Running for the Ultimate High: The Run Fantastic by Luke Kondor
On the night that Ampersand Jones learns that he's going to be a father, he decides to get up early the next morning and go for a run for the first time. Despite the fact that he died in the middle of the night, he still gets up and begins his run. As he jogs down the street, he discovers that he's literally running not only for his life, but for a life that means something.
Ampersand couldn’t help but feel like his feet were never where they should be; he often found himself unmoored, the world spinning beneath his heels, faster and faster, ready to push him off and leave him adrift in the sea of space, floating away, forever coming to terms with himself and his lack-of-place in the universe.
Luke Kondor's short novel fits very neatly under the Bizarro label. It's also a type of Bizarro that I would call “absurdist.” Not only in the sense that within the story many absurd things happen with the reason for them going unexplored, but also in the sense that the central theme is the conflict between the seeming lack of meaning in the universe and the main character's desire for it.
Throughout his life, Ampersand feels out of control of his life, doing nothing more than going with the flow. Even his odd name is something that his parents gave him later in life despite his protests. He spends most of his life participating in the same capitalist system we all do, going into debt and working a job that he finds unfulfilling. His only true moments of happiness are those with his wife Dottie. It's only when he learns Dottie is pregnant that he really decides to seize his life for himself.
Wanting to run is not unprecedented for Ampersand. Earlier in his life, he had gotten a gym membership, but found himself so intimidated, that he couldn't even work out. A run would have the two-fold purpose of getting in shape to make sure he's around for more of his child's life and overcoming his fear of exercise. When he discovers that he's died in his sleep before his run, he decides he has no choice but to complete it to bring himself back to life. He isn't sure if it will, but it's the only hope he has.
When his run takes Ampersand into a seeming netherworld between life and death, he meets an even stranger cast of characters. A podcaster who talks directly to him through his earphones, a self-driving car trying to tempt him into riding in it, and a running club led by a three-legged jogger who believe they need to keep moving to keep the world turning.
I ended up reading the novel in one sitting. Kondor keeps the novel moving at a steady pace and even the asides are enjoyable to read. The book diverts into talking about the incarnation of death stalking Ampersand, the story of the three-legged leader of the running club, and the humorous interactions between Ampersand and the podcaster in his earphones. While some of the humor falls flat, such as describing someone's eyes as “Twitter-blue” and an already dated reference to Game of Thrones, most of it works well. For me, the funniest moments include the podcaster's denial that he can see Ampersand's surroundings when he clearly can and when he talks about his leg fetish.
The novel also some excellent imagery. There are some compellingly uncomfortable moments, such as when Ampersand finds himself in the middle of the crowd of the running club, when he's forced to eat raw seagull meat to keep himself going, and when roadkill comes to life and tries to encourage him to give up. There is also some genuine pathos in how Ampersand keeps thinking of his wife and unborn child. I won't go into details of the ending, but it was excellently written and left me feeling satisfied.
The Run Fantastic is a solid work of absurdist Bizarro. It has a good sense of humor, some well-painted imagery, and a compelling story about finding meaning and facing fear that doesn't dissolve into sentimentalism. This is the first I've read of Luke Kondor's work and I'll be picking up more in the near future.