I selected this slim book based on the recommendation of the New York Times. I’d also heard it was made into a well-received film, so added it to my vacation book pile.
Blessedly short, this felt like a strange and pointless story. It is well written, but there is no meaningful story or characters. The protagonist, Robert Grainier, is orphaned/abandoned as a child, taken in by indifferent relatives. He then has an unhappy time working the railroads, trying to save money to make a life for his new family. Alas, the family dies in a wildfire while he is away at work, and he spends the rest of his long life alone in the woods.
I was reminded of Cormac McCarthy’s dark characters and grim stories, but in novels like The Road at least something happens. Here nothing really happens and no one is happy, ever. Too long to be a short story and too short to be a novel, it is likely a true reflection of the rough life on that American frontier in the early 20th century, but without any characters worthy of concern or interest, it felt like a wasted opportunity to tell a gritty story.
Fate: little book library
9 – made into a film
13 – somewhere I’ve never been (Idaho)
25 – new author to me
34 – prize winner (O. Henry and Pulitzer (almost))
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