Each of us has different tastes, and that makes life interesting. The Unraveling of Michael Galler by Steven M. Rubin did not appeal to me. Mr. Rubin is a skillful writer, so the scenes he creates are well-portrayed. His descriptions reminded me of writing from the 1950s, like Alain Robbe-Grillet, the leader of the Nouveau Roman movement, who described things in excruciating detail. I like stories that move along through the words.

This book is the story of Michael Galler, who is fixated on cancer after his mother dies. He believes that cancer causes every ailment, and he is determined to fortify himself and his family to defend against it. He is a skilled runner, but collapses at the end of a high school two-mile run. He is attended to by an attractive college student and gradually develops a relationship with her.

Parallel to this storyline, there is a secondary story of a young man, Tremont, born into poverty and drugs, who ultimately kills both of his parents, takes over a drug enterprise, and builds a business.

Michael’s relationship with the young woman grows until he abandons a promising future at an Ivy League college to be with her. He trains and runs the Boston Marathon and returns to their apartment to find the girl claiming that their relationship is over and that she is moving to the West Coast. It is clear that she is the cancer in his life, and the infatuation consumes him to the point where he abandons everything else in his life.

Rubin describes this unraveling in excruciating, step-by-step, moment-by-moment detail. Rubin is a marathon runner, and his description of Michael’s struggle mile by mile over the Massachusetts hills is as close to actually running it I will ever be. Clearly, many people want to subject themselves to that sort of pain, and this book might appeal to them.