Synopsis
Chet, a high-school senior, is determined to win the cross-country running championship but comes up against unexpected obstacles, including an unpredictable teammate and a flirtatious field-hockey player named Maggie.
Reviews
Grade 8 Up-Chet, a senior, is the captain and star runner on Bradley High School's cross-country team. He has trained extensively and is hoping to win the County championship and break the record set 10 years ago by school-legend Johnny Fiske. While trying to focus solely on this endeavor, two major distractions arise. Chet finds himself enamored with a new girl at Bradley, and Fiske's younger brother Jimmy unexpectedly joins the team, posing a real threat to Chet. The climax of the story is the county meet, where the results will be a surprise to most readers. Neumann demonstrates a strong sense of the inner thoughts of adolescents in his character portrayals. While adults, with the exception of the team's coach, are virtually nonexistent, Chet and his peers are both believable and intriguing. The author also presents an interesting angle with mixed success as he uses Robert E. Lee's difficulties during the Civil War to parallel Chet's own struggles. Interwoven into the story are the boy's training on and near historical battlefields in his northern Virginia town and his work on a school paper about the general. The locker-room humor and language, including profanities, ring true to the age group. More than a sports novel about the psychological side of competition, this book is a fast read with the right blend of humor and suspense.
Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
It's 1977 and Chet has just begun his senior year at a suburban Virginia high school. A track star and his team's captain, Chet is determined to win a highly publicized cross-country race held each November. He also hopes to beat the record set by Johnny Fiske who, 10 years after his accidental death, retains a legendary status in the track community. Johnny's younger brother, Jimmy, back at the high school after a year at a military academy, has gone out for track, and Chet feels intimidated by Jimmy's obvious talent. Neumann's first novel is only partially effective in portraying the trials of male adolescence in general and of competitive sports and teenage love in particular. Readers are privy to Chet's every thought (or so it seems) while he pursues his goal--and the affection of Maggie, a sports-minded sophomore. This often overly detailed narrative is further hampered by Chet's prolonged, self-conscious musings about Robert E. Lee, his idol despite the general's ultimate defeat. Yet touches of subtle foreshadowing strengthen the plot with moments of suspense and surprise. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
An overwritten (though sometimes compelling) story of a track star shooting for a record-breaking season. After a summer's training, Chet Tralek is ready to challenge his high school's 10- year-old cross-country record, set by the now-legendary Johnny Fiske, killed in a car crash as a senior. Chet posts a string of victories, but his focus is disturbed both by a budding relationship with enigmatic sophomore Maggie Holman and by the sudden appearance of even-more-enigmatic Jimmy Fiske, Johnny's ne'er-do-well brother and another extraordinary runner. Despite taut race sequences and a well-informed exploration of the mental and physical preparations required for athletic success, the story sinks beneath the weight of Neumann's arty prose (``A few stars had already tiptoed into twilight's violet ceiling when Chet picked Maggie up''), which--with the occasional profanity--gives it a mannered, self-conscious air. A subplot in which Chet writes a term paper on Robert E. Lee is overlong and, at best, tangential. Furthermore, Chet's humorless intensity will alienate readers as it isolates him from the rest of the cast; his eventual failure in the Big Race (the day after finding Fiske and Holman necking at a party) is unlikely to elicit much sympathy or understanding. (Fiction. YA) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Gr. 8-12. In the tradition of Voigt's The Runner (1985), this promising first novel is told from the point of view of a fiercely competitive high-school senior who's determined to take the cross-country championship in north Virginia. Like his hero, General Lee, Chet plans his race strategy as if for a battle. In fact, much of Chet's life is like a campaign, including his plans to reach the girl he likes. The sports writing is tense and physical, but it all goes on far too long, especially the war metaphors. Only dedicated athletes and Civil War buffs will stick with all the ruminating passages, as Chet trains and obsesses and goes over the last race and plans the next. Yet Chet's character is compellingly drawn, both confident and anxious, ugly and vulnerable, his actions both controlled and furious. In the last third of the novel, everything comes together in scene after scene of mounting drama. The story twists all our expectations. Chet is betrayed (or has he betrayed himself?), and he fails. He loses the race, and he loses in love. There's no orchestrated epiphany, but he does question his competitive values. And he realizes that though you plan and plan, all the most careful strategies can't make someone love you. Hazel Rochman
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