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A review by gwalt118
Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez
3.0
"Here I recognize the ways in which running is transforming me. Through it, I am inflicting violence upon myself and my body, submerging myself in pain like I did when working in the warehouses alongside my mother, so that I may control the turmoil within me. But unlike any other labor, running relieves me of the weight that I should become better than my parents, my people. I still don't know that it is okay to be unexceptional, ordinary, unremarkable. That there is greatness and pride to being common, so to speak. But I am learning to believe that it is okay to be flawed, imperfect. Running is helping me to see that" (p. 95-96).
Noe Alvarez is a Mexican-American who comes from a working class family in Washington. In order to come to terms with his own identity, he participates in a Peace and Dignity Journey - a Ragnar-like run that spans from Canada to Guatemala. The group is somewhat of a motley crew, coming from various cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. Along the way, Alvarez learns about Indigenous and Native cultures, particularly their customs and traditions. From the big picture perspective, this is a wonderful story and an important memoir.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a huge fan of the way this book was written and the way Alvarez told his story. The book was choppy. Rather than a clear narrative, the chapters were more of random vignettes that occurred over time. Alvarez tried to embed his parents' stories with his own - in some places, it worked wonderfully, and in other places, it did not work at all. There was an opportunity with this book for Alvarez to embed his story with the story of the land, which is what the subtitle of this book led me to believe would happen. But, it didn't. All in all, this book fell sort of flat for me...and I'm kind of bummed about that.
Noe Alvarez is a Mexican-American who comes from a working class family in Washington. In order to come to terms with his own identity, he participates in a Peace and Dignity Journey - a Ragnar-like run that spans from Canada to Guatemala. The group is somewhat of a motley crew, coming from various cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. Along the way, Alvarez learns about Indigenous and Native cultures, particularly their customs and traditions. From the big picture perspective, this is a wonderful story and an important memoir.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a huge fan of the way this book was written and the way Alvarez told his story. The book was choppy. Rather than a clear narrative, the chapters were more of random vignettes that occurred over time. Alvarez tried to embed his parents' stories with his own - in some places, it worked wonderfully, and in other places, it did not work at all. There was an opportunity with this book for Alvarez to embed his story with the story of the land, which is what the subtitle of this book led me to believe would happen. But, it didn't. All in all, this book fell sort of flat for me...and I'm kind of bummed about that.