'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' book club review...

Sam:

When I first heard that we were reading 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' (Rachel Joyce) as a book club read, I wasn't particularly enthused. The cover looked old fashioned and the title seemed wordy and dated.
Yet after coming across this title in a charity shop and reading it, I have much admiration for Joyce as a storyteller and am determined to get my hands on everything she has ever written. There is nothing revolutionary about this book. It is a book about ordinary people, each one, like all humans, with their own story and 'defining' moment.
I really admire the way Joyce can use so few words to convey so much. There is very little dialogue in the very first chapter yet it kind of expresses everything about the Fry's marriage at that time. Being a book about walking the length of England, there is obviously a lot of description and setting info which I would often find tedious but not here. Joyce has just got such a concise way of writing yet she seems to make a point with every sentence. She can home in on the smallest detail and conjure up such an ambience.
In contrast to what many of us thought about 'What Dreams May Come' in that it was a struggle to read. I found the prose in Harold Fry quickly carried me through the pages. I was very surprised by how my feelings towards Maureen grew warmer as the pages progressed. Meanwhile, Harold endeared himself to me almost from the very beginning in his resolve to do something as ridiculous and far-fetched in the belief that it could make a difference. To make that effort with all odds against him says a lot about his character. This wonderful book also says a lot the society we live in today. Contemporary culture and particularly the media in this book seem to behave typical of contemporary real-life institutions yet interestingly Joyce shows us that we haven't actually lost our pre-media England. Some parts of the country and nature remains as it always was, untouched by chaos and modernism. As Joyce says, life looks a lot different when you are walking through it!

Nick:

This is going to be a weird review. I’ll just get it out of the way. I didn’t like this book. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a fantastic idea, its cast is believable, well written and easy to care for, but I wasn’t the target audience. When reading it, I never thought this book was written for a person who doesn’t like the countryside, is in his early twenties, and doesn’t have any interest in gardening, teacups and teacakes and walking holidays. This wasn’t a book for me at all, but I appreciate the story, and the superb writing ability of Rachel Joyce. I just didn’t enjoy it at all.

NEXT STOP: BERWICK

It’s another mundane, unchanging day at Kingsbridge for Harold Fry. That’s when he receives a letter from Queenie Hennessey, another ghost from his past. She is dying of cancer. As Harold heads off to post his own letter, he passes postboxes and ends up at a petrol station, has a chat with the cashier and then sets off for a 600 mile walk for Berwick, right at the Scottish border. Armed with nothing other than a pair of boat shoes and a mind full of possibilities, Harold walks the height of the country based on nothing but blind faith. On paper, this sounds awesome, and it is. Harold Fry is a character who doesn’t say a whole lot, he’s been taught to keep his emotions hidden and he hates confrontation. We’re following a coward along his trek, and that’s obvious right away when he and his wife exchange conversations that have long ago lost any sense of passion. Along the way, we learn about his history since he has nothing to do other than think about his past, and we soon discover that he isn’t just walking to cure cancer, he’s walking for redemption.

Harold meets loads of characters as he walks, some you take a shine to, and some you won’t care for at all. And that’s a good thing. There’s a great diverse set of faces you’ll encounter, which does tone down the heavy OAP vibe going on. Sometimes the story swings by his wife’s life, and Maureen is a character you may not like right away. She’s humourless, cold, but the after-image of a pleasant woman flashes by every now and then. She never quite understands Harold’s need to walk; instead she makes him suffer with meaningless, venomous words. As you learn more about their past relationship, their vitriolic conversations make more sense. It’s just that when the book starts, I honestly thought this would be a festival of elderly conventions. That’s not what I look for in a book, but I reckon if the audience this book was written for read it, they would love it. I can see that, easily. I’m sorry, but reading about Rex stopping to chat with Harold from his fence isn’t interesting for me.

LAST STOP: BERWICK

Near the late-book, things get more interesting. Facts from their past catch up to them and I did eventually warm to Harold. Which was nice since he was an emotionless drone for the most part of the book. Maureen, too is a character to empathize with, and when certain revelations come out of the dark, they did startle me. Even now, in retrospect, it’s obvious, right? Then again, it always is afterwards. As Harold’s walk journeys on, his motivations become clearer, and learning about his past is interesting, but because you’re shadowing him for so long, it gets boring fast. My reading sessions just started chugging along, I never looked forward to read the next chapter and I kept glancing at the map at the back of the book to see where I was and how close Berwick was, even thought I could just look at the page number. And it’s never fun when you’re reading like that. I never want to look forward to an ending. I always want the book to go on and on because I’m enjoying it so much. I never enjoyed Harold Fry enough.

Rachel Joyce can write so well, there’s no getting around that. I wanted to love this book, as with every book, but I feel that if the characters were more my age, I reckon I would have loved it. I know this is all sounding so awful, but I can’t stress how uninterested I am in the country life. I’m an urban guy. City skylines, neon lights, crowd-packed streets, and boozehounds are what I like in settings. Not wide open spaces of nothing with people fording the fields with ugly boat shoes. Harold Fry is a 6/10. It would have been about a 4/10 if it wasn’t written so well, and had such well-designed and believable characters. It’s a weird rating, but Harold Fry did nothing for me as a reading experience. As a writing lesson, it’s excellent, but for pure enjoyment, it’s so much less than that.

Lastly let me just say one thing- this books reeks of beige and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.

Sharon S:

I found this book a gentle read- I didn’t have any urgency to read it I just read it for the sake of reading it. Indifferent I suppose. Don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad book- it’s just not an outstanding book either- sorry to say I agree with Nick- not recommendable and very ‘50 shades of beige’!

Wendy:

I loved this book – so much so that I have bought the sequel! I think though that Joyce had a particular audience in mind when she read this book – that audience being middle aged to older people. I can see why the younger generation may not connect. I however connected brilliantly with Harold and all the characters, especially the failing marriage and feelings surrounding the themes of the story. I particularly enjoyed Maureen’s reminiscent chapters and the journey Harold went through- his discovery as a person and with other people really had an impact on me. I would definitely recommend this book but not to the younger generation.

David:

This is not particularly a book I would pick up myself and read or have an interest in reading but I found myself pleasantly surprised with it. I found it quite tedious in the beginning but the more I got into it the more I found myself enjoying it and the ‘redemption’ theme to the story. I did however in parts really distaste Harold’s helplessness and wanted him to be more strong willed. Parts of the story reminded me of another journey novel ‘The 100 year old man who climbed out a window’ which I enjoyed.

Overall though I found it very sweet and quite endearing, however I wouldn’t recommend it as its quite niche and particular.

Ann:

I really enjoyed this book and found it a great book club choice which suited my needs. The book gave me mixed emotions- in parts it was sad and in others I was just simply annoyed! The crowd at the end just made me mad- this was Harold’s journey not theirs!

I connected brilliantly with some of the characters though and loved how the places are all local to me and I could envisage them brilliantly. A fantastically written book but not recommendable unfortunately.

Silja:

I found this book such a journalistic exercise. It was so formulaic- she had her beginning, middle and end and all the technical requirements needed to comprise a “good story”.  This book really wasn’t my cup of tea- I found Harold boring and couldn’t identify with him at all. The story just didn’t go anywhere for me- I was expecting something exciting and unexpected to happen (especially to Harold) and it never came- instead it was the same of march of Harold walking, him meeting people, those people leaving and then back to Harold walking again!

I wanted a spark or something to pull me in and it just never came- the story had no freeness or creativity for me which left me feeling so disappointed and deflated. I invested my time into the story so I made a commitment to get to the end- but even that had no real worth for me.

The beginning and end did pick up a bit compared to the middle though- the middle was just saggy and drawn out and so much could have been cut out- I just wanted Harold to hurry up and get there!

I really rushed through the book and was so disappointed considering there were such rave reviews and recommendations for it. Needless to say I will not be recommending it to friends and have no desire to read any more of Joyce’s works.

Sharon C:

I really enjoyed this book and like Wendy, really connected with Harold and the other characters. When I began the book I wondered how Joyce would keep it going but once I read on I found it simply riveting. The journey was very much to ‘right a wrong’ for me and I think Joyce wrote it incredibly. Some of the characters I wish I had seen less (Wilf) and more (Nadia) of and in places felt like they were rushed or plonked in to beef out the story abit.

I have already downloaded the sequel and look forward to reading about Queenie and her side of the story although I really want to hear more about Maureen- and I was convinced she would run away with the neighbour! The book did that to me though- when I was convinced of something it turned out completely different- the son’s suicide completely threw me!

As much as I enjoyed it I wouldn’t recommend it-it’s such an unusual and particular book I know that none of my friends would enjoy it.

Margaret:

This book was well written which helped you to get into the Characters. Has short chapters and good descriptive detail, which made you feel that you were walking along side Harold on his journey. The topic was well researched. Since reading this book I have read 'The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy' as I wanted to hear about Queenie side of the story. I enjoyed both of the above books and would recommend them. If you have already read 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' it a must to read 'The Love Songs of Miss Queenie Hennessy’ to complete the story.