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Guterson returns, with mixed results

The Other

By Clayton Moore, Special to the Rocky

Published June 12, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Updated June 12, 2008 at 7:14 p.m.

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Author David Guterson illustrates the effect of another's death on one man's identity in "The Other."

Photo by Alan Berner

Author David Guterson illustrates the effect of another's death on one man's identity in "The Other."

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* Fiction. By David Guterson. Knopf, 272 pages, $25.95. Grade: B

Plot in a nutshell: Guterson, of Snow Falling on Cedars' fame, goes beyond the mortal mysteries of previous novels to illustrate the effect of another's death on one man's identity.

Wielding expressive images of the American Northwest, Guterson's latest novel contemplates the binding friendship between two boys who meet in their Seattle high school in 1972. Neil Countryman is a gifted lad from a working-class family who discovers an unlikely soul mate, John William Barry, a fortunate son who balks at his predictable future success. A renegade with a fondness for Kerouac, Barry pronounces with unnerving cool that he does not wish to participate.

"Participate in what?" Countryman asks.

"In anything," says Barry.

Their story is poured forth in Countryman's confessional some 20 years after Barry's untimely death, describing how the paths of their lives diverge.

After high school, Countryman meets a girl, settles down and becomes an English teacher with a secret ambition to finish a novel. Meanwhile, Barry exits civilized life to create a new, dangerous existence as what the media will later dub "The Hermit of the Hoh." Living in a cave in the remote wilderness of the Olympic Peninsula, Barry becomes more and more removed from reality, with the sole exception of visits from his friend.

When Barry's death wish comes true, Countryman keeps a pact he made with the unraveled defector and holds close a secret that lays undiscovered for decades. But when Barry's remains are found, Countryman's life is changed for good.

Sample of prose: The boys discuss their options for escaping a precarious situation: " 'Come on,' he said. 'If we make it, good. If we don't, we're out of here - absconded.'

" 'Here's where we go our separate ways, rich boy.'

" 'We're not going separate ways,' he answered."

Pros: Although the story of a man's struggle with the wilderness has been done before, Guterson takes a more circuitous approach and plumbs a more universal experience.

Cons: The book's final third finds Countryman not only coping with his friend's unusual bequest but also investigating Barry's childhood. Both story lines feel unnecessary and dilute the novel's intrigue.

Final word: A convincing but flawed novel about friendship and sacrifice. Guterson always tells a good story, but here he maps little new philosophical territory.