The Other (Hardcover)

by David Guterson (Author)
Key Phrases: cedar mat, pick work, blood pact, John William, South Fork Hoh, Chronic Obsessions (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008: When John William Barry and Neil Countryman meet at a high school track meet in the early 1970s, they are two sides of the same coin: John is a trust fund baby and student of a prestigious private school while Neil is solidly working class, but they share an affinity for the outdoors and apprehension over impending changes in their lives. After an unintentionally challenging week lost in the wilds of the North Cascades, John is compelled to an ascetic path: life in a remote river valley in the Olympic Peninsula rainforest, where he chips a shelter from a granite wall and immerses himself in the esoterica of Gnostic dualism --a philosophy that holds that the material world is illusional and destructive. Neil meanwhile chooses a traditional path as a father and school teacher, despite his troubled friend's exhortations to eschew "hamburger world" and find truth in a simpler, stripped-down existence. Nothing is that simple, of course, and The Other compellingly explores the compromises we make to balance meaning and security in our lives through the choices (and their subsequent consequences) of these two men. --Jon Foro

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From Publishers Weekly
Guterson (Snow Falling on Cedars) runs out of gas mulling the story of two friends who take divergent paths toward lives of meaning. A working-class teenager in 1972 Seattle, Neil Countryman, a middle of the pack kind of guy and the book's contemplative narrator, befriends trust fund kid John William Barry—passionate, obsessed with the world's hypocrisies and alarmingly prone to bouts of tears—over a shared love of the outdoors. Guterson nicely draws contrasts between the two as they grow into adulthood: Neil drifts into marriage, house, kids and a job teaching high school English, while John William pulls an Into the Wild, moving to the remote wilderness of the Olympic Mountains and burrowing into obscure Gnostic philosophy. When John William asks for a favor that will sever his ties to the hamburger world forever, loyal Neil has a decision to make. Guterson's prose is calm and pleasing as ever, but applied to Neil's staid personality it produces little dramatic tension. Once the contrasts between the two are set up, the novel has nowhere to go, ultimately floundering in summary and explanation. (June)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1St Edition edition (June 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307263150
• ISBN-13: 978-0307263155
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #94,422 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #6 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( G ) > Guterson, David
  #52 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Metaphysical
  #75 in	Books > Religion & Spirituality > Fiction > Visionary Fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars YES! and no, June 7, 2008

By	EGranfors (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews

I have been waiting for David Guterson's next book for several years.

What I liked: each of the scenes in the mountains with his eccentric and then bewildering friend, John William; the scenes in his classroom (too brief, wanted more, but then I too was a high school teacher); the trek through Europe and Neil's falling in love and early relationship. The reality of how poor many people were in that era as they struggled their way through college was very true to life, and Neil's commentaries on a variety of poets interested me as well.

I also admired the way Guterson interweaves the third-person narrative through secondary narrators even though his protagonist, Neil, is telling the story.

What I disliked: the entire denouement with all the scenes and flashbacks of John William Barry's parents and the endless monolog of the father. The scene in the lawyer's office and the merciless detail also seem to be filling a page quota rather than telling the story.

Overall, yes, I liked this book, but I didn't love it the way I loved "Snow Falling on Cedars" and "East of the Mountains." I think the editor could have helped Guterson trim 50 pages minimum.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Snow Falling on Snoozers...", August 6, 2008

By	Kevin Quinley "GeezerJock" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Save yourself four hours and just take two Ambien instead. This tale holds promise but turns out to be a plodding bore-fest. The narrator protagonist tells the story of his eccentric buddy John William Barry.

The latter is a trust fund kid who determines to embark into the woods and live (and eventually die) like a hermit.

Long after the death, the protagonist learns that his friend has willed his $400+ million fortune to the narrator.

I loved "East of the Mountains" and thought "Snow Falling on Cedars" was good but thought this plodding tale was a dud. For example, there are multiple points where a single paragraph runs on for a page, a page and a half.

That alone does not earn the novel my critique, but suggests the degree of tedium that lies in store for the intrepid reader.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Great Story..., July 10, 2008

By	Steven James (Washington State) - See all my reviews

But a really lousy execution. Oh my gosh, what a snooze-fest. I so wanted to like this book because I paid full price for the hardback. What a letdown. While the premise is interesting and could have made for an excellent book it is so bogged down by details and irrelevancies that it took everything I had to finish it. I won't recap the plot (what there is of one), since it's been done already, but I will say that The Other is not for the average reader. It's as though Mr. Guterson is trying to relive his day in the sun by writing an award winner. Ain't gonna happen. He uses far too much description and references to the unknown (2 pages of boring poetry, Chinese ideologies, Gnosticsm...ummm, what?!) We get it...the author is smart, the characters are smart, the reader who wants to be entertained by a good book...not always so smart. If he would have stuck to the basic story he would have had another great book on his hands, but as it is The Other is a huge waste of time. I'm giving it 2 stars because the potential was there, the pop culture references were spot on, and the ending was kind of cool, but other than that this book was a real downer.