About this title: From the author of the bestselling "Snow Falling on Cedars" comes a compelling new novel about youth and idealism, adulthood and its compromises, and two powerfully different visions of what it means to live a good life.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 0307263150 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0307263150 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0307263150 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0307263150 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0307263150 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0307263150 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Very Good. Lightly bumped corner tips of cover, and name on title page, top corner. Otherwise book is like new! Cover is super glossy & clean. Spine is UNcreased-tight & square. Pages are tight, clean, straight, & unmarked. A3a. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 6/2/2009
ISBN-13:9780307274816ISBN:0307274810
Description: Very Good. 0307274810 Pages are not marked-We provide prompt shipping and delivery tracking information-All items are guaranteed. read more
Description: Very Good. 0307274810 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Edition: Advanced Reading Copy.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780307263155ISBN:0307263150
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Corners lightly bumped, faint ink/pen mark on page edges, several bottom corner page tips bumped/creased, over all clean sound reading copy inside & out. 255 p. Audience: General/trade. Softcover Uncorrected Proof read more
Edition: First Edition Advance Reading Copy (ARC)
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
ISBN-13:9780307263155ISBN:0307263150
Description: CONDITION: Near Fine condition book (Fine is our highest grade). Advance Reading Copy ("Firster than a First Edition"). read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2009-06-02
ISBN-13:9780307274816ISBN:0307274810
Description: New. New, unread, unused & in perfect condition with no damaged or missing pages. Pre-release book with plain cover and publisher stickers. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
"I picked this book up off of the shelf in the guest room where we stayed this past weekend. It looked perfectly normal when I first held it. Upon opening the cover, though, I discovered that the pages were all wavy and convoluted, as if the book had been given a bath or left out in the rain. I almost abandoned the read at that point -- but now I'm glad I didn't.
I hadn't read any of his other work, though Snow Falling on Cedars came highly recommended. Spousal unit said this one was pretty good, too. That fact alone kept me turning the wavy, stiff pages until the story grabbed me.
It won't spoil things to say that this story is about an extremely disturbed young man's making his way through life, in accordance with his own strict rules and priorities. The narrator seems to be the only other person to be able to find a place in that life for the long term, as difficult as finding and maintaining that place turned out to be.
I was surprised that I didn't recognize my own similar experience until I finished the story. It reminded me of a friend from high school with whom I had interacted a few times over the years. Much like the novel's John William Barry, my friend Donald is someone who only seems to to see things from his own perspective, according to his very narrow set of rules for living.
I lost touch with Don about 30 years ago, after having seen him at our 10 year high school reunion. I didn't get to talk with him much then, since he took off quite early, saying that he didn't "fit in" with the rest of us anymore. He was about to head to Wisconsin or Michigan to work a farm there -- strictly organic, of course, and "off the grid," as he put it. He had already been through two marriages at that point.
When I found him again, it was because he was in the middle of walking across the country, as an emissary of the Church of the Brethren, in the interest of showing people the plight of the homeless in this country. I located him with a random Google search, as he was interviewed by a local paper in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The picture of him was shocking. Don was a homeless man walking all over the western half of the country.
After having farmed organically for 25 years in Western Virginia, the news story said, Donald one day decided to pack all of that in, and to head out on foot to show people what homelessness looked like. He rode a Greyhound to Tucson, then started walking from there, with a giant backpack that contained all of his worldly possessions.
I went to the website the church had set up for him and found a toll-free number I could call to leave him a message. I called the number, and told Don I was interested in catching up. He called me about a week later. He seemed very happy to have heard from me. He said he had been thinking about all of the people in his life over the years, and wanted to reconnect with as many as possible. Could I help with that, he wanted to know?
Donald's rules for the walk were simple. No riding in cars. No eating in restaurants. If anyone wanted to help him, they could offer him a place to sleep out of the elements, or provide him meals in their home, or walk with him carrying his pack for as many miles as they could stand.
It was his way, or no way at all.
Don filled me in on his family, how his parents had both passed away in Florida, and how he had no relationships with his three brothers. Actually, his older brother refused to drive 20 miles to meet up with Don as he walked through Oregon the previous fall. Of course, Don wouldn't walk the 20 miles, either. It was the principle of the thing.
As we talked on the phone over the months, he told me he wanted to organize a reunion with our HS class. Would I help with that? He had an aversion to computers (had a "bad attitude" about them) so I would have to do all of that kind of thing. I said that email wasn't all that difficult, that it would make things a lot easier if people could contact him that way.
But no. It was one of his rules.
To wrap this piece up, a couple of others I had found worked up a plan for a reunion in August of 2007. We had about 30% of the class lined up to be there on an off year (39). It was all set up. Someone even agreed to pay for Don's dinner. Even pay his airfare if necessary.
But after all of that work, Don decided he wasn't interested after all. It was to be in a bar. His rules were that he would never set foot in a bar. When I said it was a restaurant that had a bar, he said it didn't matter. I told him I was disappointed. I really hoped to get to spend time with him.
No, he said. His decision was made. It didn't meet the strict criteria. No apology. Just goodbye.
I haven't heard from him since 2007. He's apparently off the grid again, now. His walk is finished. As far as I knew, he was in the process of writing a book about his experiences on the road.
In a way, I feel sorry for Don the same way I did John William Barry."
"I was excited when my book discussion group chose this book. The author's Snow Falling on Cedars is one of my all-time favorite books, so I picked up this book with anticipation. I have mixed feelings about the book even though I gave the book four stars. It's a dark story dealing with issues of class, friendship, and extremely different ideas about what constitutes a fulfilling life. Neil Countryman is raised in a working class neighborhood in Seattle, while John William Barry has an upper class background and a solid pedigree of the offspring of two of Seattle's leading families. They meet at a track meet when they are 16 years old and become best friends--in fact Neil may be John William's only true friend. Neil follows a more traditional path to adulthood. He goes to college, drifts into a relationship and then marriage, and becomes a high school English teacher. John William, on the other hand, wants to turn his back on his wealth and tradition and retreat into the wilderness of Washington State. In this way, there are strong parallels between the choices made by John William Barry and the leading character in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild. John William asks Neil to help him disappear off the grid. Countryman does and the results of that act impact the rest of his life. A compelling read that will be hard to forget."
"Guterson's quite the wordsmith, but the plot needs thickening. My bookclub chose it because we liked Snow Falling on Cedars so well, but we agreed that this effort fell short. Once we got the picture that the young man was troubled, the Cascades wild and beautiful, and in 1975 kids used drugs, it was pretty well over."
"This is a fascinating character study. John William and the narrator Neil Countryman are drawn to each other because of a fearless, passionate love of nature. But Countryman can't understand what motivates his charismatic friend to choose a hermit's life when he himself begins a more conventional adulthood. He recounts the strange, reckless (that is, mapless) trips he takes with his friend, but also his encounters with John Williams cold mother and negligent father. What drives his friend to reject all his ties with the outside world (save his connection with Countryman himself)? Abuse? Madness? Or could John William have been right about the life of solitude? "I suppose I've thrown in my lot with love, and don't know any other way to go on breathing. I embrace this world -- the world my friend hated -- and suffer it consciously for its compensations, and fully expect to awake one day to the consequences of this bargain I've struck, since life, eventually closes in" (p. 131), says Countryman. Now that John William has left Countryman millions of dollars of wealth, he certainly doesn't have a choice but to face with that world, for better or for worse."
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