This novel is one of the best I have read this year.
The story tells of a recently retired man who receives a letter from a woman he knew years before as a colleague at work. The letter is from a hospice where she is dying. He writes her a letter and sets out to post it but on the way to the postbox he feels this reaction is inadequate so he walks to the next post box and then the town centre. He then keeps on walking until he gets to the woman's side in the hospice in Berwick on Tweed. This walk takes many weeks as he lives on the south coast in Dorset. (In all Harold covers 627 miles over 87 days.) Harold does not even have a map with him and only the clothes he sets out in. Totally unprepared for walking, he only ever walks as far as his car, his feet suffer serious blisters and he manages scant few miles each day. The story develops around the people he encounters on this journey and the experiences that he relives as the walk gives him time and space to think.
He has the first ever opportunity to consider his life with all its perceived failures and his failed relationships as he walks. He comes to a number of conclusions about his personal history, as does his wife who reconsiders her life too in he space that his leaving creates. His journey is a constant battle with self doubt. He is ordinary and yet displays much natural unconscious goodness.
Harold survives and thrives because of the gifts and help receives from people he meets en route. He meets many varied folk and takes an interest in their stories as he tells them his. The book addresses they way that we all have to come to terms with unpleasant memories. As he comes to terms with the past he is aware of coming to life again. In doing so he becomes much more aware of the world going on around him. He sees the plants flowers and views from the roadside for the first time in his life. It is as if his life has been a dull, grey, flat existence and now it begins to become three dimensional and coloured again. The themes covered include regret, grief, meaning of life, thankfulness, gratitude, revenge and love.
This is a novel that has a deep human quality in it and expresses a faith in a deep down human goodness that receives many knock backs from the world yet is in some sense irrepressible.
The skilful plot construction contains some twists that completely took me by surprise.
It is a pilgrims progress for the modern age, replacing Christianity with “self awareness” and “finding yourself” as the religious motifs of our time. Harold treks through the slough of despond and emerges with a much clearer idea of what his life means and what is really important.
It is a simply written, accessible, and moving story of a recognisable likeable ordinary guy. He describes honestly his struggles with life and how he finds some peace through a stoical acceptance. It is also a celebration of the innate kindness of strangers.
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