West of Here sticks with you for a while. That might not seem odd, given the size of the novel (nearly 500 pages). But it doesn't read like a big novel, not in the sense that you have to wade through several hundred pages. It certainly feels like a big novel, and how could it not? Two timelines a century apart, multiple characters, multiple plots and subplots including a wilderness expedition, building (and later un-building) a dam, a parole officer searching for his newest parolee, doomed romances, troubled parenting, madness, and Bigfoot.

What stands out about this novel is that—while it is certainly making a splash, and deservedly so—it does not stand out or call undue attention to itself. It does not show off linguistically with archaic words like “granitic” or “discalced” or “isocline.” It does not have a boy wizard or an autistic child or a serial killer or a dog as a protagonist or narrator.

What West of Here does have is a hell of a story, a sweeping, epic tale of a community and the wilderness around it, both at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. And characters. Does it have characters. These are people who are as unique, and odd, and funny, and irritating, and fascinating as the people in your neighborhood. In this sense, it is old-fashioned: characters plot = story. No more. No less.

And at the end of this novel, I was sad to say goodbye to all of these compelling, maddening, glorious people: Krig, Mather, Ethan, Eva, Hillary, Franklin, Timmon, Curtis, Adam, Rita, Thomas, et cetera. Their trials, failures, and victories seemed to become my own as I read on. And I didn’t want them to end.

In Huckleberry Finn, Huck turns his back on civilization and lights out for the territory. West of Here embodies a similar hearkening for something better, something beyond, something just west of here. In this, it is a quintessentially American novel, and a very fine one indeed.
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Nachdenklicher Roadtrip mit einem Todkranken und einem vom Schicksal gezeichneten Vater, der beide Kinder bei einem Unfall verlor. Mal leicht, mach gefühlvoll, eine gute Mischung aus vielen Emotionen. ( )

Der 40jährige Ben kriegt nichts mehr auf die Reihe, nachdem ihn das Schicksal gebeutelt hat. Ein Crashkurs in „häuslicher Pflege“ soll ihm helfen, seinen Lebensunterhalt zu sichern. Als Pflegehelfer gerät er dann an den Jugendlichen Trevor, der MS hat und im Rollstuhl sitzt. Trevors Vater hat die Familie verlassen, als herauskam, was Trev hat. Nun beschließen sie, Trevors Vater zu besuchen. Sie machen sich mit einem Kleinbus auf den Weg quer durch die USA.
Die Geschichte wird aus Bens Sicht geschildert und die Zeiten wechseln häufig. Der Schreibstil ist angenehm und flüssig zu lesen.
Die Geschichte erinnert ein wenig an „Ziemlich beste Freunde“ und ist doch ganz anders. Trev hat mit der Krankheit noch nicht seine Träume und Wünsche aufgegeben, auch wenn sich mit seinem Schicksal arrangiert hat. Ben hadert mit seinem Schicksal und sieht dadurch keine Perspektiven für die Zukunft. Nach und nach erfahren wir, was ihm so widerfahren ist. Zwischen den beiden entwickelt sich eine Freundschaft. Das Zusammenleben und füreinander da sein bei dieser Reise, sorgt dafür, dass Ben reift und Trev aufblüht.
Unterschiedliche Mitreisende während ihrer Fahrt durch die USA bringen Abwechslung und Leben in die Geschichte.
Man kann mit den sympathischen Charakteren mitfühlen, auch wenn man nicht alles nachvollziehen kann. Die Geschichte ist berührend, komisch und unterhaltsam. Sie zeigt, dass man seine Chancen ergreifen muss.
Ein lesenswertes Buch. ( )

Jonathan Evison has accomplished a very impressive feat of narrative and imagination with West of Here, set in Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. The novel brings us an impressive array of well-drawn characters and plot lines, moving gracefully back and forth in time from the 1890s, when the area was first being settled and explored by Whites (while natives were trying to keep hold of their culture and, to some extent at least, their land), to 2006, when the inhabited part of the area has been turned mostly in a suburban blight of fast-food joints and small, frustrated lives. The characters, for the most part, are well drawn and sympathetic, even the cast of 21st century people who's lives are marked by roadblocks and trap doors, often of their own making. The 19th century characters, on the other hand, are often somewhat larger than life. We willingly follow this cast of characters, natives as well as whites, through several months of their lives in both time periods. For the most part, we root for their success and/or redemption. The 1890s bring us more adventurous, heroic deeds, but both time periods, in the end, become engrossing as we grow to know the characters. And if the connections drawn between the characters of the two eras sometimes seem a bit forced, I was mostly willing to forgive what in the end seemed quite a minor flaw. The descriptions of nature in both eras are quite good, indeed. All in all, I highly recommend this book. ( )

Enjoyed. Book about settling of Olympic Penninsula in Washington state, where I live. Goes back and forth between stories of settlement in the 1880s and 90s and stories in current period. Many of the characters in the story of today are descendants of folks in the original story. Enjoyed this quite a bit. The place where the story takes place is located among real places but itself is creation. Would recommend. (Audiobook.) ( )