Comments on: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:52:29 +0000

Sheila: I had a similar reaction — Joyce seemed to run out of things to say about halfway through the book and it got progressively weaker after that for me.

By: Sheila O'Brien

Sheila O'Brien — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 19:51:11 +0000

i just finished this book, and really had to struggle to get through the last half. While the first half was interesting, for me, it descended steeply in to mawkish sentimentality, and improbable plot. Because I love all the parts of England Harold passed through, I stayed with it, but overall was very disappointed in it. The repetition of the stories of key moments in his family added nothing, and frustrated me.
That said, I would read another of Rachel’s books. she might be just warming up here.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:57:19 +0000

Um, I wasn’t remotely saying that people don’t change. I was suggesting that Harold sounds unconvincing as a character, a 1950s version of what an old person is like.

That’s a courageous thing you did Eileen and I salute it, but I never doubted that people (including older people) do courageous things. I just thought that Harold doesn’t sound that persuasive compared to say William Corker in John Berger’s Corker’s Freedom (there’s a review at mine if you’re curious, Kevin interestingly enough put me on to Berger which I owe him onging thanks for). Corker is a dull and quiet man from outside, but Berger shows us his rich internal life, shows how much is going on inside that those outside may not see.

It’s the lack of that I was talking to. The mere fact he keeps walking isn’t that interesting, people do out of character things all the time. It’s the lack of character beforehand that sticks out.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 21:24:20 +0000

gaskella: Thanks for that information about the radio play writing background — it shows.

By: gaskella

gaskella — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:24:06 +0000

I went to hear Rachel talk about her book, having read and enjoyed it, (I was able to engage with Harold). It started off as a radio play, she’s a successful writer for radio, and it was written for her father who had cancer – he never got to see the book though. She said she welcomed being able to add all the detail into the dialogue,,,

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 15:34:38 +0000

I can understand why books like this get published and sell well — for many readers, they are warm and reassuring. I’m a little more confused about why juries put them on prize lists.

By: Sigrun

Sigrun — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 15:07:19 +0000

Towards the end of your review you describe the book “as conventional as conventional can be,” I totally agree!
I will be very disappointed if this book wins the prize – .

By: Eileen Pierce

Eileen Pierce — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:08:37 +0000

I packed up and moved to Mexico at 62, throwing everything — money, spirit, hope — into building an inn in the fishing village of San Pancho. I was hindered by rusty high school Spanish, a great deal of fear about what other people thought of me, a newly acquired sobriety and a wobbly sense of who I might be if I gave it a bit more thought. One thing for sure, Max, I changed from outside in — changing first my life and quite by accident a great deal of myself in the process. You could say I became acquainted with certain truths I had not previously been aware of. I did not walk 600 miles in a pair of deck shoes pursuing someone I had left behind…my, God, I would need hiking boots, an atlas and a great deal of the rest of my life to find all the people I accidentally left behind. Harold was rather lucky to have only the one. But I will tell you this, Max — people can and do change a great deal on the inside if they are curious and willing enough to contemplate the possibility that they may have strayed off course. Eileen

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:33:16 +0000

This is a perfect example of one of my “falling tree” books — once the tree starts to tilt to the negative, you can find all sorts of things wrong with the narrative. And, of course, if you are pulled into the tale, you conveniently would be filing the same unlikely things under the lable of “artistic licence”.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:29:30 +0000

I was wondering about how he managed for changes of shoes/clothes, but then forgot when I made my comment. You can get away with that sort of thing if the book isn’t otherwise realist in tone, but if it is it’s fair for the reader to start asking that sort of question.

Of course, wondering about stuff like that is generally a sign that the author hasn’t fully pulled you into their tale.