This book opens the 2012 Man Booker Prize nominee reading season--which lasts for quite some time, because I still have one book from the 2011 season yet to read, but the very most exciting time to begin is right now, when there are 12 possibilities as winners, all equivalent in their ability to take the prize (or even make the short list). One of the challenges is that often at this point, very few of them are available in the United States, and so what I read first is dictated by that--what I can read first, without having to resort to Amazon.UK. In the past I have been able to get some on the Kindle, but that avenue is limited this time around. The good news is that 5 of the 12 are in print in the U.S., and this is the first one I read. Well, it definitely won't win. Not enough gravitas. It is a joy to read. I almost couldn't put the book down. The story is that Harold gets a letter from Queenie, someone he has not heard from in a very long time. She tells him she is dying of cancer. Harold writes a reply that has the same emotional content of her letter to him--it is perfunctory. But en route to the mailbox to post it, he undergoes a transformation that even he does not understand. He decides to walk to Queenie's bedside. Which is about 500 miles away. He has inadequate foot wear, no rain grear, no advanced training, no sunscreen, no map, nothing. The rest of the book is about the people he meets, the past that he is escaping, the things that matter to him (some of which surprise him), the things he learns--about himself and others, and the way the pilgrimage changes him. It is like Queenie's letter has unstopped a dam of pent up emotions in Harold, and he cannot stop them coming. They rain down, one after another, and it is a wonderful thing to behold.
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