The last Book of the Week Wednesday of 2020, a heartfelt thanks to Dylan for sharing his insights week in and week out.
December 30th, 2020: The Road Home by Jim Harrison, Washington Square Press
I’m going to wrap up what has been quite a year with the beauty and resonance of Harrison’s “sequel” to Dalva. This book takes up the story of the Northridge family, told through first-person accounts and memories of five different characters, moving brilliantly back and forth through time, but always centered around the wide-open spaces of Nebraska. Each distinct voice is its own, but also a part of the author, I think, and together these voices create a world and family so real it’s hard to believe the Northridges don’t actually exist. This is one of those books that a reader can disappear into, and live for a while, feeling, smelling, tasting, seeing a life different from our own. It’s enough to make me want to jump in an old Subaru station wagon, as Harrison often did, and drive the back roads of the Plains, searching for traces of the Northridge family.
Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s to better times ahead.
