Again to Carthage Book Review

First off, you must have read the first book "Once a Runner" which is reviewed below.

Calvin:

"Again to Carthage" was, in my opinion, a really great book. It certainly isn't on the same plane as OAR, but it is certainly another great novel packed with training information and motivation. It slowly reintroduces the reader to Cassidy and his new life as a lawyer in Florida. For the first half of the novel, Cassidy actively avoids training seriously, and enjoys his time fishing, diving, and visiting his family. After hitting the half-way point, which includes the loss of two friends, Cassidy again considers resuming "the task." I won't give away what happens, but there is a little bit of romance, some self-reflection, and a lot of hard-core training. I highly recommend you read Parker's latest novel.

Joey:

"Again to Carthage" is not as good as OAR, unfortunately. If you are looking for the best ever written about anything, read the original book, but if you are looking for a good book, read ATC. After taking some time off Cassidy returns to training... also after some 150 or more pages about what he likes to do in his time off from work; including fishing and partying with his attorney friends. This book builds even more suspense than the first, with almost no running for the first half, then gets into some training. As you can imagine Cassidy has moved up in distance as that is what you do when you grow up and lose your fast twitch yet have more endurance than ever before. [this is due to long term aerobic development ;) ]

Basically Cassidy has a midlife crisis and goes back to training full tilt.

All this, a high point and a sweet Olympic trials race with hallucinations, then the most anti-climactic ending I have ever read, but its not as bad as it sounds. The ending really speaks to the cold war and how Carter screwed a whole bunch of athletes over with no result for occupying a country that we currently are, LOL. Classic.

The writing style was similar, but I was unable to pick out any of the great quotes of the quality that OAR left with us. It wasn't bad, I was just a little disappointed and quite frankly it would have been impossible to top OAR since after all, it is the greatest book ever written about anything.