"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" Rachel Joyce

"As a passerby, he was in a place where everything, not only the land, was open. People would feel free to talk, and he was free to listen. To carry a little of them as he went.”  Rachel Joyce, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry"

The habit of day-to-day life is just that - a habit - but we don't always recognize the toll of a habitual life.  It requires a change of perspective to see our lives for what they are.  This book is about a change of perspective - a change of about 600 miles done one step at a time.

Harold Fry receives a letter from Queenie Hennessy and decides to mail a reply.  But a funny thing happens on the way to the post box, and he decides to deliver the letter to Queenie in person.  With only a light jacket and wearing yachting shoes, Harold sets out on the journey from Kingsbridge in the south of England to Berwick-upon-Tweed which lies just south of the border to Scotland.

As with all quests, Harold meets characters that help him probe the past for what was and what could be.  In this, the book is much like Ron McLarty's "Memory of Running," and Harold, like Smithy, have to work through the events of the past to make sense of the present.  The beginning of their treks, Smithy's across the U.S. on a bicycle and Harold's up the length of England on foot, are similar as well, including the aches, pains and blisters of prolonged physical activity, the recommendations and help by those who listen to their stories, and the help provided by strangers who take them into their lives and homes.

Both characters have drawn away from others over time and during the journey their protective shells start to melt. Quoting the text is difficult when I listen instead of read, but at one time Harold says that he was beginning to care for people other than just his wife.  (If someone knows the specific quote, please let me know.)  Again a common device for a quest novel.

Although Harold is the one walking, his wife who is waiting at home for him is also making a journey of the mind.  She has as much to realize about herself as Harold does about himself, and his absence forces her to take that mental walk on her own.

What is it about us that craves new things and not the same old story?  If this book is so much like "Memory of Running" published eight years earlier, what is new about it that made the listen so enjoyable?  Smithy in "Memory" lives an extraordinary life filled with dysfunction and damaged characters.  This is clear from the beginning.  Harold seems to be heading into a typical middle-class retirement including a wife, a child and a house.  Most of us might not be able to connect with Smithy, obese, morose and the brother of a mentally disturbed sister, but we can see ourselves easily falling into the mundane life of Harold Fry.  And do we also have skeletons in our closets like he does?  Should we step away from our lives to get a better view?  Would it take 600+ miles of stepping away from our life like it did Harold?

I've still got 4 hours of listening yet to go, and so I don't know what all the skeletons are yet, but the narration and story keep me going.  I have to follow Harold all the way to Berwick, if he ever makes it there.