Random Things Tours: The Wilderness Between Us by Penny Haw

 

What would you do if lost in the mountains during what was promised as a leisure outdoors adventure? Most probably, trying to stay alive and surviving against all odds. When you are not alone, but accompanied by a young girl suffering of an eating disorder, the survival has a different meaning and so has the struggle. 

This is the main event happening in The Wilderness Between Us by South-African author Penny Haw. While wandering with a group of friends through Tsitsikamma National Park the two women - Faye and Clare - are getting lost and not only a friendship is built between them, but their own meanings and self-resilience are put on trial. Such experiences are demanding, both physically and psychologically, but there is such a great relief to be at the other end of the transformative experience. It takes a lot of strength to go through such a dramatic change during which saving your self may be more important than any other peculiar relationship in your life.

At the first level, this book can be categorized as a ´women fiction´ but in fact it is purely and simply fiction, good fiction, with real characters whose struggles are relevant for the human experience as such. However, the dynamics the characters are following is the result of a gender-infused mindset. Faye is becoming alive and recover her feareless self after realizing that her husband was, in fact, the main cause of her shortcomings and blocked her from becoming fully aware of her potential. 

Clare, on the other hand, is depicted in such an emphatic way, particularly suited for the complexities of an eating disorder, including at what extent parents may be completely oblivious to its development, sometimes until very late when often there is not too much to be done. 

The natural setting of the mountains and nature in general may have a naturalistic touch but The Wilderness Between Us is more about meaning and self-discovery, taking personal risks and acknowledging that being on your own is sometimes the only possible option. After all, walking in the mountains is despite the eventual group company, an act of lonely responsibility: for your next step, for following a certain path instead of another, for acknowledging that you may need to take a break or continuing - or not - under specific weather conditions.

Although the story is too much centered on the two characters, without a very complex narrative, its own limitations are revelatory for the story and the topic. It doesn´t bet all the horses in the race and therefore creates two characters which at the end of the reading are as real as me and you, my reader. Bonus: a slice of South Africa in its off the beaten path wilderness. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of a book blog tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own