Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder

from goodreads

3 stars

I have a girl runner. My little two year old, Miss P, runs and runs and runs. I always wait for her to trip and fall and come to her rescue but some how her little feet and legs move in such an awkward precision that she manages to keep upright. (Thank goodness). She rarely walks. She usually only walks if we are late for school! She runs to pick flowers. She runs to the dinner table she runs to get into the car. She runs to get away from mommy. (I must say that I am getting pretty good at sprinting because of her, but, I would prefer she not like running away from me so much.) For such a little thing, she is like in the 3rd percentile for weight, she sure can move with a locomotive type intensity. I wonder where this running will take her. Will she be an olympic champion or the next Forrest Gump? Who knows?! It will be fun to see.

Synopsis

This is a story about Aganetha Smart a former olympian now a centurian. Her story is told through a series of flashbacks as she is taken to her family's farm one last time. We see her as a farm girl in rural Ontario, a working girl in the Toronto of the '20s and as an Olympic gold medalist from the 1928 games.

My Thoughts

Despite what any of my other thoughts may be on this book, the history that made up this story was interesting. There are not many books about women athletes from this period and it was interesting to see how women's sport was back then and how these women helped evolve the idea of women as athletes. It was this history and the "want" to like it that made me keep reading.

That being said, I found the book to be rather predictable and, in a way, rather Canadian. While there are many great Canadian authors writing very dynamic things, this book seemed quintessentially Canadian. The main character was a farm girl whose mother was a midwife who knew how to deal with unwanted pregnancies, there was the aloof father and the rather creepy step-brother. It almost seemed a marriage of The Cure for Death by Lightning and The Birth House with some running thrown in. (I read The Birth House years ago and really enjoyed it.) I know not all Canadian literature is set in rural communities, but so many are.

The characters weren't the most likable. I felt that with some we were only getting mere shadows of who they were. We got glimpses but were left to our own devices to really understand who they were and what was going on with them. I was left with the feeling of wasted lives. Aganetha and some of the other characters just didn't live and that is sad.

This was one of those stories that will not going to stick with me. It will not shape me or define me or cause me to reflect on anything. Perhaps if I was a runner or more of an athlete I would have appreciated it a bit more. But I'm not. So, there you go.