Beyond the Book: Background information when reading The Memory of Running

Beyond the Book

This article relates to The Memory of Running

Ron McLarty is an award-winning actor and playwright. He came to New York thirty years ago to become a writer. He was a regular on the series Spenser: For Hire and has appeared more recently on The Practice, Law & Order, and Sex and the City. He has also appeared in many films and on the stage, where he has directed many of his own plays. He is currently working on a movie of The Memory of Running.  He lives in New York City with his actress wife, Kate Skinner.

In answer to the question, 'How much did your own life experience influence the creation of your characters and drive the plot of The Memory of Running?  He replies: 
"My parents had a car accident while visiting me at a vacation spot in Maine. I stayed at a motel between my mother's trauma center and my father's neurological hospital. Between visits, I wrote The Memory of Running as a play. After their deaths, I expanded it into novel form. Like in all of my work, I try to explain the world and its affect on me. I have always felt that writing is a deeply personal thing and not a road to wealth and happiness. In terms of my characters, although I start from my own experience, I seem to let my characters go from my control. They wrote their own stories from their own points of view."   Read the full interview.

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This "beyond the book article" relates to The Memory of Running. It originally ran in February 2005 and has been updated for the January 2006 paperback edition. Go to magazine.