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In the Distance
Verfasst von Hernan Diaz
Gesprochen von Peter Berkrot
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Mit Anhören beginnenBeschreibung
A young Swedish immigrant finds himself penniless and alone in California. The boy travels East in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great current of emigrants pushing West. Driven back again and again, he meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, swindlers, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre, offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness.
Buchaktionen
Mit Anhören beginnenInformationen über das Buch
In the Distance
Verfasst von Hernan Diaz
Gesprochen von Peter Berkrot
Beschreibung
A young Swedish immigrant finds himself penniless and alone in California. The boy travels East in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great current of emigrants pushing West. Driven back again and again, he meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, swindlers, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre, offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness.
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Book on CD narrated by Peter Berkrot.In the mid-19th century a young teen sets out from Sweden with his older brother to America. Bound for New York, they get separated when changing ships, and Håkan, with no English, mistakenly takes a ship bound for San Francisco. Arriving at the height of the gold rush, and not fully understanding the breadth of the continent he must traverse, he is determined to earn his way East to reconnect with his brother Linus. Along the way he encounters a wide variety of characters – some helpful, many not – and learns to rely upon himself.This is a Western unlike any other I’ve ever read. The “romance” of the West is nowhere to be found here. This is often a barren, dangerous place with few allies and many enemies. In places the novel takes a philosophical turn as Håkan ponders his fate and occasionally despairs of every achieving his goal. Håkan, himself, is the stuff of legend. For one thing, he continues to grow throughout the book, becoming a giant of a man; the stories of his escapades and his legend grow even bigger. The novel covers decades, taking Håkan from age fourteen to “white-haired” old age. I loved the poetic writing though sometimes was frustrated by the lack of clear story arc. Also, occasionally Díaz writes entire passages in Swedish, with little or no translation. I suppose he wanted the reader to feel as lost as his character. A few times in the book, Díaz repeats entire passages verbatim a page or two after first introducing them. I think fans of Jose Saramago would like this book. My F2F book group had a spirited discussion, though most members did not like it. My final verdict: Marvelous writing and a fascinating character.Peter Berkrot narrated the audio version. I did not like his delivery, though I eventually grew used to it. I think I’ll probably re-read this as some point, and I’ll definitely rely on the text version.
Wow. I couldn't put this book down. It tells the story of a Hakan, Swedish man who comes to the California as a teenager and sets out toward New York to find his brother. He travels in the Wild West, usually alone, becoming a legend in the process. The writing is incredibly engaging, even in parts where there are long lulls in the action. As you would expect in a Wild West tale, the landscape is as much of a character as any of the characters, but Diaz pulls that off without ever being trite, especially because Hakan is more comfortable in the places that most other people avoid. The book is ever so slightly surreal, and yet remains plausible even as it grows into an ever taller big fish tale.
Mythic tale of a Swedish immigrant who catches the wrong ship in England and finds himself disembarked in California during the Gold Rush rather than in New York. The novel traces his adventures as he wanders east, running opposite to the flow of westbound settlers.
There is a popular narrative about the settling of the American West. Streams of settlers set out from the East and made their way in covered wagons to the lands further west in search of a better life. These pioneers built farms, they encountered native peoples under both peaceful and hostile conditions, they panned and mined for the gold of their fever dreams, and they pushed ever forward in the promise of Manifest Destiny. There are variations on this tale, of course, but most variations do not generally veer too far from this imagined story. Hernan Diaz, though, has turned this story on its head in his novel, In the Distance, starting with an immigrant determined to get not from the East to California but from California to New York.Hakan Soderstrom is an old man called The Hawk about whom many legends are told when he sits down on a ship bound for Alaska and tells his story. He and his brother Linus left their parents and their home in Sweden to travel to America. At a stopover in Portsmouth, Linus disappears and speaking no English, Hakan must try to find their boat to America himself. Instead of the one heading for New York that he assumes Linus caught, Hakan ends up on a boat making for San Francisco to land people close to the gold fields. The young boy intends to walk the breadth of the continent to find his brother and protector in New York. Along the way, he meets with a whole host of people, some of whom are willing to help him and others who want to use him for their own ends, but for the largest part of his journey, he is alone, reliant only on himself, what the few kind people he has encountered have taught him, and what nature provides.The novel is written in soaring prose with evocatively described landscapes and echoes of Frankenstein's monster's journey. The Hawk is an epic figure, traveling mainly on foot across empty stretches of a new country and also journeying into the recesses his own soul. This is both a literal and a metaphorical quest for his brother and for home. The hardships that Hakan endures would have felled a lesser man. Diaz captures the emptiness of the land, the solitude, even in company, of the immigrant who cannot communicate in the language of the country, and the loss of the self to constructed myths told by others. Reading this felt like sitting out in the blazing sun for hours with time telescoping in and out, some pages seeming to last for days and others for seconds. It is a book about both existence and nothingness. Not for the reader who wants fast moving plot, but for one who will take the time to sink into the hypnotic maelstrom.
This novel is genre breaking. It is historical fiction in that it is set in and around California during the goldrush. It's a story of one man's courage, determination and will to live. It is also a unique look at the humanity and the drama around a booming goldrush town. I highly recommend that you take this incredible journey with young Hakan Soderstrom (Hawk) from his time as a young boy who left Sweden with his brother and somehow ended up in San Francisco during the goldrush. We follow him on his epic journey through the California desert and back again as he attempts to walk across America in order to find his brother who he lost in New York. This was an amazing book because of its scope, and because of the beautiful prose. Diaz has written a book that is a literary treasure, all lovingly told, and Diaz uses his literary prowess to portray the 19 century American landscape in all iit's beauty and grandeur. The book is stunning in its scope. The old west comes alive under Diaz's capable hand. Highly recommended.
A different read for me and my first time reading a Western so that is why I'm still gathering my thoughts around it. It is a sad, heartbreaking story and still very human. Search, discoveries and loss but above all, a terrible loneliness, maybe the one that every explorer regardless of their thirst for glory or richness, faced when coming to new lands such as America (and by this I mean the whole continent).
A young Swedish immigrant finds himself penniless and alone in California. The boy travels east in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great current of emigrants pushing west. Driven back again and again, he meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, swindlers, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre, offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness.
Häkän Söderstrom and his older brother Linus are sent by their Swedish tenant farmer parents to New York via Porstmouth, England. There was only enough money for 2 tickets. Häkän was, and I'm guessing, maybe 14? 13? and Linus 16 or 15? Häkän looks up to his brother and trusts him endlesslyThey make it to Portsmouth, and Linus disappears. One second he's there, the next he's not. After looking and looking, H finally gets on a boat, thinking Linus has embarked to look for him.And he ends up in San Francisco. It's 1849, maybe 1850. And from there, in his desire to travel to NY and find Linus he has many accidental adventures. He makes friends, learns many things, and becomes a legend. He also becomes a bit of a hermit.This book is fascinating but ultimately very sad. What did their parents think? What happens to L and H in the end? H came so close to having a typical life when he met Helen, but it was not to be.In many ways this reminded me of Patrick DeWitt's novels, but it is also original. What an interesting character Diaz created, in a time and place that has been written about so many times--but not like this.Also--amazing cover. Only I kept picking it up upside down.