I’d never read any of Murakami’s work before What I Talk About When I Talk About Running . I’m not sure what kind of introduction to his work the book is. I’ll learn that when I get into his fiction…
Anyway, this is a phenomenal book about life and running. I’ve trained for two races over the past year (a full marathon and a half) and I’ve run regularly on one of the routes he talks about in the book (the Charles River path) so I was an easy mark for this one. Still, he delivers in an easy, conversational style. He’s passionate about running clearly, and takes it very seriously, but he never strays into fetish territory where running takes on improbable import, so the book has a nice, pragmatic balance.
My favorite bits, maybe surprisingly, were the anecdotes about total suffering. The description of his impromptu Athens to Marathon “marathon” and especially his chapter on his ultramarathon (a metric century- 100KM/62miles) were especially engrossing. My enjoyment stems from a little bit of empathy (running long distances hurts– sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) and a whole lot from his ability to get the pain (and in the case of the ultramarathon, slight madness) onto the page. His descriptions are vivid. They bring the heat, pain and suffering to life.
Definitely worth checking out. It’s a slim volume, but it pays off in a big way.
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