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Run
First published 2007 · 410 pages
A snow-muffled, twenty-four-hour collision of strangers and family members that asks who we are truly responsible for.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like watching a snowglobe being violently shaken and then observing the flakes settle into a completely new, unexpected pattern. Unfolding over a brisk, tense twenty-four hours in a snow-muffled Boston, the narrative is anchored by an inciting accident that forces disparate lives to collide. The mood is both wintry and deeply warm, balancing the sharp chill of sudden crisis with the tender, intimate glow of human connection. The prose is characteristically elegant and observant, slipping seamlessly between perspectives to reveal the quiet resentments and fierce loves binding an unconventional family. It will deeply satisfy readers who crave compassionate, character-driven domestic dramas that explore the porous boundaries of kinship, the heavy mantle of parental ambition, and the beautiful unpredictability of obligation.
- Mood
- snow-muffled
- intimate
- wintry
- tense yet warm
- Tone
- compassionate
- observant
- tender
- earnest
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the boundaries of family · parental expectations · class and privilege · ripple effects of chance · duty versus desire
- The writing
- Elegant, fluid, and deeply empathetic, with a quiet precision that illuminates the inner lives of its characters.
- The arc
- Begins in a state of fractured tension and sudden crisis, moving through deep introspection to arrive at a fragile but profound sense of interconnectedness.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love character-driven literary fiction that explores the messy, beautiful complexities of unconventional families.
Content notes
- car accident
- hospitalization
- grief and loss of a parent
- racial tensions
About the book
Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children—all his children—safe. Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard to a home for retired Catholic priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you've never even met. As in her bestselling novel Bel Canto, Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories into one surprising and endlessly moving narrative. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.
Description from Open Library.
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