Freshly sprung from high school in Seattle, two young men head for the South Fork Hoh River.
Neil Countryman and John William Barry slide deep into the wilderness, leaving compass, map, trail and personal histories behind.
“We came down from the high country in a canyon. Between rock walls, the falling water was so loud we couldn’t speak to each other,” Neil remembers.
“Trees grew from clefts in the cliffs or lay askew in the current . . . Climbing down vertical walls in a river was something you had to be young to try, a form of lunacy, and yet my friend’s face was animated by happiness.”
This is early in The Other, David Guterson’s new novel about Neil, a man who takes the traditional path to a career as a high school teacher, and John William, the son of wealthy Seattleites who becomes the “hermit of the Hoh.”
Neil is our narrator, and he tells a story that will resonate with any reader who’s wondered about checking out — completely — of the expected life.
Guterson, the celebrated author of Snow Falling on Cedars — the 1999 movie version of which was filmed in Port Townsend — and five other books, is like Neil in that he’s a former high school English teacher who grew up in Seattle.
Since moving to Bainbridge Island 25 years back, he’s become a devotee of the Olympic Mountains, exploring remote reaches such as the South Fork Hoh.
