The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Harold Fry, #1) in Nothing But Reading Challenges

Jul 25, 2012 Chris rated it really liked it

Shelves: united-kingdom, fiction, road-trip

Shortly after finishing this book I turned on the radio and there was Pink Floyd's "Time." Yeah, yeah, I know Dark Side of the Moon is supposed to sync up with Wizard of Oz, but 40 years later, it matches up quite well with this book. For Harold Fry and his wife Maureen are truly living lives of quiet desperation in the truly English way. As they review their lives throughout the book, you see where they were certain that time would improve things, that Harold would come to have a better relatio Shortly after finishing this book I turned on the radio and there was Pink Floyd's "Time." Yeah, yeah, I know Dark Side of the Moon is supposed to sync up with Wizard of Oz, but 40 years later, it matches up quite well with this book. For Harold Fry and his wife Maureen are truly living lives of quiet desperation in the truly English way. As they review their lives throughout the book, you see where they were certain that time would improve things, that Harold would come to have a better relationship with their son, David, and that David would outgrow his childhood isolation and find his place in the world. And then something happened, and time seems to have stopped. The sun goes down and comes up behind them, but they don't seem to have moved.
It takes a letter from a woman Harold once worked with to start things moving again. It's been 20 years since Queenie Hennessey abruptly left the brewery where they worked and disappeared from Harold's life. Now she writes to him to tell him she in a hospice, dying of cancer. Harold writes a brief note and sets out to mail it, but he just can't seem to put it in the box. He walks from one post box to the next until a chance encounter with a young girl makes him decide that if he walks all the way to Queenie's hospice (more than 500 miles across England), Queenie will live.
The road trip in itself is pretty much what you'd expect. 65-year-old Harold is totally unprepared for a journey. He's wearing yachting shoes, and he left his cell phone at home. He meets many people who help him; he walks through blisters and almost unbearable pain; he finds himself in many strange situations that most people would walk away from, but because Harold isn't the type to make a scene, he patiently wait for them to get through whatever it is they need to get off their chests. And through it all, he thinks over his life with Maureen, their early years together, the birth and childhood of their son, and the estrangement that has had them living separate lives for 20 years. Back home, Maureen is having many of the same thoughts, giving the reader a different viewpoint.
This being the 21st century, word of Harold's pilgrimage gets out and soon he's got a three-ring circus on his hands as people flock from all over to join him, each one trying to find some hope for themselves in what Harold is doing. There are times when your heart breaks for Harold and there are times you want to scream in frustration at him.
The one thing that really bothered me about the book was the distances he covered. There appear to be days where he only walked a couple of miles. I think in one place it said he went half a mile in an hour. Even assuming Harold wasn't able to walk at anything like a brisk pace, it seems very unlikely he was walking one mile or less and hour.
Some people may feel cheated by the ending, as if Joyce pulled something over on them. I almost did. But if you go back and read through the book again, you'll see she played fair with her story. In fact, it fits nicely into the theme of people only seeing what they want to see. ...more

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Sep 05, 2021 Marla Cosner rated it it was amazing

Without a doubt, my favorite book this year. :)

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Nov 10, 2012 Tfalcone rated it liked it

And we are walking, Harold meets many intersting characters on his journey. Very English book. Did make me cry in the end.

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Feb 04, 2014 Amber rated it liked it

Shelves: general-fiction

I loved all the characters that Harold met on his journey. I would say this is a love story not about the Harold and the woman he goes to see but about him and his wife. I found the way secrets were revealed and how they caused each character to behave and interact with not only others but themselves well done. It went from the "I'm not sure" category to the "I'm glad I read it" category. ...more

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