January 23, 2017
Menzies-Pike’s engaging book braids together feminist and literary theory, cultural criticism, history, and a moving personal narrative that explores the ways in which physical movement can lead to transcendence in the face of tragedy. After her parents’ plane crash immobilizes her with grief, Menzies-Pike, editor of the Sydney Review of Books, returns home from wandering the world to run on a treadmill. As she trains for her first race, she recounts the challenges early female runners faced. Violet Percy ran a marathon (and set a record) in short heels at a time when women were told running would imperil their fertility. In the 1960s, “women in the United States were forbidden from racing any distance over a mile and a half.” Men tried to drag early female Boston Marathon runners off the course. Ultimately, the narrative is one of reserved success. Women’s running has gained wider acceptance, though some women worry about running alone at night, and running remains largely a sport of the privileged. The frequent transitions between memoir and criticism can be jarring, but this is still an important and fascinating record of women’s running experiences.
April 1, 2017
A memoir of running, endurance, and overcoming grief.When Sydney Review of Books editor Menzies-Pike's parents were killed in a plane crash, she didn't know how to handle her grief. At age 20, she was suddenly faced with being the oldest in the family, in charge of her siblings and the estate, but all she wanted to do was run away from the responsibilities. It took 10 years, time spent in school, traveling, and making bad decisions, before the author laced up her shoes and started running on a treadmill to figure out the next phase of her life. In this honest, funny, and moving memoir, which also serves as a meditation on the place of women in the running world, Menzies-Pike reveals how she worked through her fears and found her own rhythm amid the clamor of running long-distance races. Beginning with a half-marathon wasn't easy, but the author explains how she navigated the training one run at a time and gradually found the ability to run outside, ignoring the catcalls and many fears about being attacked, slipping, or being too tired to get back home. Interspersed with her personal reflections is an interesting history of the female pioneers who first entered the sport of running, of how they overcame the stigmas of their time and gradually forced competitions to accept them in races, which in turn provided a gateway for product development of shoes, sports bras, and clothing for female athletes. For anyone contemplating running a half or full marathon, the author's thoughts on the physical toll these types of runs can take on a body, as well as the joy she experienced after successfully completing them, are highly useful. An authentic account of surviving devastating loss through the art of running.
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March 15, 2017
A decade after her parents died in a plane crash when she was 20, Menzies-Pike (editor, Sydney Review of Books) went for a run. In a cloud of grief, she could hardly recall the beginnings of her running exploits; however, several years later she has gone from self-destructive behavior to finding a healthier way to manage her sorrow. It started out as a belief that she could run the City2Surf race on her home turf of Sydney and led to training for a marathon. Along the way, she discovered a fascinating yet tumultuous past regarding women runners (or lack thereof). Women in history were often restricted from such exercise; sweating and overexerting themselves was considered unfeminine, not to mention the dire physical consequences a female would endure from running. As recently as 1984, there wasn't even a women's marathon category in the Olympics. VERDICT This engaging memoir navigates the complexities, misconceptions, and the oppression of female runners in film, literature, and art throughout history. It will leave an impression on women and runners alike.--Melissa Keegan, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
April 1, 2017
Sydney Review of Books editor Menzies-Pike's first book is an interesting look at the sport of long-distance running and women's place in it. Through historical anecdotes, including the story of the first known woman to attempt running a marathon, in 1896, readers learn that there has long been and, infuriatingly so, always may be discrimination against women in the sport. Blatantly prejudicial attitudes towards women who dared to run persisted well into the twentieth century, with women finally starting to make significant strides toward equality in the sport. However, Menzies-Pike's entertaining, eye-opening, feminist war cry against those who would begrudge a woman her running shoes is not the most absorbing element in her book. Rather, her own story of loss, a fall from grace, and the sport that ultimately empowered her to deal with her grief is the star of the show. With trademark Aussie wit, Menzies-Pike bravely shares her most vulnerable moments, struggles, and victories as she takes her first stepscrawling, then walking, then runninginto her new life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)
January 27, 2016
While distance running has become popular with women today, incredibly, women didn’t run the Olympic marathon till 1984 and were barred from entering the Boston Marathon until 1972. Catriona Menzies-Pike reveals some surprising facts about the history of women and running in her ‘personal and cultural’ memoir The Long Run. Menzies-Pike, who has a PhD in English literature and is currently editor of the Sydney Review of Books, took up running at 30 after the death of her parents in a light plane crash a decade earlier. In her memoir she weaves accounts of her grief, her unlikely introduction to running and her training for longer runs, with a history of women distance runners and their representation in books, films and art. The Western world’s uneasiness with women running has deep roots, she finds, with recurrent historical depictions of women running to flee violence and wanton women running away. The accounts of pioneering women runners in this book are fascinating. Another highlight is Menzies-Pike’s descriptions of her training runs through the lush streets and parks of Sydney; ‘my body carries a record of the city’s history,’ she writes. This is a well written and pleasurably varied history of women and running, which will appeal in particular to readers with a cultural/literary bent.
Andrea Hanke is editor-in-chief of Books+Publishing