We read this entire book in one day, as we were traveling with the Airstream from New Carlisle OH to Franklin TN. Well, I read and Tim listened. It kept us company along the path and we finished right when we pulled into a hotel (after deciding not to stay at the campground we had booked). We liked The Walk so much we bought the whole series, for other trips. We actually read the second one on another long day. Two down, three to go. This review is on the first book in the series.
The Walk, by Richard Paul Evan, while it was a simple and easy read, captivated our imagination. It begged us to keep turning pages as we read. In some pages it could be a little cheesy, but at the same time it was heartwarming. We liked the main character, Alan, who has decided to fill his brand new backpack and walk from Seattle Washington to Key West Florida (because it was the furthest designation) after losing everything of value to him. He is an ad guy, and he was gifted the highest quality camping gear for doing their campaign. We were a little jealous of his gear. For some, the “coincidences” might seem unbelievable, but to a believer they could be acts of the Holy Spirit. We love adventure, and since we have been to the area where he was walking in this book, it was easy to “see” the cities he passed through.
It was a little awkward and disjointed how the author decided to write the story. At the beginning of each (short) chapter, there is a quote from Alan’s diary. Then he proceeds to tell the story; however, it is unclear at first whether the author is telling the story or if it is the character Alan’s travel journal. It is written in first person point of view, and it is Alan’s story, and we eventually got used to his writing style.
He only makes it to Spokane Washington in this book, and we felt like the author could have written the whole story into one book, rather than dividing it into a series of five. We were curious to read about the rest of the journey, so we did purchase the whole series. It’s the first time we have had anything shipped to our campsite, so this was kind of a trial run, but we had a lot of road left to travel so we took the risk. It worked out just fine. We were staying in a KOA in Little Rock for a few days. Even though we thought it could have been a single novel, The Walk is an easy read and in some ways it’s gratifying to know you can read the whole novel in a day.
We rated it 8.5 out of 10.
Not everyone in my book club liked it. I think the Scriptures contained within might have put some people off (the author is Mormon), or they didn’t think the story was believable, so a few people rated it lower. Overall our group liked the book, however; and we had some deeper discussions than our typical book club. For example, he meets a man with no arms who is looking for a book with all the answers. We had a lot of deep thoughts about whether we would like to have “all the answers.” Great discussion. For that reason I felt like it was a book worth reading. Here’s what my book club had to say about it, courtesy of our leader.
“Ten of us gathered at Canopy to discuss our November book The Walk by Richard Paul Evans. It was definitely an easy read but there were a lot of differing opinions of the book. Some people didn’t believe Alan’s story to be real. Some of us thought the journal entry in each chapter was written by Alan but the chapter was written by the author which was confusing at first. Several felt a connection to Alan in his journaling and his journey with grief and loss. We all agreed that we would like an answer book and answers to why things happen to us. As a group of survivors and caregivers, we agreed that going through our journey changes your perception and how you treat people. Our overall rating is 7.0.”
Our December 13th book is The Secret History by Donna Tart. I have already finished this one as I started it after we finished The Walk. I’ll give you my review after our December meeting.
À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!