Beautifully written, but the story did not captivate me. ( )

written and the characters and the setting are good and real. His 2nd novel “The Piano Tuner,” is excellent!

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Mary Reinert
4.0 out of 5 starsIt's "remote" but does touch the heart
April 10, 2008
Format: Paperback
At first when reading "A Far Country" I was bothered by the fact that I really didn't know where this country was - it seems possibly South America, but the country remains unnamed. It did take me a while to get into this; everything seems vague, distant, and rambling. Isabel never became a real character although at the same time, I felt like I somewhat understood her fears and her naivety. There were times when I actually felt like I wasn't following the story correctly. For example, I never did understand her "job" of waving the flag in New Eden (maybe once for a candidate's appearance, but every day?)

Nevertheless, this book does leave a strong emotional impact dealt particularly through the last chapter. The "poor" in far away countries seem so remote; perhaps their fear isn't as great as ours, perhaps they have a higher tolerance for pain, perhaps they just don't care as much. "A Far Country" allows the reader not just walk in the shoes of the "poor" but also allows one to take on the life of a simple young girl whose life is totally at the mercy of others and the elements. Although it took me a while to get into this, it was worth the effort to finish. It will make you think and be thankful. ( )

I rarely abandon a book half way through (Book 2 of Twilight I MEAN YOU) but I let this one go at the half way point. The Piano Tuner was so lovely and engrossing and I kept waiting for that to happen with A Far Country but it just left me cold. I didn't love (or even hate) any of the characters in a way that compelled me to find out what happens to them and I think it had to do with the POV the story is told from. The protagonist is a 14 year-old girl from a rural countryside who goes to the city to find her brother and the story is primarily hers but told in the third person. If it had been a first person POV, I think I would have gotten more involved in her evolution but instead the story just reads like the most boring person you know explaining their day to you. Ow ow ow ow owwwww. ( )

The simplicity of A Far Country belies the swooning compliments scattered across the cover. As another entry into the "Children in Developing Countries" genre, it is pretty standard stuff, and by the conclusion I found myself searching for something that would set it apart.

Isabel has a hard life in the backlands with her family, struggling to survive amidst drought and unscrupulous land grabs. When her brother ventures south to the big city, and then disappears, she sets out on the journey to find him.

That's pretty much it for the novel, and there isn't a dazzling panoply of characters to fill out this slim plot. Life in the slums is with Isabel is occasionally punctuated by outbursts of violence and terror, but in the main is staid, and the emotional centre remains the quest for her brother.

I would love to say that Mason renders his anonymous central or south American city with a dizzying veracity, but that's not the case. The city itself seems believable enough, but compared to the rich texture contained in books like A Fine Balance, there's really nothing here to hold on to.

This remains the case with the characters and plotting as well. Isabel is certainly very realistic, but she's also fourteen, naive, and generally on the passive side. The other characters are rendered quickly, believably and somewhat dully. They're not cliche; just very very... expected.

This is compounded because Mason largely eschews dialogue for a kind of literary neo-realism. I suspect that if you like neorealism, you might enjoy the slow cadences of A Far Country. But for me, absent a strong narrative, interesting characters, or a rich and fascinating world, I found myself wondering what Mason was trying to bring to this crowded genre. By its conclusion the book was reduced to a kind of faded sepia in my mind, and I can't recommend it. There's nothing really wrong with it, but there's nothing really right, either. ( )

Brilliant, at all levels. A beautifully-written story about a young rural girl's journey to the city in search of her much-loved missing brother. The most heart-wrenching book I have read since Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. ( )