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by: David Guterson
List Price: $24.95Amazon.com's Price: $16.47 You Save: $8.48 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780307263155
ISBN: 0307263150
Label: Knopf
Manufacturer: Knopf
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: June 03, 2008
Publisher: Knopf
Release Date: June 03, 2008
Sales Rank: 42155
Studio: Knopf
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
From the author of the best-selling Snow Falling on Cedars, a dazzling new novel about youth and idealism, adulthood and its compromises, and two powerfully different visions of what it means to live a good life.
John William Barry has inherited the pedigree—and wealth—of two of Seattle’s elite families; Neil Countryman is blue-collar Irish. Nevertheless, when the two boys meet in 1972 at age sixteen, they’re brought together by what they have in common: a fierce intensity and a love of the outdoors that takes them, together and often, into Washington’s remote backcountry, where they must rely on their wits—and each other—to survive.
Soon after graduating from college, Neil sets out on a path that will lead him toward a life as a devoted schoolteacher and family man. But John William makes a radically different choice, dropping out of college and moving deep into the woods, convinced that it is the only way to live without hypocrisy. When John William enlists Neil to help him disappear completely, Neil finds himself drawn into a web of secrets and often agonizing responsibility, deceit, and tragedy—one that will finally break open with a wholly unexpected, life-altering revelation.
Riveting, deeply humane, The Other is David Guterson’s most brilliant and provocative novel to date.
Amazon.com Review:
Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008: When John William Barry and Neil Countryman meet at a high school track meet in the early 1970s, they are two sides of the same coin: John is a trust fund baby and student of a prestigious private school while Neil is solidly working class, but they share an affinity for the outdoors and apprehension over impending changes in their lives. After an unintentionally challenging week lost in the wilds of the North Cascades, John is compelled to an ascetic path: life in a remote river valley in the Olympic Peninsula rainforest, where he chips a shelter from a granite wall and immerses himself in the esoterica of Gnostic dualism --a philosophy that holds that the material world is illusional and destructive. Neil meanwhile chooses a traditional path as a father and school teacher, despite his troubled friend's exhortations to eschew 'hamburger world' and find truth in a simpler, stripped-down existence. Nothing is that simple, of course, and The Other compellingly explores the compromises we make to balance meaning and security in our lives through the choices (and their subsequent consequences) of these two men. --Jon Foro
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Another, Less Compelling Gatsby
When one reads a novel narrated by a peripheral character about another, more luminous personality, the tendency is to compare it to The Great Gatsby and its narrator Nick Carraway. In the case of Guterson's new book, The Other, that comparison quickly becomes an unfair one.
Neil Countryman, from a blue collar family, becomes Carraway here, and Countryman's high school pal, John William Barry, the Gatsby clone, is from a well off, troubled family. At this point, the Gatsby comparison ... Read More
Rating:  - Engaging at multiple levels, but not for everyone
This book engaged me on 3 different levels. The most impressive was the well constructed memoir-style of the book. The narrator tells his story somewhat in sequence, but has to move back and forth in time to provide clarity in the telling; and then circle back around at the end to fill in some gaps that he never knew back in the 70s. It's choppy, but creates the feel of a truly authentic re-telling of a story remembered from a distance of 30 years.
Second, the novel works as symbolic exploration ... Read More
Rating: - Melancholy "madness"
This is a really good book, by the author of the really good "Snow Falling on Cedars" and the not so good "Our Lady of the Forest" (well, at least I didn't enjoy that one). Middle-class Neil Countryman narrates the tale of his friendship with John William Barry, a young man to the manor born who rejects all the trappings of wealth in an extreme way, becoming a recluse up in Washington state's wilderness. As the book opens, Neil, and English teacher of nearly 30 years, has been bequeathed 400 million dollars ... Read More
Rating: - Great Story and Detail
I just finished this book. Overall, the story kept me very interested. There however were sections were long and detailed, but that's what I enjoy about Guterson. The detail of him sitting by the fire with John almost allows you to be there in an incredible sense. I will read this book again without a doubt and further appreicate Guterson's meticulous details. This is not as good as "Snow", but that's difficult to compare against. An equally good read and story. Well worth the hardback price and the 4 hours.
Rating: - "Snow Falling on Snoozers..."
Save yourself four hours and just take two Ambien instead. This tale holds promise but turns out to be a plodding bore-fest. The narrator protagonist tells the story of his eccentric buddy John William Barry.
The latter is a trust fund kid who determines to embark into the woods and live (and eventually die) like a hermit.
Long after the death, the protagonist learns that his friend has willed his $400+ million fortune to the narrator.
I loved "East of the Mountains" ... Read More
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