The Memory of Running

New York: Viking Press, 2005. First Edition. Hardcover. New/New. Meet Smithson "Smithy" Ide, an overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk who works as a quality control inspector at an action-figure factory in Rhode Island. By all accounts, especially Smithy's own, he's a loser. Then, within one week, Smithy's beloved parents are killed in a car crash, and Smithy learns that his emotionally troubled, long-lost sister, Bethany, has turned up in a morgue in Los Angeles. Unmoored by the loss of his entire family-Smithy had always hoped Bethany might return-he rolls down the driveway of his parents' house on his old Raleigh bicycle into an epic journey that will take him clear across the country. 

As Smithy pedals across America-to New York City, St. Louis, Denver, and Phoenix, to name a few stops along the way-he encounters humanity at its best and worst and begins to remember an early life that too many beers have blotted out. The baseball games, the home-cooked meals, the soothing presence of his salt-of-the-earth parents: none of it could transform the dark truth of his sister's madness. 

The Memory of Running, McLarty's stunning debut as a novelist, heralds the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction. And Smithy Ide-sad, sweet, and funny in spite of himself-is a character who will linger in your mind long after his hilarious, luminous, and extraordinary adventures have come to an end.

About the author:
A native of East Providence, RI, Ron McLarty is a veteran actor, accomplished playwright, prolific audiobook narrator and acclaimed novelist. 

As a television actor, McLarty has over 100 appearances to his credit. His career in film began in 1977 with a performance in The Sentinel. His most recent film roles include St. Vincent, starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy. As a playwright he has written dozens of plays, which have been produced across the country. 

McLarty is also noted for his body of work as one of the country's leading audio book narrators, having done over 100 titles including the narration of books authored by Stephen King, David Baldacci, and Scott Turow. He is the recipient of numerous Audie Awards. 

It was his collaboration with Stephen King that led to his emergence as a published novelist of national repute. McLarty's passion for writing led him to completing 10 novels, in addition to his plays, but his efforts to interest a publishing house were unsuccessful. Several years ago he was able to persuade a small company into producing his 3rd novel, The Memory of Running, directly onto tape as an audio book. Stephen King listened to it in 2002 and wrote his entire column "The Pop of King" about Memory, calling it "the best book you can't read". This led to the publication of The Memory of Running in the USA and sixteen other countries around the world. In January 2007 his second novel, Traveler, was published, and his third novel, Art In America, was published in July 2008 to critical acclaim. His 4th novel, The Dropper, is published by Cemetery Dance Publications. The Memory of Running was chosen as the 2007 selection for the Reading Across Rhode Island program and nominated for Italy's most prestigious literary award, the Bancarella Prize. 

He has received from Rhode Island College in Providence an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities (2007) and the Charles B. Willard Achievement Award (2005). Ron lives in New York City and Elizaville, NY and is married to the actress, Kate Skinner. 

Reviews:
"[An] endearing but thankfully never folksy story of small-town America...." Rachel Hore, The Guardian, February 12, 2005.

"[A] funny, poignant, slightly gawky debut that aims, like its protagonist, to please-and usually does." Publisher's Weekly, November 1, 2004.