Enric reviewed In the distance by Hernan Diaz
Review of 'In the distance' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
1st third of the book very interesting. After that, it keeps on repeating the same things again and again.
256 pages
English language
Published Jan. 21, 2017
"A young Swedish boy finds himself in penniless and alone in California. He travels East in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great push to the West. Driven back over and over again on his journey through vast expanses, Håkan meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre (travel narratives, the bildungsroman, nature writing, the Western), offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness. At first, it was a contest, but in time the beasts understood that, with an embrace and the slightest push, they had to lie down on their side and stay until Håkan got up. He did this each time he thought he spied someone on the circular horizon. Had Håkan and his animals ever been spotted, the …
"A young Swedish boy finds himself in penniless and alone in California. He travels East in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great push to the West. Driven back over and over again on his journey through vast expanses, Håkan meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre (travel narratives, the bildungsroman, nature writing, the Western), offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness. At first, it was a contest, but in time the beasts understood that, with an embrace and the slightest push, they had to lie down on their side and stay until Håkan got up. He did this each time he thought he spied someone on the circular horizon. Had Håkan and his animals ever been spotted, the distant travelers would have taken the vanishing silhouettes for a mirage. But there were no such travelers-the moving shadows he saw almost every day in the distance were illusions. With the double intention of getting away from the trail and the cold, he had traveled south for days. Hernan Diaz is the author of Borges, Between History and Eternity (Bloomsbury 2012), managing editor of RHM, and associate director of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia University. He lives in New York"--
1st third of the book very interesting. After that, it keeps on repeating the same things again and again.
This is an immersive, innovative, compelling story. There's elements of Cormac McCarthy's mythic plains here, but not quite so nightmarish. More just flat and bleak.
The protagonist spends the majority of the story keeping himself as far as possible from civilization, but when he inevitably ends up back in touch with a human being, he ends up re-encountering a magnified version of his brutal self, whereupon he flings himself back into the void of the wilderness again.
This book is for any seeker of an identity that no longer exists.