Sometimes a book rises above its own ambitions. Such a book becomes more than its story in the way that certain people become larger than themselves. A friend, for example, who has always seemed rather ordinary, may suddenly give us a message, often without realizing it, of enormous importance. A book can do the same.

In Chasing The Hawk: Looking For My Father, Finding Myself, Andrew Sheehan set out to write a memoir of his family life, of his recovery from drink, and of his father George Sheehan, an early guru of running. These were Sheehan’s reasons for writing the book, but often his story gives us much more: insights into family life, the value of forgiveness, the strength of loyalty even when it is given to an unworthy person, the wisdom that may be won from a long struggle.

One of the 12 children of Dr. George Sheehan and his wife, Mary, Andrew Sheehan begins his memoir with a long look into his father’s past, analyzing George’s relationship with his own parents, his need both to follow in his father’s footsteps into the medical field and to excel at everything he did. After serving in the Navy during World War II, George Sheehan began his medical practice and married a beautiful, strong woman. They bought a large house in Rumson, New Jersey, to accommodate their growing family. Dr. Sheehan’s medical practice became a success, and the family seemed one of those large Irish Catholic clans that belong with the Kennedys and the Buckleys in terms of activity and prosperity.

Yet George Sheehan was not a happy man. Frustrated by his life, feeling trapped, and remembering the pleasure he had once felt running high school track, Sheehan began running. Since no one jogged in the early sixties, he ran first in the large yard behind his house. Soon Sheehan was jogging through the neighborhood, and with the publication of his book, Running and Being, he became what one reviewer called the “greatest philosopher of sport.” He became a hero to other runners, appeared on various television shows, and began a series of speaking engagements around the country.

At the same time, however, Sheehan began pulling away from his large family. He was often gone to different races. Always a loner, he began to see his children less and less. Several times he moved out of the house to live with various women, made one of his affairs public in his newspaper column, and often wounded his children terribly by ignoring their pain over his abandonment of them.

There are many stories about celebrities and the wreckage they often leave behind, but Chasing The Hawk is vastly different from these accusatory and sometimes whining chronicles. In the end, George Sheehan finally returned to his neglected wife and reconciled with his children. He even seemed to have gained some wisdom in the process, wisdom that he imparted to Andrew in letters and by way of example. In one letter near the end of his life, Sheehan wrote:

The life game — the infinite game — requires first of all class. Then a sense of humor, and then all the things we need in doing our thing. Discipline, patience, concentration, concern. I see all these things in your letter. When things get tough, said Epictetus, it is because God has singled you out as someone capable of becoming better and better.


In an earlier letter regarding marriage, Sheehan wrote to his son that

Only after years did I finally accept what they told me, which in the words of a Hollywood attorney, is “the worst marriage is better than the best divorce”...Ultimately, I found I was the problem. I learned how to live with a woman, and when I did that I came back home...Even until now I’ve never admitted I was a fool. And I was one...because I never understood that I had to accept, and accept with tolerance and humor, this person I was living with.

Sheehan also offers insight into his own struggles with his father and with alcohol. His honesty and perception bring both struggles to life. Again he doesn’t feel the need to wallow in self-pity or engage in histrionics. He tells us at one point that he is still angry at times with his father, who died in 1993, particularly about the way that he left their mother before coming back to her the final time. Although he gives us enough knowledge about his own drinking episodes to make them real, Sheehan doesn’t reveal all the gory details as some ex-drinkers do, thus displaying a palliative reticence that many readers — and his own children — will doubtless appreciate.

Here is a story that is truly and beautifully written, that shows us how failure and pride may be transformed into forgiveness, hope, and strength. Runners may enjoy this story for what it says about the man who helped bring this sport to the streets and sidewalks of America. All of us, however, may find here that rare story which throws a beam of hope and love into the shadows of our own lives.

(Jeff Minick is a writer and teacher who lives in Waynesville. He can be reached at saintsbookco@aol.com)