David Karraker

Running in Place David Karraker First edition

January 8, 1958. The sun was setting directly into Ben's eyes by the time they finally reached the Highway 47 exit road that would take them south into town. They made the turn and headed past the tree-shaded homes on Main Street to the business district--the Kroger's supermarket and the hardware and the bank and the rows of shops--with hardly a sideways glance, and onto a nearby tree shaded side street to the converted storefront apartment they'd rented two weeks before. So begins the tale of teenage married couple Ben and Janie Barthold as they make their way into the world. Running in Place chronicles the small incidents of their lives: Ben's single-minded pursuit of a college degree; Janie's struggle to raise their son while working in a local pizza parlor. Through gentle brushstrokes and brief, telling vignettes, Running in Place offers us a fresh and stunning portrait of the human condition. 'As a nation addicted to nostalgia, we like to think we remember and understand the sixties.... Karraker...gives us a multilayered story set at the dawning of those times. It is the tale of a young married couple on a middle American college campus, told with a clear eye and beautiful but deceptively accessible prose.... This is a compelling and deeply felt story, and one that deserves a wide readership.'Rosina Lippi, 1999 PEN Hemingway First Fiction award-winning author, Homestead