Running on When Life Ran Out
A Determination to Succeed
Running on When Life Ran Out is a pastor’s testimonial memoir about childhood trauma, perseverance, and succeeding through faith.
Larry Darnell Washington’s inspirational memoir Running on When Life Ran Out is about his decades-long refusal to be defined by damage.
Washington grew up in New Jersey. His father had a PhD and was an ordained Methodist minister, but he was also violent. His mother, meanwhile, made bread from scratch, took care of people’s needs, and modeled daily prayer, even in the face of violence.
In his adulthood, Washington first pursued a career in the thoroughbred horse racing industry in Florida. In describing this period, the book recalls particular horses, jockeys, and race conditions with aplomb. Later, Washington became a Baptist minister. The church he built hosted homeless families in New Jersey. Throughout the book’s recounting of this challenging range of experiences, themes of faith, self-discipline, and integrity are lauded, credited with carrying Washington through difficult circumstances.
There are testimonial and self-help elements to the book that take it afield of its powerful personal story, though. While the book’s personal scenes are evocative, with sensory details used to grounding effect, its proclamations of morals to these stories, and reflections upon them, are more interruptive. Further, as the book continues, the lessons become less proportionate to the storytelling. Indeed, the book’s later sections move through decades at a rapid pace, eschewing situating details, and their complementary instructions carry less force as a result.
The prose is plainspoken, rhythmic, and evocative of sermonizing. It is made up of deliberate declarative sentences, with conclusions stated in a direct manner, as with “I wasn’t going to allow a negative situation, that occurred in my childhood life, to expel me from life, but I was going to use it to propel me in life.” The book includes some run-on sentences, though, that hamper its clarity.
The book’s final movement is centered on Washington’s aging father and the questions of what forgiveness costs and whether it can be completed before it is too late. The book resists tidy resolutions. The image of a single blink from Washington’s father, who could no longer speak, is powerful.
A pastor’s testimonial memoir, Running on When Life Ran Out is about the trauma of a violent childhood, but also decades spent in ministry, benefiting from the sustenance offered through faith.
Reviewed by
John M. Murray
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
