Neil Countryman and John William Barry meet as teens on the running track. John William comes from Seattle’s old money and founding families, Neil is from the other side of the tracks. They develop a love of the outdoors, which for John William results in him becoming, for a time, the Hermit of the Hof.
A novel that I find my brain returns to ponder periodically.
I recall loving Snow Falling on Cedars, which prompted me to pick this up when last in Barbican Library. A slow story, and the setting and focus on a young man’s search for solitude and meaning, brought to mind Into the Wild. Thankfully The Other is without the selfishness and stupidity inherent in that story. My only irritation with this novel was towards the end, with the sudden shift of narrator to John William Barry’s father.