Rating: 
Summary: Runner's world
Review: I really did like this book! I ran High School track and cross country and understand the bonds you form with the people on your team. And so I thought the author did a really good job placing those bonds and emotion into the story. The author can tell a good story and I enjoyed his very physical descriptions of the running life and felt that they were very real, believable, and inspiring. I also really felt for the main character (something every good book does), and liked the fact that he grows and learns from his pain. He is anything but a flat character, which is refreshing. I am convinced Jackson has run high school track and cross country, and if he hasn't he has been extremely close to the sport to the point where its in him as much as it would be otherwise.
This is a great running book, though I'm not sure I would recommend that you buy it for your running kid because of some of the language.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: I was skimming through some books at my school library when i came across this book at first glance and thumbing through a few pages it didnt seem that interesting but i figured why not give it a shot if i dont like it jus drop it back off. After the first few pages i was hooked. I found myself looking for any extra minute to read a page or two. This book keeps you on the edge and keeps you wondering at all times what's next. And if your an athlete like me or a runner you'll love this book simply because of its physicality. Jeremy Jackson reaches depths not many authors can reach and he does it flawlessly. The only thing about the novel i didnt like, is that it had to end. If your looking for a good book to read that wont let you down this is it, It's given me inspiration and a feeling unlike any other after reading a book. Jeremy Jackson is a talented and gifted author and i cant wait to see what he comes up with next.
Rating:
Summary: Unique voice, complete world
Review: If you read the existing reviews and the inside jacket cover you know that the premise of the book is a narrator who is the only surviving member of high school track team after a tragic accident. One way to read the book is to see how the author uses the incident--and it is fairly quickly set up at the start of the book--and then unspools the consequences for the narrator. What such a description would leave out though is how well Jackson has created a world through his first person narrator. The voice stays. You see out of the eyes of this boy as he moves from 14 to 18. Along the way details come out about his life, the accident, his community's response. Running is the governing metaphor here. The book isn't grim, but sure rings true...well, until the end. There are really two moments of conclusion, one which does reach a logical conclusion but in just a bit too formulaic manner regarding the people around the narrator--his tragic best friend, coaches, doctors,high school teachers. But the second 'conclusion,' the one that shows the inner life of the narrator facing up to the trajedy that started it all off: that has merit and original honesty. Once I started the book, I continued until finish. The next day it stays with me. I'm going to be putting it into the hands of others.
Rating:
Summary: You Got To Read This Book!
Review: If you would like to read a fantastic book read "Life at Theses Speeds." It's about an average teenage boy named Kevin Schuler who became a famous track and cross country runner. He becomes a phenomenal runner when his friends and girlfriend gets killed in a bus accident on the way home from a track meet. He was the only one who survived so he has the challenge of moving on and putting his past and fears behind him. I thought this book was the best book I have ever read. I like the way it was written. The flashbacks to before the bus accident with his girlfriend and friends really helped show me the relationship Kevin Schuler had with each one of them. The book also proves to people that your dreams and goals do come true if you want them bad enough. If you like books about running I would highly recommend this book. I like to run so this book was very enjoyable for me and if you read it I hope you enjoy it too.
Rating:
Summary: long-distance runner may break records but can't escape pain
Review: In a manner reminscent of Bernard Malamud's "The Natural," Jeremy Jackson's somber debut novel, "Life at These Speeds" interprets the darker side of the American success myth through the lens of competitive athletics. Where Malamud indicts hypocrisy and greed in the all-American sport of baseball, Jackson explores the troubled aspects of individual motivation, excellence and isolation in the less-acclaimed activity of long-distance running. Jackson's troubled, conflicted protagonist, Kevin Schuler, discovers speed after a devastating accident claims the life of many of his teammates and girlfriend, but he discovers neither solace or satisfaction from his sudden, unbidden prowess. "Life" reveals a tormented soul alienated and removed from hinmself, disdaining recognition but yearning for understanding and acceptance. After learning of the demise of his friends and girlfriend, Kevin literally runs from his pain. Numbed by anguish and horrified by his own lack of affect, Kevin seeks solace in running. Rigorous individual routines only serve to reinforce his sense of guilt and indirect responsibility. Records melt under his fleet feet, but he hears only silence as he attains what appears to be a state of grace on the track. Throughout high school, Kevin's letter jacket gains pounds as a result of his medals, trinkets that only serve to weigh him down spiritually. His repeated astonishing victories, some earned despite vicious opponents and his own disdain for transcendence, ironically defeat his quest for self-understanding, tolerance and forgiveness. Jackson is not content with merely exploring atheltics' false claims of redemption and personal transformation. Through a series of withering character sketches and devastating social commentaries, the author lashes out against corrupt high-school administrators, insidiously evil colllege recruiters and a pathetically vacuous public, bent on adoration of athletic icons without any understanding of the athletes' personal needs. Jackson's conclusions about the condition of school athletics are dire. He punctures the myth of athletics building character through Kevin's exploitation at the hands of university medical "researchers." The illusion that the pristine, individual nature of track and field is exempt from commercial tarnish evaporates as institutions seek to advance their interests often at the expense of a talented athlete. This is not to say that "Life" is without humor. In fact, Jackson displays a tartly sarcastic, ironic note throughout his fast-paced, semi-allegorical writing. His delightful choice of proper nouns for minor charcters and place names (Zame Smith High School, for instance) emphasize his perception that the entire sports scene in high school is at best skewed, off-center, perverse. Jackson knows how to intertwine fable, commentary and satire, and he invests his protagonist with a genuine humanity. Kevin emerges burdened, bowed but completely authentic. "Life at These Speeds" is a welcome addition to a body of sports literature that believes we can learn much of ourselves through exploration of one of our most cherished national icons, the athletic hero.
Rating:
Summary: So Good!
Review: In Life At These Speeds, Kevin Schuler is swept along the surface of his life: going to high school; running, winning, and breaking records; becoming a local hero; and trying to decide about college. Meanwhile, Kevin is dwelling in the depths of his forgotten past-he is haunted by emotions he cannot confront and undefined fears. His real story unfolds somewhere in between and is punctuated by memorable conversations and occurrences that are all the more poignant because they seem so true. As a reader, I became invested in Kevin Schuler because I often knew more about him than he knew about himself. Like his family and friends, I watched with care and hope to see how Kevin would decide to live. I am so thrilled for first-time author Jeremy Jackson (and for all of us) that his debut novel should be this good.
Rating:
Summary: In Good Hands with Jackson
Review: It's exciting to come across a first novel as good as this one, to get in at the beginning of an author's career and have a shot at developing a relationship with him as he develops--maybe someday you'll be able to brag about it in the same way people brag about going to see Springsteen when he was still an unknown, though I hope I never turn out to be that boring. There aren't many young authors on my list of people to watch, but Jackson is one. I don't recall that his novel got much buzz when it was published, not like the decidedly hip "Prague" and "Everything's Illuminated," for instance. The style and subject matter of LIFE AT THESE SPEEDS does not lend itself to any sort of hip marketing hook that flatters pseudointellectual readers who use books as accessories to reinforce their hipness, I suppose. Instead, it's a book for readers. It is a coming-of-age novel, but it defies the formula with its unself-consciousness and avoidance of cliches, and it both honors and expands the genre. The flirtation with surrealism--in the choice of characters' names, for instance--maybe doesn't add much to the novel, and some of the absurd Helleresque encounters between Kevin and adults in the novel don't fully work, but I don't agree with some readers' and reviewers' objections that the narrator's voice and the dialog of his classmates are unrealistic because they sound too grown up to be an adolescent. Without being too reductive, I hope, I think that part of the author's intent is to bring an eloquence of expression to adolescence that will be recognizable to adult readers--i.e., in effect to translate adolescence into adult language. To an eighth grader, a good fart joke has all the wit and elegance of an Oscar Wilde epigram; Jackson is, I think, just putting adolescent-speak into adult-speak, because not all of us get the fart jokes anymore. The effect is convincing. As many reviewers have noted, the prose is sure, the descriptions sharp, the pace quick, and you come away from this novel feeling like you've inhabited a fully realized world.
Rating:
Summary: Speed of Life
Review: Jeremy Jackson does an amazing job of bringing the reader into his novel. I would find it unimagineable to believe that there is a person who can't feel in some way connected to the characters. For runners looking for a strictly running plot, you probably won't find this story to completely enrich this hope, but should read it anyways for its brilliant character development and touching story line. I'm not a runner but after reading this book I'm inspired to follow in Kevin Schuler's footsteps and live my emotions through running. This is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Honest, poignant, funny: a rare gem
Review: Jeremy Jackson is one of the few writers I've read who manages to move the reader deeply--through heartrending pain or goofy hilarity--without a hint of manipulation, of "trying" to evoke a response. I've read this novel several times over, each time finding myself absorbed into the world, genuinely caring about Kevin Schuler. The book is written from Schuler's point of view, and Jackson has proven himself a virtuoso of that voice: the story is perceived through the protagonist's eyes, even as he struggles with repressed memories and unacknowledged pain. This pain comes through all the more strongly to the reader for this subtle, honest treatment of it. And the prose is swept along to the rhythm of masterful wit that doesn't shy away from the absurd. Laughter and grief are never far apart in this novel--far from conflicting, they weave together beautifully. The result is a refreshingly honest, genuinely enjoyable, and impressively crafted first novel from this talented writer. I look forward to Jeremy Jackson's future work.
Rating: 
Summary: Not believable
Review: Just like the reviewer for Publisher's Weekly, I felt the writer was too precious and couldn't quite grasp the language of a high schooler. Too much manipulation here for too little reward.
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