Pilgrim Wheels
Neil M Hanson
Neil has taken on the challenge of riding across the USA, sometimes with a friend, and sometimes without. He quickly learns the challenges and rewards of doing it on his own, as well as enjoying some time with old friends. Let me clarify here: He’s riding a PUSH BIKE across the desert.
This novel covers only part of Neil’s journey! It is astounding how much he has travelled on his trusty bike. I can’t believe it, but then I think of other people who have cycled around the exterior of Australia and straight across the middle. Still though, its amazing what one man on a tiny bike can do if he is determined.
I interviewed Neil quite some time ago (I’m too afraid to look at the date), but the novel simply hadn’t taken my fancy to read until lately. I’m on a mission to get through all the novels authors have sent me personally – if you’ve sent me a novel and I haven’t reviewed it, pop me an email please!
This is non-fiction, and as such I’ll not be giving it any stars. That being said, I think this novel would be good for people who have a passion for a ‘singular’ sport – one like cycling or running where you spend a lot of time with the scenery.
I read this novel a while ago now. I thought I had read it a long time ago (pre-blog) and so when it took my eye again while I was rearranging my shelves, I thought I’d better give it a review. Turns out I’d never read it, or I hadn’t read it closely enough.
Cliche, cliche, cliche. Fall for for the ‘bad boy’, get dumped, go back to the ‘safe choice’. Seriously girl, I’d be pretty worried you know what love is before you head off into the woods with someone.
I read at least five of the short stories (I had to say I had read half at least), and although the prose was fantastic, the characters believable, there was something about each storyline that left me grasping at anything that would give me meaning with them. I’d read each one, and feel sort of empty, not fulfilled.
It’s the 20th anniversary after the Vietnam War. Since this novel was published and made its way into my hands I have seen a bunch of novels on the same topic. I know better than to ask for them though. I’m not even sure I asked for this one.
By the feel of things, I think the authors had a wide scope of what they could write. For me, I hate poetry. I especially hate random poetry where I can’t work out any of what is going on. Other examples were of not-true stories. What is the point of writing expository fiction if your reader can’t connect in any way with it?
I couldn’t put this novel down. I think I start almost every Brandon Sanderson novel in that way. I didn’t realise it was out until an ill-timed comment from my partner just as I was going to sleep. I then had trouble sleeping because I wanted it right then and there. I begged to have it the next day, but I ended up getting it the day after and polishing it off in a single sitting.
Why do people lie? Seriously guys. Ugh. It seems like everyone is crossing everyone, except Percipience who I loved (having loved the set-up of it in the first place).
I want to feel sorry for Epoch, and yet at the same time I don’t. If Clyde can understand this different way of living, others can too. Or is it that in Percipience people who were like that have been wiped out? Nature vs nurture things here.
This novel is a bit of a mix between memoir, textbook and examples. It doesn’t profess to provide any concrete answers. Instead it explores the history of OCD, different interesting cases of OCD and indeed the almighty DSM-5 that is used for categorizing mental illness everywhere.