Marathon: A Story of Endurance and Friendship

by Richard Harteis

In this splendid book, Richard Harteis recounts the parallel stories of training for his first marathon and, on a deeper level, the course of his long relationship with one of our greatest poets, William Meredith, a relationship shadowed by the older man's crippling stroke. Photographs.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393027651
• ISBN13: 9780393027655
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 219 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Not a Marathon to Read!

Excellent; quick read. I did not know what I was quite getting into when I picked this book up; the main thing I saw was it was about a guy who ran a marathon, the New York Marathon in what is probably about the mid-1980s; but it is fairly about quite a bit more. The guy has a relation with the Pulitzer Prize winning poet and former World War II pilot William Meredith; Meredith has in fact had a stroke at this time in his life and the author Harteis takes care of him; while preparing for the NY Marathon, his first marathon. There are a few poems of Meredith contained in this book. My favorite parts are where the author Harteis discusses running, some of his training run and the Marathon itself. I definitely give it a near top rating because it was a page turner in a kind of smooth; non-anxious way, so rather enjoyable and as a runner myself; somewhat enlightening on the subject in a compare notes kind of way (though I have to be true and say, Harteis has done a marathon; as have thousands but I am not one). Others might surely describe this book in different ways; and I am surprised there have been no other reviews for it. I do particularly enjoy all of the talk on New England, pets, working in some foreign lands. These do tend to give the stories some spice. The brevity of the book works very well; however, when it could have been expanded on, it might have gotten bogged down. Having read a few "marathon" accounts of a marathon in itself; Harteis does excel.