by Anna McNuff
I cannot resist a travel story--and this is no slouch of a travel story! Don't know what to do with your life? How about running up the length of New Zealand?
Along the way she makes a lot of wonderful traveling--and stationary--friends. And sees some amazingly gorgeous scenery. And fights fatigue and injuries, loneliness and joy.
There were times when I had a little trouble picking the book back up, but I can't put a finger on exactly what was wrong with the writing. Possibly it was me--I was reading this while on vacation and maybe I rushed through too fast. Or possibly it was just the simplicity of the style--here is an example,
Pounding away and picking up the pieces with Paloma by my side, I was struck by how dense the forest was. I didn't think I'd ever been in a forest like this before. The ones in the UK tended to have a lot of space between the trees, but in this one there were very few gaps on the ground, or even in the canopy. The trail was easy enough to follow in the first mile or so of Longwood Forest. It was part of a well-trodden tourist pathway....
It went on in this style for one very long paragraph. I'd have made at least three paragraphs out of this. So I think my issue was simply with the writing style--kind of run-on. Like a bunch of bulleted lists crammed together in a paragraph.
However, the source material--her journey and her adventures and her internal struggles--those were spot on. With a little better writing, this would be a masterpiece.
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