Author: William Winokur

ISBN: 0-9768508-0-X

The following review was contributed by: Kathryn Atwood: Click Here To View More Of Kathryn's   Reviews

"Marathon," a novel by first-time author William Winokur, depicts the
redemption of Marianna Gardner, a hard-driving lawyer who skips her
father's funeral in order to win a big case.  When, two years later, she
suddenly becomes possessed of a desire to reconnect with family, she
searches for a long-lost family friend, "Uncle" Ion Theodore, who is
currently residing in a nursing home.  Her choice to open her home and life
to him holds startling and life-altering ramifications for her.

When she travels to Greece with Ion, Marianna discovers some of his
journals which chronicle his early years of slavery in the Ottoman Empire,
his experiences during the two world wars,  his life as a marathon runner
and his one true love.  These journals and their fascinating protagonist
(based on the real-life Horace Mann teacher by the same name) are what make
the novel absolutely sing.

It's a pity, then, that the journals don't make an appearance until page
199 because there wasn't an excessive inducement to keep me reading until I
reached that point.  Ironically, at times, the almost 500-page "Marathon"
reads like the race it is named for: it holds exhilarating treasures amid
long stretches of tedium.  Although Marianna's journey into meaningful
purpose (based on the author's) was obviously very fulfilling for her, I
had some difficulty maintaining the interest necessary to observe her
inching her way into that purpose.

It's not that Winokur is an unskilled writer.  He's a very talented one and
"Marathon" is a remarkable achievement (especially for a first-time
novelist) but here's the problem: Winokur has made Ion Theodore the
brilliant center of the story and has surrounded him with very dim
satellites.  Yes, they reflect and admire his light, but most of them are
not terribly compelling characters.  I found that I could barely maintain
interest in Marianna (until the very end of the tale) much less the book's
more peripheral characters.  This becomes painfully obvious after Ion's
diaries are introduced.  At that point I wanted more of Ion Theodore, not
Marianna's rather boring airplane acquaintances who don't add much of
anything to the story except to make it longer.

Well, they do serve one other purpose in the story, and that is to help
frame the glorious inner kernel of the tale:  the truly substantive and
miraculous life of Ion Theodore, a life which was inexorably linked with
crucial 20th century events and that embodies all the timeless passions of
the human soul.  For that inner kernel, "Marathon" is most definitely worth
the run.