Step by Step: A Pedestrian Memoir

by Lawrence Block

Overview

Before Lawrence Block was the author of bestselling novels featuring unforgettable characters such as hit man Keller, private investigator Matthew Scudder, burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, and time traveler Evan Tanner, he was a walker. As a child he walked home from school, as a college student he walked until he was able to buy his first car, and, as an adult, he ran marathons until he discovered the sport of racewalking.

Through the lens of his walking adventures—in 24-hour races, on a pilgrimage through Spain, and just about everywhere you can imagine—Block shares his heartwarming personal story about life's trials and tribulations, discomforts and successes, that truly lets readers walk a mile in the master of mystery's shoes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061774713
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/09/2009
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	540
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Lawrence Block is one of the most widely recognized names in the mystery genre. He has been named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and is a four-time winner of the prestigious Edgar and Shamus Awards, as well as a recipient of prizes in France, Germany, and Japan. He received the Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association—only the third American to be given this award. He is a prolific author, having written more than fifty books and numerous short stories, and is a devoted New Yorker and an enthusiastic global traveler.

Editorial Reviews

Block’s memoir is a worthy addition to his impressive list of accomplishments.” — Buffalo News

“Block’s exercise of memory is a delight compounded of rumination and amusement.” — Booklist

“Amusing....A peripatetic but never pedestrian memoir.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Unpretentiously serious, offhandedly funny, and unfailingly entertaining.” — Mystery Scene

“Block knows that character and ambience are the heart and soul of crime fiction, but unlike so many of his brethren, he also maintaines a healthy respect for plot.” — Booklist

“Block has never been better.” — New York Daily News

“One of the best writers now working the beat, Lawrence Block has done something new and remarkable with the private eye novel.” — The Wall Street Journal

“One of the most accomplished writers of mystery and suspense fiction in America.” — Kansas City Star

“A superior storyteller. . . . Block has an awareness of the pain and pleasure of living. It is a gift not all authors have.” — San Antonio Express-News

From the Publisher

One of the most accomplished writers of mystery and suspense fiction in America.

Kansas City Star

A superior storyteller. . . . Block has an awareness of the pain and pleasure of living. It is a gift not all authors have.

San Antonio Express-News

Block has never been better.

New York Daily News

Block’s memoir is a worthy addition to his impressive list of accomplishments.

Buffalo News

Unpretentiously serious, offhandedly funny, and unfailingly entertaining.

Mystery Scene

One of the best writers now working the beat, Lawrence Block has done something new and remarkable with the private eye novel.

The Wall Street Journal

Block’s exercise of memory is a delight compounded of rumination and amusement.

Booklist

Block’s exercise of memory is a delight compounded of rumination and amusement.

Booklist

One of the most accomplished writers of mystery and suspense fiction in America.

Kansas City Star

Block has never been better.

New York Daily News

Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Block has been writing for more than 50 years and walking slightly longer, according to this memoir notable for frequent flashes of the author's keen wit. In the introduction, he accurately and honestly advises the reader that the book is as "every bit as self-indulgent as it wanted to be." Block goes on to provide lengthy details of his various forms of ambulation, from long solo walks as a seventh grader to a walk across Spain to Santiago de Campostela. Mostly he recounts his experiences as a runner and a racewalker in races ranging from 5Ks to marathons and 24-hour races. Runners or walkers will enjoy Block's accounts of his trials and triumphs, including a strange hiatus of more than 22 years. (Block was in his 40s when he stopped racing and in his 60s when he resumed walking marathons.) Mystery fans, unless they're Block completists or running enthusiasts themselves, may want to take a pass.
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Publishers Weekly

The prolific crime novelist (Hit and Run, 2008, etc.) writes about his adventures as a racewalker. The author's focus at first seems puzzling. Block chooses not to tell the story of his writing life-a project he began but abandoned after weeks of feverish writing-or his personal life ("if you wanted to know something about me, well, too bad"). Instead, the memoir focuses almost entirely on his distance walking. Generally these walks are competitive-marathons and 24-hour walks in which the globetrotting Block consistently ignores both the scenery (he leaves his glasses at home) and the other runners and concentrates on beating his shortest time and longest distance. When he's not entering formal events-from which he took a hiatus for more than 20 years-he and his wife are driving across America in search of all the towns named Buffalo or traversing Spain on foot. Block occasionally goes off on amusing tangents. He writes briefly on the question of why even nonobservant Jews like himself don't eat pork, the nature of his interfaith (make that interagnostic) marriage and his preference for trees over Porta-Potties. On the whole, though, this is an account of the author's entering event after event, wondering why he keeps walking despite blisters and backaches. It's telling that the only two books whose gestation he describes in any detail are his novel Random Walk (1988) and the present volume. Fans of Block's fiction may be interested, but they should be prepared to skim the particulars of times and distances that the author assiduously records. A peripatetic but never pedestrian memoir. Author appearances in Des Moines, Iowa, Los Angeles, New York

Kirkus Reviews