Details
Synopsis
Stephen King's endorsement of this debut novel propelled it to the top of the best-seller list. It's the story of fat, alcoholic, tobacco-addicted, and terminally hopeless Smithson Ide, known as Smithy, whose life is, to say the least, unsatisfactory. (He works in an action-toy factory.) Accidentally discovering that his beloved long-lost schizophrenic sister has died in L.A., and that her body is unclaimed, he journeys from New England out to the coast on his old bicycle. The cross-country trip changes Smithy in ways that include weight-loss, a tremendous surge of confidence, a romance, and the chance to show that he has a truly compassionate heart.
| Size | | Length: | 358 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 23.2 oz |
Industry Reviews
"It's a funny, poignant, slightly gawky debut that aims, like its protagonist, to please--and usually does."
Publishers Weekly (11/01/2004)
"What makes the trip worth taking for the reader is Ron McLarty's pitch-perfect evocation of place, which carries the flavour of American culture from the narrow driveways and small houses of East Providence, Rhode Island, to towns in Kansas no larger than a gas station..., or to the clear, pebble-bottomed waters of Colorado's upper Rio Grande."
Times Literary Supplement - Stanley Trachtenberg (03/04/2005)
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