Hustling, hustling

So…this was bad. Running is a book about “runners” in Greece. Basically, runners are street kids who make a living by hustling tourists to come stay at their shitty hotel. They grab tourists off the bus, talk them into staying at their place and get a cut after the unsuspecting folks have paid their bill. This is one of those books that tries so hard to be artsy and literary by bouncing around in the narrative a lot, while not really telling you anything. Instead, certain acts and characters are just hinted at and you’re supposed to glean what’s actually happening from these tiny little drops of information. Unfortunately, what’s actually happening is rather dull, and I just could not get into the narrative at all. It kind of reminded me of a really bad knock off of a Donna Tartt novel, if that makes sense to anyone. It’s a neat concept and I love the descriptions of hanging out on an island in Greece, but I just could not get into any of the characters as there seemed to be no link from chapter to chapter.