Pain [Paperback]

Dan Middleman (Author), Kristen Hall (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

This novel recounts the senior year of a talented collegiate distance runner named Richard Dubin. Richard's competitive year is a roller-coaster of stunning success and numbing disappointment, and his life is complicated by a steamy relationship he enters into with a beautiful, but unpredictable, woman 10 years his senior. Richard's university is one of the great party schools of the American South and the reader is treated to a series of uninhibited college bashes, featuring copious liquid consumption, naked kegstands, nude relays, andmost daring of allpoetry readings! As the pressures mount, Richard's life begins to unravel. All the forces converge at the Olympic Trials in New Orleans and it is there that Richard comes to the edge of the abyss. Note: adult language and situations.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The author, Dan Middleman, is a prominent American distance runner. In 1996 he made the U.S. Olympic team in the 10,000 meters and was the #2 ranked American in that event. His 28:04.8 that year was the fastest U.S. time for the distance. An elementary school teacher in Raleigh, NC, Dan is currently working toward a master's degree in behavioral disorders. PAIN is his first novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: Tafnews Pr (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0911521526
• ISBN-13: 978-0911521528
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,548,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most forceful running book ever written, July 20, 2005

By 

Timothy I. Morgan Jr. (South Plainfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pain (Paperback)

Dan Middleman, who has obviously read John L. Parker Jr.'s "Once a Runner," takes a different approach to the subject of the intensity of distance running that is anything but subdued, and thankfully so. This is a brutally honest and enthralling book that takes readers through the dark side of competitive distance running. Middleman's characters all face the toll of the double-sided card of competitive drive. Middleman focuses dually on the pressure they put on themselves to succeed and the pressure from the weight of the force of running to win in itself. The characters relieve themselves, even if only in a transitory way, by drinking beer like fish swimming through water, even if that itself turns into another problem, as several of the characters suffer from alcoholism. Parker's characters drank, but not like this. Middleman focuses on this aspect of college life more than Parker did, and as a college student myself, I have no doubts that these situations occur regularly just as described in "Pain."

Richard Dubin drinks heartily and runs even more heartily while trying to balance a serious relationship with a girl he is captured by. He suffers from extreme nervousness before races and becomes so jaded from it that his perspectives and personality change dramatically. Many college runners can identify with this, even though they may not take the tenebrous turns Richard does. This is a blunt, realistic, and entirely compelling book that is excellently written without being difficult to read or comprehend. There's not a false ring to it, especially in the narration and the dialogue; even the tragic ending, which will leave you reeling long after you've finished reading the book and carries an unexpected twist, is not farfetched. In fact, it's perfect considering the material that precedes it.

If you loved Parker's classic running novel, then you should check this one out to. Each captures the spirit of running in different ways. Both characters sacrifice themselves for the sport in unbridled, entirely believable ways, but end up with separate outcomes. Both of these novels should be examined for the effects on the competitive distance runner and the possible outcomes of such obsessions. They can be cathartic or ugly, but neither comes without a price before whatever the end result is. This book evinces the varying successes, failures, efforts, and thrashes that come with running, although the characters in the book suffer more than most.

As a college runner myself, I related to much of what happens in this brilliant book, particularly the varying mental states of a high caliber runner. While I am not as talented as Middleman's protagonist Richard Dubin and have not competed on as high a level as he does in this book, I was able to totally understand the struggles he goes through. Once I started this book late one night, I didn't want to put it down. Highly recommeneded.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars INTENSE REALISM, August 10, 2006

By 

X-Man - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pain (Paperback)

Though not as uplifting as Once a Runner or as mentally stimulating as The Champion Maker, Pain is a realistic look at the way pressures to excel in distance running can drive a person to the brink. In that sense, it had a tragic feel similar to The Olympian, another running book I liked. As you would expect from a runner of Middleman's caliber, the training and racing descriptions are dead on. He also lightens the dark subject matter with some funny sections involving college pranks, drinking, etc.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and discouraging, July 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pain (Paperback)

More than 20 years ago, I read John Parker's Once a Runner. Like Middleman, Parker was an excellent University of Florida runner; like Parker, Middleman has written a very thinly disguised account of real runners and the world of elite athletes. I loved Parker's book; I've given it to many of my running friends and to the kids I've coached; I came to hate Middleman's book. I gave it two stars only because he does, indeed, write well about running. (I'd read an excellent excerpt in Running Times which made me anxious to read the book.) Why do I hate it? Because they are all drunks! Parker wrote about real college guys too. They drank beer and had fun. But they weren't drunk day after day after day. And what is especially sad is Middleman seems so clearly to be writing about himself. And, amazingly, he seems to genuinely describe himself as a recovered alcoholic since now he just downs a six pack or more four times a week and only gets really drunk on week-ends. This discourages the hell out of me because I've been coaching high school kids for so long, and if this is what they have to look forward to in college, it is extraordinarily depressing. So... go back to the classic, go back to John Parker's Once a Runner. If you are a highly competitive athlete - or just like a great story - it will move and inspire you. Skip Pain unless you want to be terminally depressed.