Ron McLarty (1947–2020)

I was surprised to like this book. When the person who lent it to me gave me a brief synopsis of the story -- a guy who just starts biking one day after his family died and keeps going -- I immediately said "That sounds like [b:The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry|13227454|The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry|Rachel Joyce|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335816092s/13227454.jpg|18156927]." It is very similar, but different enough that I would not say they are the same stories on either side of the pond. Both involve someone unlikely to start a pilgrimage who do just that, both have contact with a woman "back home", both have to figure out themselves and get perspective on life, both meet interesting people along the way, and both are interpersed with a story from the past. This book is humbler than Harold Fry, both in how it tells the story and the protagonist himself. It is always first person POV. And of course, this one is about cycling, not walking. I like the back story in this book better, Smithy's sister Bethany who suffers from schizophrenia or maybe multiple personality disorder (whatever it currently is called) and how the family has to continually search for her.

The weird part of this book is Norma, the girl next door who has loved Smithy since she was a child. She still harbours a deep love for him, but it is so weird. He's barely talked to her in 30 years; she (and the author) insist that she is a strong, independent person, yet her love is obsessive and founded on a childhood dream. Yes, their relationship develops through Smithy's journey, but it's premise is not realistic, to me.
Still, worth a read.… (meer)

The therapist character on HBO's "In Treatment" gave this novel a new life. Paul seemed ready to dump his girlfriend because she blew off his recommendation of this book. Maybe a scriptwriter's conceit, plugging a book by an actor with a recurring role on "Law & Order." Or maybe an ironic joke, name-checking a book populated by clueless characters, in a series filled with unreliable narrators.

Well, I stumble through life stumbling on books about men stumbling through life. Must be part of the zeitgeist. The police procedural fits an awkward man comfortably in border-town life. Here an alcoholic assembly-line inspector flees his troubles, or sorts through them in flashback. He's haunted by her crazy sister's ghost, the most believable part of a picaresque trip in which Smithy cheerfully endures all manner of abuse.

After cycling cross-country Smithy hasn't traveled very far, or at least it's no spoiler alert that he ends up clean and sober with the girl next door. He's still kind of clueless, but maybe it's comforting to Middle Age Man that he's working on it.… (meer)