Braddy Reads The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Man, it's been nearly six weeks since I last finished a book. I just don't read as much as I used to since I stopped taking the bus to work all the time. I've also still been working my way very, very slowly through Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which is a book that a person could probably spend years reading. So I'm thankful to my book club for providing me with this selection, which gave me something of a break.

Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was not quite the book I expected it to be. Harold Fry is an elderly man who learns that a good friend of his is dying of cancer. He writes a note to wish his friend goodbye; however, when he steps out to mail the note, he walks right past the mailbox and decides, on a whim, to walk all the way from his southern England home to Berwick-upon-Tweed to say goodbye in person. Along the way, he reminisces on his failures in life - everything from his job to his marriage to his parenting. He's a sorry, aging figure driven on by the hope that, somehow by making this walk to thank an old friend for a favor she had done for him long ago, he can set everything right again.

The book frustrates me. At times, it's so predictable as to be banal. At times, there are these bits of shoehorned editorial that completely take one out of the experience of reading. But then, at the best of times, there's this sublime moment when a side character who makes little more than a cameo in Harold's story leaves such an impression that you remember them the entire way through the story.

Throughout his walk, Harold starts to accumulate stories from individuals who have fully-realized lives, yet they leave only a bit of who they are with him. These encounters are funny, touching, sometimes disturbing, and universally fleeting, yet there's a great profound poetry to them. These little moments are what make the book worth reading.

And, I'll admit it, the ending, when Harold finally reaches his destination, plays out exactly the way it needs to and in a way I did NOT see coming.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry isn't a perfect story, nor is it completely unique (of all things, it often reminded me of the movie Forrest Gump). The pilgrimage, though, is one worth taking. If you're in need of a good summer book, I'd recommend this one.