Run Softly Go Fast

by Wersba

"All my life I worked hard for you, and what do I get in return? A person who can't even be polite! Who can't even be human! You give a child every advantage, and he turns into a bum."Leo Marks says these words just before he dies; and on the day of his funeral, his nineteen-year-old son begins a diary to examine their estrangement. David's tangled thoughts lead him back to a conventional childhood in New York, to his disillusionment with this successful father, and to this sudden flight towards the East Village, drugs, and freedom. Although he is seeking answers, David can only relive the hatred he felt during those years when Leo, a self-made man, tried to transform his artist son into a member of the establishment.Run Softly, Go Fast examines in depth the relationship between parent and teenager, and the hurtful awakening that is adolescence. The truths it uncovers will startle some and displease many, but they are truths that are a part of America today, and they must be faced.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first half of the book I was highly resistant. It seemed so firmly situated in the 1960s, not only in content (loopy descriptions of acid trips, musings on how God must be a "dropout") but in style (a Holden Caulfield with extra hippie angst), that it seemed badly dated. By the time I was finishing the novel, I was daydreaming about Lizzie Skurnick recovering it from obscurity and making it part of her imprint (http://lizzieskurnickbooks.com/ - very, very cool). It's an incredibly poignant and ultimately simple story of a young man coming to terms with his rocky relationship with his father. While the book seems very loosely structured, rambling between past and present in a seemingly scattershot way, Wersba has everything under control and as the novel winds on she revisits earlier scenes, bringing in additional details that subtly transform the meaning. Just as you're getting fed up with the narrator and his relentless bitterness against his father, Wersba subverts his perspective and finds ways to illuminate the limitations of his incomplete maturity while staying entirely within his point of view. I admired it as literature, and also felt a powerful urge to call my parents and let them know I loved them.

[Edy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strong story deftly written. After his father's death, the main character attempts to analyze his feelings for his father and how their relationship went awry. The novel results from these self-introspection sessions. As David, the main character, writes, the themes of alienation and conflict with his father, and to a lesser extent his mother, unfold. The characterization of Leo, David's father, is complex. The language of the book is harsh and extremely strong. In some incidents, I felt that the subject matter would have been much more intense if it had been enclosed in a different choice of words. I did not feel and emotional involvement with the happenings of David. The author, nonetheless, has created a realistic novel of a boy wandering through adolescence, attempting to develop a self unencumbered by the demands of his father.

I read this novel and wrote this review in the mid-70s when I was taking an adolescent lit. class.

[Gary Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This truly is a fantastic book.
It's too bad it has been out of print for years.