The Memory of Running by Rob McLarty

I wasn’t too sure I was going to like this novel when I first started it. But I hung in there and was glad I did. Smithy Ide is an emotionally disfunctional adult male who starts out in Rhode Island and travels across the country on a bicycle to retrieve his sister’s remains at a funeral home in California. As the story progresses, the author uses the flashback technique to cover Smithy’s life and illustrate how he became who he is.

The tone, theme, and style of this book reminds of the tragedy novels Oprah tends to pick. I listened to the Audible version of this novel, which was narrated by the author himself. He does an outstanding job.