Girl Runner

Summary (from the publisher): Girl Runner is the story of Aganetha Smart, a former Olympic athlete who was famous in the 1920s, but now, at age 104, lives in a nursing home, alone and forgotten by history. For Aganetha, a competitive and ambitious woman, her life remains present and unfinished in her mind.

When her quiet life is disturbed by the unexpected arrival of two young strangers, Aganetha begins to reflect on her childhood in rural Ontario and her struggles to make an independent life for herself in the city.

Without revealing who they are, or what they may want from her, the visitors take Aganetha on an outing from the nursing home. As ready as ever for adventure, Aganetha's memories are stirred when the pair return her to the family farm where she was raised. The devastation of WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic, the optimism of the 1920s and the sacrifices of the 1930s play out in Aganetha's mind, as she wrestles with the confusion and displacement of the present.

Part historical page-turner, part contemporary mystery, Girl Runner is an engaging and endearing story about family, ambition, athletics and the dedicated pursuit of one's passions. It is also, ultimately, about a woman who follows the singular, heart-breaking and inspiring course of her life until the very end.

 

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.

 

Aganetha Smart is 104 and living out her remaining days in a nursing home, having outlived everyone she loved. Aggie's life was filled with many tragedies and one moment of triumph - one that made her famous, when she won the gold medal for running in the Olympics in 1928. When a young aspiring runner visits her and takes her on an outing to her former home, it causes Aggie to remember her life. Aggie's story is told from her perspective as her mind wanders from past to present.

 

It's clear that Aganetha's reason for running was escape. "All my life I've been going somewhere, aimed toward a fixed point on the horizon that seems never to draw nearer. In the beginning, I chased it with abandon, with confidence, and somewhat later with frustration, and then with grief, and later yet with the clarity of an escape artist. It is far too late to stop, even if I run in my mind only, out of habit" (1). Aggie ran before it was viewed as acceptable to run, before many women were even allowed to run. "It wasn't strength that made me a runner, it was the desire to be strong" (135). Aggie desperately seeks to escape her pain, to overcome it, to outpace the tragedy of her life and her family, which started far before her birth.

 

Aggie's father's first wife lost many children and then died young, leaving behind mostly daughters. Aggie's early memories are of visiting the graveyard with her older half-sister, to hear the story of the dead babies. "This is a graveyard of dead children, all boys, my half-brothers" (4). From this sad beginning, the family's story continues in a downward pattern for the entirety of Aggie's life. Accidental death, premature deaths, the sterile sister, the one who burned up with fever, the young nieces murdered by their desperate mother, the house fire that burns up yet another sister - it's a litany of despair. In the end, Aggie believes herself to be the sole survivor of her once numerous family.

 

Moreover, Aggie's once bright future crumbles and dissolves in the years after winning the Olympic medal, a time when the world looked bright. She loses her best friend, her chance for marriage, and fame slowly fades away. She manages to retain her independence for many years, until she is forced to move back to her childhood home to live with her only remaining sister until her death.

 

Although never explicitly alluded to, I sensed sexual tension between Aganetha and her fellow runner and friend Glad. "'You like Glad,' he says simply. I flush hot. 'You'd do well to like her a bit less'" (108). Aggie is enthralled by Glad, beside herself when she beats Glad and wins gold for herself, and reflects on her feelings for Glad for more than she ever does for her boyfriend Johnny.

 

Although this book was achingly sad, I enjoyed reading it. It's focus is certainly not on the Olympics, but I did like that aspect of Aggie's tale. I liked the characters, although I confess to not fully understanding the complexity that is Aggie. She seems to thrive in isolating herself, holding herself slightly apart from everyone else, fiercely maintaining her distance, even from the reader - running away from anything that might hold her close. In the end, her darkest secret seems to have led to a final moment of salvation for her, which is a turning point from the other many tragedies of her life. Yet even in the revelation that she has family that remain, and ones that continue her legacy of running, she will hold this secret close to her, prevented by her age from articulating to her family what she knows to be true.

 

Stars: 4