The Runner's Literary Companion: Great Stories and Poems about Running

Among the 24 stories and 25 poems in this fictional overview of a popular sport are surprises from such illustrious names as Evelyn Waugh, Joyce Carol Oates and Walt Whitman-though the more turgid, macho prose of such genre giants as Alan Sillitoe and John L. Parker sets the book's overall emotional tone. The better stories break away from the repetitious variations on the theme of competition: Sara Maitland's ``The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner,'' for instance, explores the oppositional thoughts of a woman runner about to enter a marathon and her female, non-athletic lover, who is both attracted and repelled by the nature of her partner's hobby. Oates's ``Running'' is an unusual, stream-of-consciousness narrative about a nameless woman who, while running in the woods with her lover, perceives a physical threat from a group of men. On the darker side, the title character in James Tabor's ``The Runner'' is attacked by rednecks in a remote area and decides to fight back, with startling results. This collection should prove indispensable for hard-core road warriors and of significant interest to sports fiction fans in general-and may even contain enough surprises to gratify readers in the mainstream. (Sept.)