Runner

by Robert Newton

Summary

Runner is the story of Charlie Feehan, a fifteen-year-old living in Richmond, an inner Melbourne suburb, in 1919. This area, for sometime known as Struggletown, is the scene of great poverty at this time, but it is also the home of one of Melbourne's best-known gangsters, Squizzy Taylor. Damp and cold are two of the area's worst enemies in winter, and when Charlie's father dies in the Spanish Flu epidemic that devastated the world at that time, Charlie finds himself having to grow up rather too fast as he literally tries to fill his father's boots.

Taken from: Watts,R (2016). [online] Available at: https://cdn.penguin.com.au/747/document/robert-newton-runner-9780143302070.pdf

About Robert Newton

Robert Newton works as a firefighter with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. His first novel, My Name is Will Thompson, was published in 2001. Since then he has written seven other novels for young people, including Runner, The Black Dog Gang, (shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards) and When We Were Two (winner of a Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction). He lives on the Mornington Peninsula with his wife and three daughters.

Extra reading

Characters

Themes

Friendship

There are several critical moments in Charlie's friendship with Nostrils when Charlie's behaviour is put under the spotlight. Their friendship began with a lie and is brought to crisis point when Charlie leaves Nostrils to be beaten up by Barlow. It is not until after the race that the debt is repaid.

Chance

There are a number of crucial moments when things hang in the balance for Charlie, e.g. When Nostrils slips running away from Barlow (p.147), and when Squizzy nearly shoots Charlie when the boy quits (p.169).

Grief

Charlie's Dad is with him throughout this story. He is there in the holey boots Charlie runs in, and despite wearing Squizzy's new replacements for a while, when Charlie really grows up he goes back to wearing the boots he could never bring himself to throw away. Charlie often recalls his father's advice, e.g. about the true test of character (p.110) and to find himself a girl who can dance (p.127). After his father's death, Charlie ‘got so confused sometimes (he) didn't know who it was (he) was supposed to be’ (p. 28). He really hasn't had time to grieve as he has been so busy growing up and trying to support his mother, and he hasn't really been able to talk about his father's death despite the many well-wishers who would help him, only Nostrils comes close to doing so (p.40).

Humour

Charlie's voice brings the book to life, particularly when he indulges his flights of fantasy, or in his relationship with the duck. What he believed to be a Harriet turns out to be a Harry, so no luck with the egg laying, but the bird always seems to have one over on him until Charlie, the expert boxer, indulges in a contest with the bird. ‘...a bad tempered ball of feathers jumped from his pen and craned his head high. Struth! Quickly I raised myself up to match him and shouted. “I'm warning ya, Harry. Don't even think about it. How was I ta know you were a boy?”’ (p. 124)

Page updated

Report abuse