Rating: 
Summary: Eloquently sad
Review: Kevin Schuler, an eighth grader in rural Missouri, is at a track meet with his team. At the end of the evening, he returns home in his family's car, but the rest of the team takes the school van, only to slide off a bridge into a river. Kevin alone lives. Kevin alone goes on to enter high school, insisting he no longer wants to run but becoming a record-breaking runner. Although he's suppressed the memories and even the names of his friends, they come back to him slowly, in pieces. Although he does not care about his success, although he watches life from the sidelines and passes the people in his world off with a certain tongue-in-cheek sadness, they are still drawn to him, though not necessarily for the right reasons.LIFE AT THESE SPEEDS is undeniably well written. While perhaps not realistic (he is much too mature for his age), Kevin is an interesting narrator. I enjoyed the way he favored no one and viewed most of those around him as a sad joke. Jeremy Jackson's use of language is both eloquent and effective. The plot, however, seemed stretched thin overall and without clear direction, meandering unfettered through one boy's tortured life. This is not necessarily bad, but some readers (like me) may at times lose interest. And while the insights presented are captivating, they do not always ring true. The descriptions of Kevin's races are taut and laced with ellusive tension, but readers interested in serious track and running may also be disappointed. LIFE AT THESE SPEEDS is first and foremost a poignant, dreamlike coming-of-age novel.
Rating:
Summary: Running From Tragedy
Review: Kevin Schuler, the high school running star in "Life at These Speeds," has to be one of the most aloof first-person narrators I've ever experienced. While frustrating at times, this narrative technique forced me to experience the same nearly-maddening difficulty establishing an emotional connection with Kevin as do his friends and family in the novel. The result is a powerful depiction of a psychologically fractured adolescent's struggle to overcome a tragic experience and reawaken his dormant emotional core.
While running pervades this novel and the author clearly has an affinity for the sport, success on the track is not central to the conflict. Indeed, running becomes for Kevin the ultimate escape mechanism, through which he's able to while away his adolescent hours and achieve admiration among his peers while avoiding his repressed trauma. Kevin rarely, if ever, seems in jeopardy of failure on the track, as if the emotional trauma he has sustained is so brutal that he's become completely numbed to the discomfort associated with the intense training sessions and record-breaking performances that he ticks off with ease. This lack of emotion is effective in a literary sense, yet it renders the descriptions of training and racing somewhat hollow.
All in all, this is a strong novel with sufficient depth to satisfy the literary crowd and enough track and cross-country content to please readers of running fiction.
-Kevin Joseph, author of "The Champion Maker"
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling, Complex Characters
Review: My favorite novels are character-driven and Life at These Speeds is a beautiful example. Witty, sarcastic, but ultimately vulnerable, Kevin draws you into his private world. I was brought to tears as I went through the tragedies that shaped the young adult Kevin becomes. I take exception with the Publisher's Weekly review that said the book was unbelievable. I think it was meant to be more allegorical, and therefore, the characters may be extreme displays of archetypes. Jol's father is the very definition of the parent who lives his dreams through his son. Andanda is the sophisticate every high school intellectual would yearn to be. Kevin is the one grounded character who is strengthened by the good or bad relationship he has with every character he meets. When this book was first recommended to me, I doubted I'd be able to relate to a junior high track star. Although Kevin's specific struggles were unique, the overall challenges of becoming an adult he faced are universal. Jeremy Jackson's writing style drew me in with each page. I eagerly wait to read his next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the greatest running novel, but decent.
Review: The opening of the book focuses so much on Kevin's little actions, his drug use, his girlfriend, but this quickly gets lost for the rest of the novel. Jackson's descriptions of the races are not glorious. As a runner, I was looking for some form of quote within the book that sums up the whole idea of running, or the best description of a race. The focus of the book is more on the scandals involved by the state university and the school he is in, rather than his performances. As a runner, I'm quite disappointed. As a reader, I'm neutral, the book isn't the best, but its far from the worst.
Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: This is a well written novel in which the protagonist is an exceptionally gifted high school runner. I thought the passages that had to do with training and racing were excellent. I also thought the author did a great job of caturing the adolescent psyche. The story elements which involved the "bad guys" (the prncipal ., the doctor, the college coach) struck me as being contrived and took away from the story.
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