Customer Reviews

Traveler

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All of us are familiar with the time-worn adage "Don't quit your day job." After reading Ron McLarty's second novel, TRAVELER, one is tempted to turn that advice on its head and suggest in the strongest possible terms that McLarty consider quitting his day job and devote himself completely to writing novels. He is that good.

While the name may not ring many bells, a glance at McLarty's photo on the dust jacket of his novel is all that readers will require to recognize an actor they have seen in numerous dramatic endeavors. In addition to "Sex and the City," "Spenser for Hire" and "The Practice," McLarty has appeared frequently on "Law and Order," portraying the belligerent Judge William Wright, the bete noire to prosecutor Sam Waterston. The arrogance of this character stands in stark contrast to the novelist of TRAVELER, who has written a heartwarming and thoughtful story that is equal parts coming-of-age and mystery. While TRAVELER is in many respects a much different work from McLarty's first novel, THE MEMORY OF RUNNING, it is equally beguiling and enjoyable.

TRAVELER is the story of Jono Riley, part-time actor and full-time bartender living in Manhattan and currently dividing his time between working behind the bar at Lambs and performing in a wildly unsuccessful one-character play far off Broadway. The novel opens with Riley receiving a letter from a boyhood friend in Rhode Island informing him that his childhood girlfriend, Marie D'Agostino, has passed away. The news of Marie's death stirs various memories for Riley. Foremost of those recollections is the evening when Marie was wounded by a seemingly wild gunshot discharged in the old neighborhood by an unknown shooter.

Marie's passing is the catalyst for a return visit to the old neighborhood and the friends of Riley's youth. TRAVELER commences an intriguing journey that mixes remembrances of his younger days with the unsolved mystery surrounding what was believed to be a random act of violence, but now appears to be a serial shooting. Through a series of flashbacks expertly woven into the narrative, Riley's youth is recreated for the reader. The journey between youth and middle age introduces readers to many deep and intricate characters. In addition, they probably will experience the delight that a great novel can often produce --- the reawakening of a memory from their own personal earlier life, be it one of sadness or glee.

There is obviously a little of Ron McLarty in Jono Riley. Rhode Island is McLarty's home, and acting is his profession. TRAVELER offers a view of acting and actors that is hopeful and uplifting, and is shared by its author. THE MEMORY OF RUNNING gathered dust in a desk drawer until it was discovered by none other than Stephen King. While TRAVELER may be his second published novel, McLarty has several previously rejected, unpublished works that are now being considered by publishers. In addition, he is working on the screenplay for THE MEMORY OF RUNNING.

TRAVELER is reminiscent of the works of the late author George Higgins. Real characters confront real-life problems in a straightforward and honest style that readers will identify with. Jono Riley is the kind of fellow you would like to join for a beer and burger; McLarty also seems to be that type of man. Perhaps one day this opportunity will arise. If it does, we will have two great novels and countless incredible characters to discuss over our brews.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman.

Having read, "Memory of Running" by Ron McLarty, I was hopeful for "Traveler." I worried that it couldn't live up to "Smithy" Ide's treck across the country via bicyle. "Smithy" is an engrained character in my psyche. How could this author create another character that I could embrace with the same affection and respect? Ron McLarthy proved that brilliant authors can weave more than one tale, and "Travler" is as poignant, humorous, and flowing as "Memory of Running. The pages draw you in like a winding river, floating you along with no resistance on your part. Rocky white waters, dangerous undercurrents, and unexpected ebbs do not deter .....you most willing ride this raft until you reach conclusion.

In "Traveler" I once again explored a man's mechanisms for survial inside the mind of Jono, part-time actor, full time bartender, who journeys back to his working class hometown in Rhode Island hoping to reconnect with buddies that intricately formed his childhood. A mystery is introduced, but not as a means to an end; not contrived to keep you turning pages; you turn them anyway, because the story spins so addictively. Mr. Mclarty prose is eloquent, but never pretentious. The characters are flushed out, but not to excess; the plot is well organized, switching from past to present to keep you meshed with the protaganist's motivation. So seldom is a reader allowed to enjoy every moment of a book that I appreciate the effort of this fine author to make it all seem effortless when I know the opposite is true.

Ron McLarty made reading "Travler" a "magical" experience for me.(read the book to see the reference I am alluding to.) I was loathe to have "Travler" end, but McLarty has earned my trust and my deep respect. No more trepidation about expectations; the man is a storyteller and I look forward to his next offering.

I picked this novel up in the airport a few days ago and devoured it in 3 or 4 hours. I had no expectations. I'd never heard of Mr. McLarty.

The first person narrative is so compelling, it feels like private journal entry. The prose can be moving, wry and downright funny in the space of a few paragraphs. You will find yourself invested in Jono and his journey almost immediately.

Traveler is filled with interesting, well-drawn characters. Not one, two or three, but nearly a dozen. Rarely does a novelist define so many characters so well and make them as important to the book's landscape. It's McLarty's greatest strength, in my opinion, a cast of characters that feel so familiar and comfortable, even the ones you come to loath.

I must admit I saw the resolution coming about 50 pages early, but it didn't bother me in the slightest, the trip with Jono was still a thrill.

Traveler is probably the best novel I've read since Kite Runner.

Ron McLarty is rapidly becoming my favorite "coming of age" author. Although historical fiction is my genre of choice, I really enjoy "coming of age" stories. I used to consider Stephen King's novella "The Body" as the classic story of this type, I've since come to admire McLarty's "Memory of Running." I cannot say that I enjoyed "Traveler" as much, but that is not a negative given how much I enjoyed MoR. McLarty's style hooked me from the start to the finish of both books. McLarty alternate's chapters between today, and 40 or 50 years ago when his main characters were growing up in New England. The fact that both protagonists are about my age, and the fact that I grew up in small town New England made me identify even more closely with the stories.

"Traveler" seems the darker tale of the two, but both maintain the feel of growing up in a seemingly simple society only to find ourselves thrust into a modern age that often overwhelms us with its mandatory technology and complex relationships.

In the final analysis, Traveler is about people and those very relationships that we cherish in our youth and refuse to discard in our later years. Great writing and wonderful character development. You'll not miss with "Traveler."

Ron McLarty knows how to tell a great story. He grabs you with the first sentence and doesn't let go until you -- reluctantly -- reach the end of his book.

TRAVELER is Mr. McLarty's second novel. His first is THE MEMORY OF RUNNING. Both of these novels are EXCELLENT, WONDERFUL, DIFFERENT, and MUST READS. As you may or may not know, Stephen King has been tooting Mr. McLarty's horn and I am glad that he has. Mr. McLarty has a gift and you should open that gift up and enjoy.

TRAVELER tells the story of Jono Riley, told in flashbacks of his life past and present. I LOVE books that have a format like this -- it is such an interesting way to read a book. Jono is a part-time actor full-time bartender in Manhattan who is in a relationship with Renee who is a firefighter.

In 2001, Jono receives word of his first love Marie's passing and he heads back to East Providence. There he hooks up with friends from his boyhood. Through flashbacks we learn of Jono's life with his good friends, his friend's families, and the good and bad times they have had. The names of his friends are just great -- Cubby, Big Tony, Billy Fontanelli, Marie D'Agostino, Bobby Fontes, just to name a few. I mean, I just wanted to sit down and grab a bowl of pasta with these people! While in Providence, Jono starts to connect Marie's death with her being shot back when she was 12. There were other shootings in the town, and things that didn't seem quite right back in the sixties start to make sense to Jono now. Involved in these past shootings is Kenny Snowden a former police officer who has kept these crimes from the 1960's alive in his mind. Snowden and Jono hook up and start to resolve many mysteries.

This book has great characters and reads well. The author keeps you guessing and I can honestly say I could not have predicted the ending of this book. Love books like this! The flashbacks to the 60's when Jono and his friends were growing up are true to life and life itself! You will relate!

Mr. McLarty is also an actor and a good one. You will recognize him when you see his picture on the book. But, more than that, he is one hell of a writer! Get this book and just ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY. And if you haven't had the pleasure, check out THE MEMORY OF RUNNING.

Two treasures for sure!!!!

Thank you!
Pam

I was excited to read this new offering from McLarty as I really enjoyed Memory of Running. Traveler definitely stands up on its own - deeply engaging characters, great dialogue, and endlessly interesting scenery descriptions. There's a lot from MofR in here as well .... subtle references such as the Ide retirement home etc. that reference his first book ... not to mention the same location, time period, Vietnam War injuries etc. But where MofR excelled - a slow, beautifully timed reveal combined with the compelling transformation of the main character - this book falls way short. In the end, Traveler just doesn't travel very far. The story starts with great promise, then fizzles into an embarrassingly cliché ending (yes, the villain insists on telling all at the height of the final conflict.. what a surprise). The last third of this book needed more time to write, and a much better ending. Hopefully McLarty's next book will live up to the promise of his first.

Ron McLarty has done it again.

Ron McLarty, author of The Memory of Running, writes of wonderfully human protagonists whose lives and experiences resonate with the reader. Jono Riley is an aging bartender and part-time actor with a wonderful girlfriend and a fear of commitment. The death of Maria D'Agostino--Jono's childhood friend and first love--compels Jono to return to his childhood neighborhood.

In chapters alternating between present day and the past, McLarty paints a vivid portrait of growing up in an East Providence, Rhode Island neighborhood in the 1960s. The Traveler is the story of a man's quest to understand how a specific incident in the past creates ripples that travel with a person to effect life even forty years later. Though the description of this book is necessarily vague (it is hard to give a good description without giving anything away) the book is compelling.

I especially enjoyed the details--the way Jono chafes at being defined by his acting rolls, the feel of Jono's childhood, the love of and for an old friend that doesn't fade no matter how many years and miles separate them.

When Jono Riley hears that his childhood friend (and secret love) Marie has died, he decides to head back home to East Providence, where he confronts his past and, by doing so, considers where he has come. The novel alternates chapters between stories of his past and his current Providence experience. Currently, Jono is an actor of one-man shows for whom five audience members is a good night, but he is most remembered for his commercial spots and part on a medical drama where he plays an autistic patient, who is mute so the show could pay him less. He makes his living as a bartender.

After providing some ample reminiscing/exposition for the audience, Jono finally arrives in Providence, and we are slowly introduced to his past, particularly childhood friends Cubby, Billy, and Bobby. As Jono explores his former home, we explore his childhood life: his love for Marie, his life with his friends, and their individual lives. Jono tells of how 12-year-old Marie was shot in the shoulder while they were making snow angels, the event which ultimately drives the plot of the novel. When it is revealed that Marie died from a "traveler", a lodged bullet suddenly moving in the body, sometimes fatally, the novel turns into a murder mystery, to find the man who only killed Marie decades after the shot.

McLarty succeeds on several accounts, the most impressive of which is his wonderful narrative voice. He paints a poignant and powerful picture of East Providence as a town where all old things are dying and the atmosphere is thoroughly working class. McLarty's writing comes to resemble what may be called "working-class poetry," a language rich in detail that flows like music, but concerning the hardly poetic subject of New England working life, which even Manhattanite Jono cannot escape. Some of the prose is simply fantastic, perfectly capturing the great difficulty of Jono confronting the town:

"I felt it seemed to be the perfect time to ask myself what I was doing here. Rhode Island. East Providence. The bartender/actor sinking in memories and mysteries. Threatened by aging mondos, seeing shadows of assassins. I would be the first to admit to a few strange notions of the world, nut I remain essentially a child of the working class, seeking at the very least a modicum of order. But where is the order in priests with trunks of guns and ex-cops obsessing about tap water. I needed [my bar] Lambs and my fifth-floor walk-up and especially my wonderful firefighter [girlfriend]."

The amount of time devoted to Jono's exposition in this novel serves as a wonderful platform of McLarty's highly-capable, winning prose. It also means that Jono's characterization is excellent; with language like this, full of nuance and detail, it becomes difficult to not portray the first-person narrator well. McLarty also wins points for his presentation--alternating the past and the present sculpts the humorous, melancholy, pain of returning home. And where Jono feels at home is in many ways the core question of the novel, as his memories battle his sensibilities and current livelihood. The moment when he comes to understand the proper place of his memories in his life is a beautiful moment.

Traveler receives such a mediocre rating because its successes only slightly outweigh its failures. While Jono's character is well done, development of the rest is spotty. McLarty's narrative gifts are wasted on Jono's girlfriend, who is only described as "amazing," "wonderful," etc. Only through her dialogue is her personality allowed to show through, and while this isn't her story, she is interesting enough to merit more space. As a kind of foil for Jono, she could have been an excellent way to develop the theme and Jono's journey. Marie is only portrayed as a distant beauty and angel, and though Jono calls her the love of his life, she only occasionally appears in the story. Of his childhood friends, the only one who is reasonably fleshed out is Bobby, who is given his own mini-narrative towards the end of the novel. Cubby is mainly the brother of Marie and the son of Big Tony, who unofficially adopts Jono when his father dies. Billy just seems to be there as filler to make more plot elements work, like Jono's war experience. As a whole, these other characters are mostly boring, and drag down McLarty's rich narrative world which begins and ends with Jono. And while they are his memories, it would be a cop-out to say that makes it okay for them to be flat.

But by far the greatest problem is the story may best be described as "mushy" and "heavy". The elements of the novel do not form a succinct whole, and in absence of this, McLarty's great efforts feel uncoordinated. Jono begins talking about the parade of women he has lived with, a lengthy non sequitur that contributes nothing to the rest of the narrative. The memory chapters lack a continuity of characters and theme, and while some are good in their own right, their contribution is mainly to add weight to the plot, stretching it in too many dimensions and making the focus fuzzy and unclear. The narrative in the present fares only slightly better.

While this is certainly a novel where plot is not of supreme importance compared to character development, this book is in dire need of one. The unfocused plot makes wanting to carry on somewhat difficult: while the prose may be a reason to do so, it cannot stand as a reason on its own. Toward the end of the novel there is a greater amount of clarity and Jono's resolution shines through. But it is too little too late, and worse, the resolution hardly feels like it comes from the whole of the experience, but rather simply from the murder investigation, as if reading the first half were optional.

McLarty is a highly capable writer with a superb voice but shoddy plot skills. Traveler is an ambitious novel that demands a skill of narrative complexity, and sadly that need is not met. While it undoubtedly will please many thanks to its strengths, its merits as a work of fiction are deeply flawed. This is hardly meant to sound like distant critical nonsense; on the contrary, it made reading it a difficult, drawn-out, even sometimes boring experience.

[...]

I just finished this great coming-of-age novel. It's about an Italian boy growing up in Rhode Island. The first line is: "In 1961 I fell wildly in love with Marie D'Agostino....I was an eleven-year-old porker from the mick section of East Providence...." What lines!

The "traveler" does not refer to a person who travels. I'll say no more.

Just as good or even better is McLarty's "Memory of Running." After his parents and sister die, a fat, middle-age man takes off from New York on a bicycle and rides across America to Los Angeles to claim his sister's body.
A super novel. Click here and scroll down to my review. The Memory of Running

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the transitions from present day to flashbacks. As someone who just had their 20 year high school reunion, this book says it all - you can go back but it's never the same. Good read. I would have liked a little longer ending.