After the Race

by Michael B Jones

Overview

After the Race recounts the unraveling of the family Reed. and the raw, serpentine trails the father-son pair of Wayne—an Army Special Forces veteran whose reckless pursuit of contentment propels the story—and Charles—a gifted runner whose effortless successes on the track contrast his struggles everywhere else—blaze through, over and around Wayne’s worsening alcoholism and deteriorating mental health. The plot ricochets between vaulted ceilings—an enormous financial windfall, near misses on distance running records, romance and reunion—and concrete basement floors—arrests, bar-fights, accidents, near-death experiences, the Blizzard of 1993, and the collapse of North American Honeybee populations.

The result is a character-driven exploration of the tension between appetite and restraint, between gunpowder and glue, set deep in Virginia apple country, along the northern rim of the Shenandoah Valley.

Early reviewers have drawn favorable comparisons between After the Race and Pat Conroy's The Great Santini, as well as Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045760645
Publisher:	Michael B Jones
Publication date:	03/11/2014
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	765 KB

About the Author

Michael B. Jones was born in Palm Springs, CA, and grew up in northern Virginia (primarily Woodbridge & Winchester). In 2000, he moved to Chapel Hill, NC, to study literature and creative writing at UNC, where he graduated with highest honors in fiction-writing in 2003. He won numerous awards for poetry and short-fiction throughout his undergraduate career, before abandoning the short form to focus on developing and refining a longer project. He has at various times been a weatherman, musician, customs broker, marketer, farmhand, and IT professional, among other occupations. He is an avid runner and traveler, and currently resides in Chapel Hill. Ten years in the making, After the Race is his debut novel.