The Bottom Line
These are well-written novellas in a slice-of-life style with lots of diaog, however, they are not racing stories despite the cover artwork and the title. We can only recommend this book to fans of this high-brow writing style, but those looking for racing fiction in the purest sense would be advised to look elsewhere. The racetrack is not the main setting for either story.
Pros
- "Slice-of-life", dialog-heavy fiction may appeal to some readers
Cons
- Billed as racing fiction, but only the second story involves a track scene
- No real plot or conclusion, just a series of events that does not conclude
- Both stories were rather depressing and tedious to read
Description
- "Go Very Highly Trippingly To and Fro" is about Andy Farr, who takes a job with a bookmaker.
- In this job, he took bets over the phone on tracks across the northeast.
- For additional income, he worked nights at an underground poker room as a dealer.
- During the story, he meets a waitress named Rachel Bonni.
- At the end he loses Rachel to his brother the actor, and she moves away to San Francisco.
- In "The Stretch Run", Frank Bondi and Jim Stacy are Thistledown regulars.
- Frank, an unemployed 24-year-old, made his money in poker rooms and at Thistledown.
- He and fellow poker player Jim Stacy spend their days at Thistledown, then dinner at a local dive.
- Like in the first story, Frank meets a dental hygienist named Lucy and sees her for awhile.
- Of course, Jim steals her away, and at the end of the story, goes off to Churchill Downs.
Guide Review - Review - Go Very Highly Trippingly To and Fro/The Stretch Run
In his 2000 release, Cleveland native Raymond DeCapite included two novellas, titled "Go Very Highly Trippingly To and Fro" and "The Stretch Run". Each is set in a poor area of Cleveland, probably in the mid 1960's or early 1970's given the lack of simulcast wagering and the use of bookies to place bets on out-of-town races. However, neither story is a true racing story. One involves the main character taking bets over the phone for a local bookie, the other has the main character attending the races at Thistledown, but only as part of his gambling addiction with his friend. In the evenings the same two bet with bookies on football games.
