The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry; Rachel Joyce. [Random House]

Working in a book shop, you might find it strange of me to say that I’m not the biggest fan of the majority 

of Man Booker nominees. Over the past few years, I have honestly tried my best to work my way from long list to short list, but often find myself in the zone of distraction with the emergence of a new release or addition to a favourite series.
However, I am happy to announce that I have fallen in love with Rachel Joyce’s “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry”, a 2012 long listed beauty for the Man Booker Prize.

Meet Harold Fry, a quiet, ordinary and recently retired Brewery worker who makes it his business not to know anybody else’s. Living in an ordinary southern English town, in a run of the mil house, with a flowerless lawn and a decaying marriage, Harold is not particularly interesting, let alone adventurous, and lives a very much ordinary, if not depressing life.

Until one morning…

…mixed up in various bills and junk mail, Harold finds a letter that, unknowingly, is about to lead him on the path of self revelation.
Old acquaintances and colleagues, Harold Fry and Queenie Hennessy parted years previously due to an unfortunate scandal, and now, lying on her death bed at the opposite end of the English channel; Queenie writes to say her Goodbyes. In hand with his ‘um...Sorry to hear that’ reply, Harold arrives at the nearest post box through tearful eyes…then keeps on walking.

Believing in Faith and his old yachting shoes, Harold begins the 627 mile walk to Queenie’s hospice, in Hope of keeping her alive.
Through a journey of weeping blisters, shin splints, back and heart ache, Harold discovers just what he’s missing in his life…ADVENTURE. Understandably, Harold’s pilgrimage isn’t just straight roads and sunshine. Through the turns and bends, the steep hills and dark tunnels and the STRANGE-rs he encounters, Harold’s thoughts wonder with each step and he finds himself reminiscing about past mistakes, his withering marriage, the son who never speaks to him, and the ever so evident childhood pain, left as a parting gift by his Mother.

Will Harold’s unlikely pilgrimage become too much for his ageing feet and old yachting shoes? Or will each step spark motivation for the rest and help to keep Queenie alive?

Beautiful, touching, thought provoking and real, his novel made me blubber like a baby and snort like an idiot. To be short listed, let alone WIN the Man Booker Prize of 2012? I personally don’t think so, but from my experience that’s not necessarily a bad thing; some of the best books on the shelves don’t win awards. 

"The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time." 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Stephen Chbosky [Simon & Schuster UK]

Right. So firstly, I have to admit that I didn’t read this book because of all the great comments I have received from customers, or sadly, my own wanting to. I am a self confessed Harry Potter fanatic so naturally, when I heard (or rather when I was stalking celebrity Twitter accounts) that Emma Watson is playing one of the main characters in the film adaptation of “The Perks of being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, I grabbed the first copy I saw on the book shelf. Lame and commercial? I’m ashamed to say; yes, but thrilled say that it resulted in the reading of a true beauty.

Our main character Charlie is an introverted teenager who falls into the category of social awkwardness, scratch that…  EXTREME social awkwardness. Amidst a working class family skimming the line of dysfunctional, and bearing the tragic suicide of his only friend Michael, Charlie enters his sophomore year with an apprehensive mind, a dark secret he himself is unaware of, and a lacking in confidence to make new friends.
All Charlie wants to do is understand the purpose of it all, to stumble through the new boundaries of teenage years the best he can, be the most he can be and try to experience cliché teenage experiences along the way…

…And so along come his guardian angels;

Taking an interest in what others can’t see, step siblings, seniors and complete extroverts, Sam and Patrick, take Charlie under their wings and teach him a valuable lesson; that life can be FUN.

With joy riding through tunnels, attending frequent showings of the Rocky Horror Show and partying with the most interesting people he has ever met, Charlie starts to feel that there’s finally somewhere in the world in which he can be himself, somewhere he doesn’t feel irrelevant, insufficient, strange, somewhere he belongs. But in an idealistic world, can everything stay perfect? Can things stay the way he wants them to stay? Or, will skeletons fall out of the closet uninvited, love stand in the way of friendship, and the natural course of life result in a shift of the wrong direction? One thing I promise you readers, is that you won’t be disappointed finding out.

If, like me, you are a self confessed book worm who devours shelf after shelf of popular fiction, you’ll know it is easy to forget the name of a character, points in the plot, and sometimes even the author or name of a book. Personally, ‘The Perks of being a Wallflower’ is one of handfuls of books (like Harry Potter I might add) that will have a lasting presence on my book world. Chbosky’s simplistic approach to writing this novel is what makes it so beautiful and easy to read, absolutely perfect for the summer holidays or to jump out of your hectic world and into that of someone else’s. I cannot recommend it enough.