A sequel novel (to the book, Once a Runner), that follows the training of a former Olympic runner in his bid to make another Olympic team as a marathoner. The ending was good and well-paced, and the author did a nice job of introducing plot lines that kept the story fresh, even though moving through to a well-known culmination could have been much more predictable. On the other hand, the book did drag in parts. ( )

A worthy successor to Once a Runner. Very enjoyable from both a runner's perspective and to watch the author develop his craft. May not be engaging for the non-running reader, but I think it stands on its own rather well. ( )

The sequel to Once a Runner, this book initially seems like a cheap attempt to sell two novels for the effort of one book. However, this book grew on me. Again, John Parker draws parallels with the real world, both in events of the Cold War, and in the power trips of the athletics governing bodies.This may not be the novel for someone into masterpieces of fiction, but it was an easy read and kept my interest. ( )

It was very difficult to get through this book. Once A Runner was a lot more upbeat, and Again to Carthage is like the emo sequel. Everyone dies, Cassidy has his third-life crisis, and a there's a lot more introspection than hijinks. A lot of this book made no sense to me, for example how one can just up and leave work for a few years without getting fired (must be the same nepotism that got him hired by his dad's best friend in the first place), and how on earth the book can start with one's buddy dying in Vietnam (placing it, at the MOST, in 1975) and end with running the 1980 Olympic trials two years later (on May 24, 1980, the math just does not work).

Finally, I thought the marathon description was fun, but over-the-top. It was easily the best part of the book, tucked away in the last two chapters. Cassidy was basically like a running, hallucinating corpse. It was hard for me to suspend disbelief so many times. ( )

"Again to Carthage", by John L. Parker Jr.,published in 2007, is the sequel to Once a Runner published in 2007. Quinton Cassidy the collegiate mile runner in Once a Runner is now 10 years older. He has gone to law school and is doing quite well. He hangs out with his buddies and has a cute girlfriend and all that but he isn't happy. He feels his youth slipping away from him and he wants to prove that he still "has it."

He mulls it over and decides that he wants to make the Olympic Marathon Team so he excuses himself from his law practice and heads to a family cabin up in the hills and commences a brutal training regimen running over 120 miles a week (about two and half months worth of running for me.)

The book is pretty good but the end of it is the best when Cassidy runs the Olympic trials to see if he made the team. Parker is a former competitive runner himself and his best writing is describing the races and how brutally hard they are for the top competitors. (Like I'll ever know.)

Parker waited 29 years between the two books. The writing style of the second book is much more mature without sacrificing any of the passion. The first book is a runners cult classic, I've seen it on the counters of some of the running stores in town. (My brother, who started running long before it became cool and still runs about 40 miles a week gave it me, he gave me the second book also.)

The book is well written and very interesting if you want to know about the life of a competitive runner.

I give it three stars out of five ( )