The unknown country

Author Daniel Mason garnered much acclaim for his first novel The Piano Tuner in 2002. His second novel A Far Country flew under the radar when it was released last spring, but perhaps the well-written, fable-like story will find new life in its paperback release.

A Far Country is the story of 14-year-old Isabel. She leaves her family and their secluded, drought-stricken town in the country to live with her older cousin and her cousin’s baby in a Southern city a few-days drive away. Isabel is just one in a large migration out of the “backlands” due to years of poor living conditions.

The main reason Isabel’s parents let her hitch a ride to the city in a flatbed truck full of other dirty country people is to find her older brother, Isaias. He had worked as a musician in the city for months, but when he punks out on his promise to return home, they consider him missing.

It is a turbulent time for the country (which country it is we don’t know) and for the adolescent main character. Isabel makes the drastic move from a small town with one telephone, where everyone and their father works cutting cane, to living in slightly more luxurious, but still poverty-laden, settlements on the fringe of a big city.

From an American perspective, the description of the settlements may conjure images of early-20th century New York tenements. If you search through history, though, the scenario reflects the lives of many throughout the world’s past and present. In this way, Mason captures something really compelling and humanistic in his story: the desperate search for food, work and happiness.

Isabel’s life also changes quite a bit when she makes a friend in the city and takes an interest in a boy. Teenage years shouldn’t really be about anything else, but Isabel faces greater hardships working and caring for her cousin’s baby all week long.

The story is beautifully written, if not somewhat reserved. Mason uses simple, yet descriptive language. He weaves in moments of magical realism to depict the relationship between Isabel and Isaias, giving Isabel the uncanny ability to feel her brother’s presence from a distance. She discovers this as a little girl when she is able to find him several times in a vast cane field.

It’s all a bit dreamy the way the author keeps the time and place anonymous, like folklore. The themes of migration, poverty and even adolescence are in many ways universal, and the literal timelessness of the story makes it figuratively timeless as well.

With that said, the story’s plot is a little flat. It’s not a big adventure and there aren’t any major twists. The way it ends is less exciting than the reader may expect. It’s not that a story needs fireworks and special effects to be good, but when both the writing and the plot are subdued, there is not a whole lot left to propel the story forward–something Mason’s story does slowly.

The payoff for reaching the end is not particularly satisfying, but then again, what could be satisfying about Isabel living in poverty and not being able to read well? A “fairy tale” ending would have undermined what is poignant about the rest of the novel: its gritty realism. Still, the end just seems to fade out, perhaps because searching with the protagonist for her brother all throughout the entire the book has a draining effect.

A Far Country is a thoughtful novel written in the best of simple prose. Despite its slightly languid pace, the story has a lot to offer in terms of authenticity and compassion.

A Far Country***$13.95