THE RUNNER

by Cynthia Voight ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 1985

This new episode in Tillerman family history is crippled from the outset by having Meaning writ heavily in every line. The runner is Samuel Tillerman, self-named Bullet, 17 in 1967--and running to ""win free"" of his despotic, venomous father and of feeling for the farm his father is driving him from, for his stoical mother, for his departed older siblings Liza and Johnny. When his father orders him to cut his longish, late-'60s hair, Bullet has his head shaved--bringing banishment from the family table, and absent-treatment from his father. In school, Bullet is held in awe: he's the state cross-country champion on a nowhere track team, the impervious, mocking loner in a time of Vietnam-protest, a time-and-place of integration-conflict. So something is going to have to pierce Bullet's armor; and that process, predictable and contrived, is the plot. In a characteristic burst of fury, Bullet accidentally shoots Liza's old, faithful dog (and accepts responsibility, mourns). Patrice, the French-born fisherman/boat-builder Bullet works for, who's acceptant, Bullet's only real friend, discloses--on learning that Bullet has quit the track team rather than coach Tamer, a promising black--that he is one-eighth black. Proud, imperturbable Tamer, we've known right along, will be a psychological match for Bullet. The Patrice-shock opens-up Bullet to working with Tamer; and at the state track finals, Tamer gets Bullet to run, for once, on the relay team (on a track, with others) for the common good--in exchange for Tamer's promise to avoid the Vietnam War. (Also: a history student-teacher has portentously quoted Housman's ""the old wind in the old anger."") On his 18th birthday Bullet quits school and enlists--to be killed, inevitably, in Vietnam. His father's harsh character, and viciousness toward the family, go unexplained. We have to take on faith, too, his mother's submissiveness. Bullet himself is a superman construct. In sum: a stark, attenuated teen conflict-drama--and a particular disappointment coming from Voight.

Pub Date: March 12, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION