Run a Self-Guided Route: Temper by Layne Fargo
Suggested way to use this page: Use the link below to buy your copy of Layne Fargo’s Temper. After reading the book, lace up your shoes, grab your Ventra card, and head to Women and Children First to run a ~4-mile Temper-inspired route. Keep this page open during your run for suggested stops.
Run the Route
This ~4-mile route was one of Read & Run Chicago’s more experiential routes. You’ll need a Ventra card for this one! Here’s how we brought this book to life in March 2022:
Start: Women and Children First
Run from Women and Children First to the Belmont Red Line stop. Here’s the route.
Take the Red Line (which corresponds nicely to the book cover!) from Belmont to Arglye.
Run from the Argyle Red Line stop to Lady Gregory’s. Here’s the route.
End: Lady Gregory’s
About Temper:
Chicago-based author Layne Fargo’s Temper tells the story of messy, unlikeable, queer characters in Chicago’s theater scene. When the main character, actress Kira Rascher, gets the starring role in the play Temper and starts to work with famed director Malcolm Mercer, she’s pushed to her emotional and psychological limit. Fargo was inspired by the real-life scandal of Chicago’s Profiles theater in which victims came forward exposing the physical and psychological abuse that Darrell Cox inflicted upon costars, stage crew, and other staff. Journalists Aimee Levitt and Christopher Piatt broke this story in the Reader in 2016.
In just over 230 gripping pages, Fargo touches on sexuality, abortion, abuse, friendships, gender and more. Readers familiar to Chicago’s North Side can easily relate to the spots frequented by many of the characters. For example, Malcom loves to run along the lakefront. Kira often catches the 22 Bus to Andersonville. In one scene, she even walks north along Ashland Avenue to blow steam after a emotionally charged encounter. When Malcom and Kira decide on a meet up spot, Malcolm suggests the Shakespeare Statue in Lincoln Park. This book is idea for those looking for a page-turner with a social conscience and envision the characters in some of the best hangouts of Uptown, Andersonville, Ravenswood, and other areas, like Myopic Books, Holiday Club, and more.
Get Interactive: Suggested Stops & What to Look For Along the Route
Here are a few things to notice or reflect upon to bring the book to life (one of Read & Run Chicago’s mottos) along the route. These brief stops showcase just some of the many scenes in the book.
Start: Women and Children First
This Chicago favorite opened in 1929 and at the time was considered small: it only held 700 people, while other “movie palaces” of the era were in the Loop and sat closer to 3,000. In Temper, Rob and Kira first kissed just outside. “...October, not freezing yet, but a chill in the air, the smell of smoke and decay in the wind. We were standing outside the Music Box, the marquee lights making our eyes dazzle, and he’d just wrapped his herringbone coat around my shoulders.
Red Line: Belmont to Argyle
In this section, you’ll take the Red Line from Belmont to Argyle, following the same path Kira took home after a grueling rehearsal with Malcom. It’s just past 2:00am when Kira gets to the station with only 5 percent battery left. The quotes below correspond to each part of Kira’s journey home. Open your copy of Temper to page 151 to follow along or read the quotes below at the suggested time.
Segment 1: Read while waiting at the Belmont Red Line Station
“I don't remember most of my walk to Belmont. I'm the only one on the platform. The lights above me drone like cicadas. I've never noticed them before. Usually I'm standing here at a decent hour, with lots of other people around me, talking, blasting music from their phone speakers. It's not even that cold out, but I keep shivering. Violently, clenching every muscle from my toes to my jaw.
Finally, a northbound Red Line train pulls in. It's one of the shorter trains they run in the middle of the night, so I have to jog to catch up with the last car. Once I'm on board, I lean against one of the poles by the door, my temple resting on the cool stainless steel. Staying alert is physically painful, almost nauseating, but if I sit down, I'm sure I'll fall asleep and end up riding the train all the way to the end of the line at Howard.”
Segment 2: Once you’ve boarded the Red Line and left Belmont Station
“There's only one other passenger: a guy eating corn chips, lifting his phone away from his mouth so the person on the other end of the line can't hear him crunching. It's all I can hear--each chip shattering between his teeth. I think of bones snapping. Malcolm could have broken both his wrists, bracing his fall against the concrete floor. I could have burst his eardrum.”
Discussion Question 1: At this point in the book, what did you think Kira was going to do next (either that night or in life!)?
Discussion Question 2: How did her attitude about her work change after this rehearsal? Do you think this night was a turning point in how she felt about Mal?
“The train pulls into Addison.”
Segment 3: Once the train leave the Addison station
“The train leans hard to the left as it steers around the curve before the Sheridan station. The guy with the chips stands up, brushing crumbs off the front of his jacket onto the speckled gray hoot. I shut my eyes and press my forehead against the pole….My eyes are still closed, but I can hear footsteps, coming through the door at the other end of the car and then moving down the aisle. Closer and closer, stopping just a few inches away from me. Close enough I can hear the person breathing, until the train pulls away again and the rumble of the wheels on the track drowns out the sound.
Are you fucking kidding me? A completely empty train car, and this motherfucker is going to stand right next to me? The last thing I need right now is to see some creep's sad, wrinkly dick sticking out of his fly. If he touches me, I swear to- As the thought crosses my brain, I feel fingers brushing my shoulder blade. I whirl around, swinging my arm wide. My eyes don't open until I make contact.
Discussion Question 1: Do you have either a funny or scary CTA story?
Discussion Question 2: When you read this, what did you think was going to happen to Kira? Did you have any guesses for who the person was?
Segment 4: Between Sheridan and Argyle
After the scare, Kira and Rob start chatting. They talk about where each of them were and Kira gives backstory on their past relationship. “The train shudders, and I stagger back. Automatically, Rob reaches out to steady me, but his hand stops before we touch. I don’t need his help anyway, my grip on the pull keeps me upright.”The tension continues as they arrive at Argyle, the stop before Kira’s, and up until they get off at Berwyn.
Discussion Question 1: What do you think Kira and Rob’s relationship says about Kira?
Discussion Question 2: Why do you think the author only gave us Kira’s point of view?
Discussion Question 3: Do you have any people in your life who are like Kira or who are like Rob?
Get off the train at Argyle!
Segment 5: Once we arrive at the corner of Berwyn after running from Argyle stop to Berwyn
“Rob puts his hand on my back as we descend from the train platform, steering me around a sour-smelling wet patch on the second to last step…” Kira smells his aftershave and books and the wind pushes the west on Berwyn. Kira starts to reminisce about their first kiss at the Music Box Theatre, which happened much on a night like this night.
Discussion Question: Are there any specific smells, sights, and sounds in Chicago that always remind you of specific moments?
END: Lady Gregory’s
Lady Gregory’s is Spence’s favorite neighborhood stop—not necessarily because of its ambiance, which is great, but it’s “within easy stumbling distance of our Andersonville apartment.”
In the book, Fargo writes about Spence and Kira’s neighborhood, “People are always impressed when they see where Spence and I live, at least until they get inside our apartment. The surrounding blocks are a historic district, full of painstakingly preserved turn-of-the-twentieth-century homes- the kind of neighborhood where you have to apply for a permit to change the color of paint on your shutters. The three-flat greystone we live in looks impressive from the outside, but the interior is dilapidated. The skylight in the entryway leaks every spring, and sometimes you can taste rust in the tap water.”
Kira and Spence like to sit in the Library section of the restaurant. Grab a seat there to indulge in a post-run bite or drink.
This route was created by Allison Yates, owner and founder of Read & Run Chicago. Read & Run Chicago originally ran this route during a book club run in March 2022, followed by an in-person Q&A with author Layne Fargo at Lady Gregory’s.