This fantastic story, with the beautiful writing of Yann Martel, is written in three parts. Homeless, is Tomás’ journey from the city of Lisbon, his home, by car to the High Mountains of Portugal. Understand, the car is his uncle’s pride and joy and one of the ‘new fangled machines’ that was replacing horses. And Tomás has never driven anything. And he walks backwards, turning his back on the God of his upbringing, because of the unexpected death of his son. Full of the energy of exploration and immense grief, Part One felt rather choppy for me, with a lot of graphic detail. Tomás journey is, ostensibly, in search of a religious artifact described in the journal of one Father Ulisses from 1631. However his journey is also of a much deeper personal nature that Tomás does not recognize.
Unexpected was the move to another story in Homeward. The stories of Eusebio Lozora, a pathologist and his wife Maria is also full of detail and discussion of religion. Maria, a devout Catholic, has found a parallel between the Agatha Christie mysteries and parables of Jesus. She visits Eusebio in his pathology lab to tell him of her revelations. Again the theme of immense grief is prevalent as they also had lost a child. There is an autopsy, with rather gruesome detail, but much magical realism. Maria comes to Eusebio, in two separate forms, first appearing alive and well, and then following, seeming much more etheral and dark.
Section Three, Home, again moves ahead in time to the life of Peter Tovy, a Canadian Senator who has also experienced great loss of his dearly beloved wife. He lets go of the secure, ordered life in Canada to travel to the High Mountains of Portugal. His companion is a chimpanzee named Odo. With a Canadian delegation of Senators, he had taken a four day trip to Oklahoma where he tours an Institute for Primate Research. There he meets Odo and a relationship of mutual respect is born. After relocating to and living in the tiny village of Tuizelo, learning Portuguese and learning how to live a very basic life, he also learns that he has returned to the home of his parents in the High Mountains of Portugal.
And so this creation from Yann Martel’s imagination journeyed through much loneliness and grief amid the busyness of life. Each story is connected through the distance of family. Hope and faith are also challenged in the stories, but each person carries some semblance of faith and hope. Some faith is stronger for some than others. The mood of this book went from agitation and high energy to great calm and acceptance of what is important in this life. Not religion, not things and not marching with progress but looking ‘for moments that make sense.’
“Stories full of metaphors are by writers who play the
language like a mandolin for our entertainment, novelist,”
~ Yann Martel, The High Mountains of Portugal
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