The Unlikely Pilgrimage
Taking a long walk often helps clear the mind. Lots of cultures formalize this by suggesting a pilgrimage–walking with an (often religious) quest in view. Literature since ‘The Canterbury Tales’ has exploited the long walk as a framework for a good story.
Rachel Joyce has done this in her beautifully written novel ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’. The main character, a retired English everyman, heads for the mailbox one morning and doesn’t look back– for months and hundreds of miles.
He’s unprepared, he’s out-of-shape, his motives are unclear. As he walks through rural England, Harold (it is not a religious quest) slowly discovers answers to previously unasked questions. At times his quest is made public and popular, although the public understanding is all wrong. A group of followers with their own stories gets added to the plot for a while.
Nothing was predictable about the story. It was full of genuine revelations.
The pace is slow, but the writing is fresh and inventive. Sometimes I doubted the walking pace–anyone, even in tennis shoes should cover more miles/day than Harold managed–especially after the first days’ blisters were overcome. Along with the walking speed, some readers may find the book’s pace a bit lethargic. But, considering the revelations and transformations that take place, a long slow walk was just what was needed.
