Why do we read "Ways of Escape" with such absorption, if it is nothing more than a collection of occasional pieces written "as a form of therapy"? The most obvious answer is, because Mr. Greene could take the entries in a plumbing manual, tie them together gracefully and make them seem coherent and interesting. Furthermore, "Ways of Escape" is decorated with striking physical descriptions of the many corners of the world to which Mr. Greene escaped. There are enduringly penetrating analyses of political crises that occurred where he was escaping.

And if Mr. Greene is reticent about betraying the privacy of others, he is almost swaggeringly willing to inform on himself—his suicidal moods, his manic-depressive swings, his attraction to drugs, sex, liquor and physical danger—in sum, his many "ways of escape."…

Yet what I found most consistently interesting about "Ways of Escape" is Mr. Greene's running...