'Vault' explores world of athletics (fiction book)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://onlineathens.com/stories/083009/ ... 6350.shtml

'Vault' explores world of athletics
By Elaine Kalber | Correspondent | Story updated at 1:09 pm on 8/29/2009


"Vault" by Margaret Mims Johnston (Xulon Press, a division of Salem Communications, 172 pp., hardcover, $22.99; paperback, $14.99)

"Vault" the debut novel by Athens writer Margaret Mims Johnston, explores relationships and values in the competitive world of international athletics. A romance novel with a Christian foundation, the title literally refers to the challenges athletes face and metaphorically to making choices in life.

When Krysti, a Richmond high school teacher, track-and-field coach and tournament official, is invited to serve as an official for a World Invitational competition in Australia, she finds that her boyfriend, Kyle, a gymnast who runs a sports academy, is less than enthusiastic.

Pressures increase in Melbourne, along with her friendship with Jake, a pole vault competitor and Kyle's college dormmate.

"Vault" has believable characters with realistic dialog and descriptions, not only of individual performances in gymnastics and pole vaulting, but of the complex milieu of an international athletics event where the stakes are high, the tensions are great and the pace is hectic.

Johnston brings a wealth of writing and sports experience to "Vault." She retired after 27 years on the faculty of the University of Georgia College of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she taught public relations practice and communication and writing and editing for print media. Johnston wrote and edited publications, directed the Georgia Scholastic Press Association and conducted an annual weeklong summer camp for high school publication staffers. She also has written and edited numerous magazine articles.

A certified official in the Georgia Association of U.S.A. Track and Field, Johnston is a dedicated Bulldogs fan and took the book's cover photo of a UGA practice field. "I have always been fascinated by pole vaulting - the way the athlete seems to leave gravity behind and soar through the air," Johnston says.

"I also particularly enjoy gymnastics because of its grace, discipline and daring."

Johnston was inspired to write "Vault" as a permanent, tangible legacy for her nieces and nephews. "They have always been told that I am a writer, but articles are not lasting. 'Vault' is something by me that they can keep."

[rainbowgirl28]

Hmm a book about pole vaulting with a cover featuring my old stomping grounds... you know I gotta buy it!

[rainbowgirl28]

Sadly, this book ended up coming up short in both understanding of sports and being a good love story.

It would have benefitted from being proofread from someone more familiar with elite track and gymnastics. The love story aspect was cheesy and had a horribly cheesy happy ending.


I'll grant that it's a work of fiction, so I was prepared to cut the author a lot of slack, but here are some of the elements of the book:
- The main pole vaulter runs 15 miles every morning. One day he runs a 30-miler to make up for traveling the day before.
- The main two pole vaulters are also two of the best high jumpers in the country, and one runs on the Team USA 4x400.
- The main pole vault character vaults 20'.
- The main girl character is a 23-year-old former college athlete who was a high jumper/jumper in college, had a college record in the HJ, oh yeah and also ran the 10k.
- She was the head official for the pole vault at USAs.
- Which were in Seattle at amazing facilities.
- And she has other officials that are around her age (OK they don't say the age but they are obviously under age 40)
- And they went to a country music club that had just opened in Seattle.
- Seems to think that the track events at track meets always run wayy longer than the field events.
- Didn't seem to have any concept of how PV qualifying rounds would work at an international championship.
- Some of the gymnastics stuff was off too.
- The story was generally told from a third-person limited narrative of the girl, but it would sometimes inexplicably switch to third-person limited narrative of the pole vaulter... then back to the girl. Like in the middle of a chapter.
- It's billed as a Christian romance novel, but it doesn't really dive into anything religious. It just makes the main characters good people who don't drink or mess around, and there are a few mentions of church, but it's all on a very shallow level.


Things the book did well:
- The author has officiated and her technical knowledge of that aspect of it was not bad. I'm a 27-year-old official and most officials I know are over double my age, so the idea of a 23-year-old already being one of the top in the country and having other officials she can hang out with and go to clubs with is a little implausible but it is fiction. At least she did a good job of describing some of the different duties an official might do (relay judging, spotting for the announcer, etc).
- It's a very tame book, PG rated. There is sexual tension and a lot of intense physical attraction but no action. This is a good thing.
- The main character has a lot of similarities with me (except for having so many guys chase me at once!) and I generally found her likable.


It's not the worst book in the world, if you're looking for some light reading and some inaccuracies won't get you too riled up. Probably more appealing to girls than guys.