in the first place), and how on earth the book can start with one's buddy dying in Vietnam (placing it, at the MOST, in 1975) and end with running the 1980 Olympic trials two years later (on May 24, 1980, the math just does not work).

Finally, I thought the marathon description was fun, but over-the-top. It was easily the best part of the book, tucked away in the last two chapters. Cassidy was basically like a running, hallucinating corpse. It was hard for me to suspend disbelief so many times.½

This book, originally published in the later '70's, became something of the holy grail of running. Copies were sold out of people's trunks at races. Runners passed it around to members of their running clubs. And it's easy to see why. Although a work of fiction, Quenton Cassidy's struggle to become The Best miler is inspiring.

Once a Runner is a fictional account of a college track athlete, Quenton Cassisdy, who sacrifices just about everything to be his best at running the mile. The story is classified as fiction, but the characters have so much life it is hard to perceive this as anything but a biography of a runner. The mental and physical mechanics of running are described with such authentic detail that you will find your pulse quickening with every step of your vicarious hitchhiking exepedition with Quenton Cassidy on his 1600 meter journey to greatness.

If you are looking for an inspirational story about running, I highly recommend this book.½

"Again to Carthage", by John L. Parker Jr.,published in 2007, is the sequel to Once a Runner published in 2007. Quinton Cassidy the collegiate mile runner in Once a Runner is now 10 years older. He has gone to law school and is doing quite well. He hangs out with his buddies and has a cute girlfriend and all that but he isn't happy. He feels his youth slipping away from him and he wants to prove that he still "has it."

He mulls it over and decides that he wants to make the Olympic Marathon Team so he excuses himself from his law practice and heads to a family cabin up in the hills and commences a brutal training regimen running over 120 miles a week (about two and half months worth of running for me.)

The book is pretty good but the end of it is the best when Cassidy runs the Olympic trials to see if he made the team. Parker is a former competitive runner himself and his best writing is describing the races and how brutally hard they are for the top competitors. (Like I'll ever know.)

Parker waited 29 years between the two books. The writing style of the second book is much more mature without sacrificing any of the passion. The first book is a runners cult classic, I've seen it on the counters of some of the running stores in town. (My brother, who started running long before it became cool and still runs about 40 miles a week gave it me, he gave me the second book also.)

The book is well written and very interesting if you want to know about the life of a competitive runner.

I give it three stars out of five

My brother Bob, a huge runner from when running wasn't cool, gave me this book. It was written back in 1978 and is recently back in print.

It is novel about running and runners written back during the days of "no pain, no gain" and "pain is what weakness feels like as it leaves the body," and "sweat is just your fat cells crying." The plot doesn't really matter, it is about running by real runners.

The book starts our really slow. One problem is that the author seems to have gotten a brand new thesaurus and is really giving it a workout plus he is pulling the stops on every simile, metaphor, adjective, and adverb he has ever heard about. About halfway through the book though the author starts writing in a more natural style and the story grabs you and pulls you through to the end.

The book is about obsession, dedication, and hard work and has the best description of running a race I've ever read (not that I would know a thing about running a race.)

Buy this book (or get it from your library), and read it. You'll like it.½

I loved this book. I discovered running at a much later stage in my life than Quentin Cassidy, the main protagonist of Once a Runner. However, I can completely understand and respect the life of a competitive, elite, collegiate long distance runner.

The book flows really well. The prose is excellent. You really begin to understand what makes these guys tick. It's a great fictional way to get insight into a world that few people get exposed to.

If you are a runner, even if you can't fathom a four minute mile and 140 mile weeks, this novel is for you. In it you will find feelings and mannerisms you can relate to even if you are not elite. If you have a running goal; 5K, 10K, half or full marathon, you will see yourself in Quenton's struggles right from the first page.