Run

I finished Run a few days ago, and I've been itching to talk to someone about the novel's ending. There is something compelling about the novel after all. Maybe it is Patchett's beautiful writing, or maybe it was the speedball ending: the kind that suddenly socks you after a series of interminably slow pitches. The thing is, I can't quite figure out to whom I should recommend it. It's really the perfect follow-up to The Secret Life of Bees because of its emphasis on mother figures. Still, I can't really see my students sticking with the story all the way through. I barely made it myself, but in the end I'm really glad that I did.

Here's the premise:
The mayor of Boston and his wife decide to adopt after many painful years of failed pregnancies. The wife, Bernadette, is something of a saint, and she even has a family heirloom to prove it: an old, beautiful wooden statue of the Virgin Mary that looks just like her. The couple does have one son named Sullivan, but they adopt two African-American boys - brothers, in fact - whom they name Tip and Teddy. Bernadette dies four years later, leaving her husband to raise the three sons by himself. His name is Bernard, by the way, which just drives me up the wall (Bernard and Bernadette?). Thankfully, he is referred to as "Doyle," which is his last name. I know there is some symbolism there in the naming, but it's just a little too heavy-handed for me to care much about it.

The Doyle family is high profile, and it never occurs to any of them that Tip and Teddy's birth mother, Tennessee Moser, might actually be keeping tabs on them, even living down the street from them, which is exactly what has been going on for the last 21 years of their lives. Lives intersect one night when Tennessee saves Tip's life and nearly sacrifices her own in the process. The boys not only find out that their birth mother has been alive and well and following them for decades, but that they also have an eleven-year-old sister named Kenya, who knows everything there is to know about them that can be learned at a distance. The rest of the story explores the ways that the Mosers and the Doyles begin to learn about and accept the past and the present. All of this exploring takes place over 24 hours, and in the last 5 or so there are several major revelations and plot twists. Sainthood, miracles, and the Virgin Mary all come back into play at the novel's end as well.

So there you have the very complicated plot in a nutshell. I just listened to Maureen Corrigan's review of Run on Fresh Air's podcast, and it reminded me of my favorite passage in the whole book. Now, Corrigan (whom I also adore) is a softie for Catholic writers, so she gives the most glowing review of Run that I have heard yet. She returns repeatedly to the idea that Patchett's writing is so subtly stunning that she can make the implausible seem plausible in a simple turn of phrase. This is the truth. And here is my favorite passage. An old priest, uncle to the boys, is thinking back on his life. Nope, nevermind, left the novel at school. So annoying. I'll post it in later.

If you've never read any Ann Patchett before then just go straight to the used bookstore this weekend and buy Bel Canto. Best to start with her best first. No way you'll be disappointed with that one.