"I don't want to participate in any of it." | The Other

Engaging at multiple levels, but not for everyone | The Other | David Guterson

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	• The Other David Guterson Knopf, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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Compelling tale

This is the first of Guterman's books I have read, and it captivated me. Coincidence, relationship, circumstance, decisions, remorse--aren't these the pieces of our lives? The confusion and regret with which Rand remembers his life with his wife and son, and Countryman's attempts to reconcile himself with his lack of action make the end of this book heartbreakingly sad. This story is told the way Countryman had to tell it, remembering every detail of the strange friendship; his character (high school English teacher) is true to type. It's a book about the unexpected journey to becoming a tortured soul, and is well worth the read.

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"I don't want to participate in any of it."

This book is the most quintessentially Seattle book I've ever read. There's plenty of Portland in there, too, and the Pacific Northwestern reader will feel constant ripples of recognition and amusement as Guterson dissects our urban obsession with what we eat and drink and the precise ways in which we indulge our picky forms of consumerism.

As a novel, this is a fascinating story. Two young men are obsessed with turning their backs on the Hamburger world, and one does to its terrible end. The story has a neat trick, you see... the one takes the place of the other. I won't elaborate for fear of spoiling the story, but it's a fine, fine piece of plotting.

The book tends towards the catalog, an almost Whitmanesque accrual of details. You'll either love it or hate it (I loved it). I admit I bridled at being asked to settle in for Rand's final monolog, but once I did, I hoped that I'd finally be getting to the root of things. But of course, that's saved for the last page, that final sense of, "oooooh."

Excellent.

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Engaging at multiple levels, but not for everyone

This book engaged me on 3 different levels. The most impressive was the well constructed memoir-style of the book. The narrator tells his story somewhat in sequence, but has to move back and forth in time to provide clarity in the telling; and then circle back around at the end to fill in some gaps that he never knew back in the 70s. It's choppy, but creates the feel of a truly authentic re-telling of a story remembered from a distance of 30 years.

Second, the novel works as symbolic exploration of the paradox of being a part of our materialistic society and knowing that we aren't living in a way that is sustainable or perhaps even justifiable. Almost everyone in the novel is trapped by a different manifestation of what society expects, or how society operates. This kept me thinking even after finishing the book.

Third is the story which, on surface, is the least engaging aspect. If a reader is looking only for plot, only for characters navigating along to hold the interest of the reader, then this book will disappoint. However, for those with high school friends that crashed and burned, or with their own ambivalence about whether they have sold out to join "hamburger world" -- this book will pull you in and give you reason to pause.

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From the author of the best-selling Snow Falling on Cedars, a dazzling new novel about youth and idealism, adulthood and its compromises, and two powerfully different visions of what it means to live a good life.

John William Barry has inherited the pedigree?and wealth?of two of Seattle?s elite families; Neil Countryman is blue-collar Irish. Nevertheless, when the two boys meet in 1972 at age sixteen, they?re brought together by what they have in common: a fierce intensity and a love of the outdoors that takes them, together and often, into Washington?s remote backcountry, where they must rely on their wits?and each other?to survive.

Soon after graduating from college, Neil sets out on a path that will lead him toward a life as a devoted schoolteacher and family man. But John William makes a radically different choice, dropping out of college and moving deep into the woods, convinced that it is the only way to live without hypocrisy. When John William enlists Neil to help him disappear completely, Neil finds himself drawn into a web of secrets and often agonizing responsibility, deceit, and tragedy?one that will finally break open with a wholly unexpected, life-altering revelation.
Riveting, deeply humane, The Other is David Guterson?s most brilliant and provocative novel to date.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5