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“Running the Bulls is an intriguing coming of age character study in which an obviously intelligent grandfather learns about life as he emulates his childhood heroes especially Hemingway… This bittersweet portrait is family drama at its realistic best as Cathie Pelletier provides a potent and poignant portrayal of the frailty of relationships.” —MBR Bookwatch
A beloved novelist returns, once again deftly combining the poignant and the hilarious.
One year and six days into an unsatisfactory retirement, Howard Woods is awakened by his wife in the early hours of the morning to hear the news of a decades-old betrayal. He does not take it well. Howard upends his well-ordered life and, to the dismay of his family, announces his intention of traveling to Spain to join the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona.
Having thrown his life into chaos, Howard finds that his wife is no longer willing to restore it to order as she has always done in the past. He is now miserably committed to a Hemingway-inspired course of his own choosing but with little idea of how to change it or to achieve the resolution he desires. Instead of at home where he wishes to be, he ends up living at the Holiday Inn.
How does a middle-aged man of the Eisenhower era (who still can’t do his own laundry) survive in the age of cell phones and cable TV? The result is hilarious and, at times, achingly poignant.
Cathie Pelletier’s novels have been praised as “hilarious, generous and genuine” (New Yorker), “bitingly original” (Vogue), “masterful,” (Washington Post), and “funny and unexpectedly moving” (New York Times). She is “absolutely, inherently funny,” says the Los Angeles Times, “yet she can walk the tightrope between humor and grief without once losing her balance.” In Running the Bulls, she is in top form.
“Memorable characters . . . they showcase Pelletier's gift for keen and touching observations of the mundane dark matter of suburban life.”—Down East
“As sure and accomplished as anything she has written.”—Bangor Daily News
“Pelletier's lively writing style is rich in imagery and humor . . . I like her spirited defense of Ernest Hemingway.”—Maine Sunday Telegram
“That master juggler of literary tears and laughter is at it again: Cathie Pelletier’s Running the Bulls is a ribald, ruminating, and redemptive read.” —Wally Lamb, author of She’s Come Undone
“Nobody walks the knife-edge of hilarity and heartbreak more confidently than Cathie Pelletier. In Running the Bulls she’s at her skillful, sure-footed best.”—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Paterson Fiction Prize 2006
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CATHIE PELLETIER is the critically acclaimed author of six novels published under her own name—most recently Beaming Sonny Home—and of two novels published under the pseudonym K. C. McKinnon.
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Cathie Pellletier is featured in a podcast produced by the Maine Humanities Council. You can find the podcast here.
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