Reading Group question: regret

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce included a set of Reading Group Questions. One of the questions seemed particularly appropriate. It seems proper to finish the book by proposing an answer to that one question. The question is:

 

Regret is an emotion that plays a key part in the novel. Do you think Joyce sees it as a positive or negative force?

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In answer:

 

• Joyce sees the emotion of regret as a positive force.
• It is positive in that it causes Fry fruitful contemplation and re-centering of focus.
• Fry is entering a new season in his life. The pilgrimage serves to cause Fry a major shift in focus from self-centred to other person-centred. Initially, that shift occurs in respect his target; Queenie, and then his daily contemplations bring him to focus on his relationship with his spouse. Most positive of all is that Fry, after many years, reconciles the loss of his son.
• The new season cannot be endured in old shoes. Fry’s yachting shoes deteriorate through the walk as a metaphor of how Fry need leave those shoes, and his stagnant way of life behind.
• There is no question that regret was both a positive and negative force – the later occurring in Fry’s recognition that he cannot holistically relate to his late-story followers. Nonetheless, the positive nature plays out stronger than the negative.
• Overall, the reader is left recognising that Fry will seek to make good on a wasted life. It is very plausible that all of his relationships improved as a result of his pilgrimage.

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Tim Winton, The Shepherd’s Hut

I’ve read many a Winton novel  or short story – including some of his work for younger readers. This novel made we groan up until the main character made contact with the occupant of the Shepherd’s Hut. The groan stemmed simply from the first person voice of the main character. That voice describes a loner’s journey on foot in escape from a circumstance.

That first person voice – used in current and reflective tense - is over loaded with Australian slang. Winton almost seems to pour out the entire Australian slang upon his readers. Schoolteachers could use this part of the novel to assess student’s breadth of comprehension of Australian slang could. The first person voice is current in describing the journey and reflective in drawing out the back-story.

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On making contact with the occupant of the Shepherd’s Hut, the first person voice suddenly works. It works because it changes to a richly descriptive language that is interspaced with meaningful dialogue. It works also because Winton best draws out the beauty of the stark land when he is allowing the reader to view it through two character’s eyes rather than a loner’s eyes.

My two star rating rests largely on the first part of the book (up to approximately page 140). I truly feel that Winton would have done better to find another way of communicating than the extended first-person, loner dialogue. The second part of the book is memorable Winton.

The test of the novel perhaps lies in how an independent playwright may prepare the book for screen. I suspect a playwright may draw the viewer to the Shepherd’s Hut much quicker than does the novel. The meeting of the main character and the occupant of the Shepherd’s Hut – a meeting that the main character sought to avoid - would generate suspenseful screen action.

I am reading the hard copy edition ISBN 978-0-14-378611-5 as borrowed from City of Sydney Library. This post links from Goodreads. The two star rating is of the Goodreads system of user applying 1 to 5 stars.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

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