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elliethecatlover's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
depechele's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
zurpel's review
1.0
If there was a book I would never read again, it would be this book; and I probably will not read it a second time. I could make very little sense of it - or rather, what the text/author wanted to express - and found it therefore simply dull. For me there was nothing even remotely interesting about the book and the only reason I finsihed it was because it was a compulsory school read.
chickienuggies's review against another edition
3.0
Accurate cross country running thoughts, nice style. Decent all around
stumpymcknob's review against another edition
4.0
I gave this book a wide berth for years because I had a cursory glance at the front cover and assumed it was some kind of jejune sports compendium. Later, when my fiancé told me that it was actually a collection of fictional stories written from the perspective of various working class men in mid-20th century Nottingham, I snatched it up.
The nine stories contained within the "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" provide a fascinating insight into the frustrations blighting the working class at that time. Alan Sillitoe was born to necessitous working-class parents in Nottingham in the 1920s, so his penurious upbringing is likely where he draws the inspiration for some of these stories from. He paints a bleak, socially unpropitious picture of the lives of his characters: the eponymous story features a rebellious Borstal inmate who deliberately loses a long distance running race to stick it to 'The Man'; a cautionary tale about a man who cannot escape his domineering mother despite his best efforts; and a story about a little boy who helps his neighbour hang himself, essentially, for something to do.
Sillitoe deftly condenses entire novels into short stories of roughly twenty to thirty pages. His writing style is frank and understated, yet authentic and evocative. He pulls no punches, so I keenly felt the characters' pessimism and hopelessness and totally sympathised with them without having to be told to. This may be in part because of the pessimism and hopelessness I feel towards the psychopathically capitalist hellscape I find myself enduring. As such, I feel it transcends time and distance. Anyone who has experienced firsthand the trials and tribulations poverty yields will find something to be partial to here.
The nine stories contained within the "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" provide a fascinating insight into the frustrations blighting the working class at that time. Alan Sillitoe was born to necessitous working-class parents in Nottingham in the 1920s, so his penurious upbringing is likely where he draws the inspiration for some of these stories from. He paints a bleak, socially unpropitious picture of the lives of his characters: the eponymous story features a rebellious Borstal inmate who deliberately loses a long distance running race to stick it to 'The Man'; a cautionary tale about a man who cannot escape his domineering mother despite his best efforts; and a story about a little boy who helps his neighbour hang himself, essentially, for something to do.
Sillitoe deftly condenses entire novels into short stories of roughly twenty to thirty pages. His writing style is frank and understated, yet authentic and evocative. He pulls no punches, so I keenly felt the characters' pessimism and hopelessness and totally sympathised with them without having to be told to. This may be in part because of the pessimism and hopelessness I feel towards the psychopathically capitalist hellscape I find myself enduring. As such, I feel it transcends time and distance. Anyone who has experienced firsthand the trials and tribulations poverty yields will find something to be partial to here.
barefootrunner's review against another edition
1.0
The book wasn't about long distance running, so the title was misleading. Not fun to read at all.
lgpiper's review against another edition
4.0
For some reason, I got conned into a NetGalley subscription (membership?). Well, not really "conned" actually, one of my friends mentioned it and I checked it out and thought, "why not?" So, in some instances, apparently, they'll give me an advance copy of a book in return for my promising to review it. And so I have (read it), and so I shall (review it).
This book is a collection of nine short stories. The title comes from the title of the first story, which might be more considered to be a novelette (7500–17,500 words)—this story was about 17,000 words based on an estimate of ~25 words per "position" in a kindle e-Book). It is roughly two to four times longer than any of the other eight stories in the collection. This collection of stories was originally published in 1959. The current edition was re-issued in April 2016 [i.e. shortly before I get this review up].
I've long had a fascination for long-distance runners. I remember fondly reading about Roger Bannister's breaking the 4-minute mile when I was in junior high school. Then, in college, the movie, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner came out, and we all hustled down to see it. As I recall I was rather enamored with the film. My room mate was a runner who set our school's half-mile record (broken by someone else before we graduated). Although I'd long been intrigued by distance running, I didn't actually take up running myself until I was 31 (unless you count my humiliation at cross country in 11th grade when I was the second-to-worst runner on the JV-B squad. To be fair, we were the JB-B county champions). I did get into it, however and, for a time, had regular 10-mile runs before breakfast three times a week. I even completed a marathon in under four hours. Now, I can barely lumber through 3+ mile runs three days a week, including many short breaks while my furry companion sniffs here and there, seeking out dead animals with which she can perfume herself. So, anyway, I do know first hand about the loneliness of the long distance runner. There is none. We're at home with our thoughts and free.
Anyway, I've a history, or sorts, with long distance running and with the actual subject matter of this book. To be fair, however, I can't say that in reading this book that I remember much from the movie I saw some fifty years ago. So, naturally, I jumped at the chance to snag this book from Net Galley.
The Novelette is well written and quite good. Basically, it deals with a young delinquent who was sent off to Borstal, or as we Yanks might term it, reform school. He has a talent for running. The powers that be have high hopes that he might win a school prize for "them". Much of the story then, consists of the young delinquent's thoughts during his early morning training runs, what he sees and feels, but more importantly, how he views "the Governor" and his cohorts and whether or not he'll ever come to "heel" just to please them. It's really a quite fascinating look into the mind of a young working-class kid.
The other stories in this volume are similar in that they deal with the lives of the working class, sometimes delinquents and sometimes just the downtrodden. We get to know something about the lives of the unglamorous: A lonely, old man who befriends two young girls in a snack shop; A school teacher living in a fantasy world populated by the young women he sees in the shop window across the street; An estranged couple visiting off and on over an old picture that used to hang in their house, "the last of the fleet"; Two boys with little money between them trying to crash carnival rides; A young man's attempt to escape his smothering mother; Two men at a "football" match (soccer to us Yanks), one newly married, one more interested in football than his own marriage. And so on. It's all quite fascinating.
The book ends with a short biography of the author, Alan Sillitoe, written by Ruth Fainlight, his long-time companion and spouse.
I'm not generally one to read short stories. I like the longer glimpses into peoples' lives that I get inside a good novel. But the stories in this volume were well worth the diversion from my norm. Thank you Net Galley.
This book is a collection of nine short stories. The title comes from the title of the first story, which might be more considered to be a novelette (7500–17,500 words)—this story was about 17,000 words based on an estimate of ~25 words per "position" in a kindle e-Book). It is roughly two to four times longer than any of the other eight stories in the collection. This collection of stories was originally published in 1959. The current edition was re-issued in April 2016 [i.e. shortly before I get this review up].
I've long had a fascination for long-distance runners. I remember fondly reading about Roger Bannister's breaking the 4-minute mile when I was in junior high school. Then, in college, the movie, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner came out, and we all hustled down to see it. As I recall I was rather enamored with the film. My room mate was a runner who set our school's half-mile record (broken by someone else before we graduated). Although I'd long been intrigued by distance running, I didn't actually take up running myself until I was 31 (unless you count my humiliation at cross country in 11th grade when I was the second-to-worst runner on the JV-B squad. To be fair, we were the JB-B county champions). I did get into it, however and, for a time, had regular 10-mile runs before breakfast three times a week. I even completed a marathon in under four hours. Now, I can barely lumber through 3+ mile runs three days a week, including many short breaks while my furry companion sniffs here and there, seeking out dead animals with which she can perfume herself. So, anyway, I do know first hand about the loneliness of the long distance runner. There is none. We're at home with our thoughts and free.
Anyway, I've a history, or sorts, with long distance running and with the actual subject matter of this book. To be fair, however, I can't say that in reading this book that I remember much from the movie I saw some fifty years ago. So, naturally, I jumped at the chance to snag this book from Net Galley.
The Novelette is well written and quite good. Basically, it deals with a young delinquent who was sent off to Borstal, or as we Yanks might term it, reform school. He has a talent for running. The powers that be have high hopes that he might win a school prize for "them". Much of the story then, consists of the young delinquent's thoughts during his early morning training runs, what he sees and feels, but more importantly, how he views "the Governor" and his cohorts and whether or not he'll ever come to "heel" just to please them. It's really a quite fascinating look into the mind of a young working-class kid.
The other stories in this volume are similar in that they deal with the lives of the working class, sometimes delinquents and sometimes just the downtrodden. We get to know something about the lives of the unglamorous: A lonely, old man who befriends two young girls in a snack shop; A school teacher living in a fantasy world populated by the young women he sees in the shop window across the street; An estranged couple visiting off and on over an old picture that used to hang in their house, "the last of the fleet"; Two boys with little money between them trying to crash carnival rides; A young man's attempt to escape his smothering mother; Two men at a "football" match (soccer to us Yanks), one newly married, one more interested in football than his own marriage. And so on. It's all quite fascinating.
The book ends with a short biography of the author, Alan Sillitoe, written by Ruth Fainlight, his long-time companion and spouse.
I'm not generally one to read short stories. I like the longer glimpses into peoples' lives that I get inside a good novel. But the stories in this volume were well worth the diversion from my norm. Thank you Net Galley.
pages_and_potatoes's review against another edition
4.0
This book made me sad. Not even good sad. Just sad.
kinbote4zembla's review against another edition
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5