The Walking Tour
by Kathryn Davis
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Description
It is the turn of this century. Two couples -- businessman Bobby Rose and his artist wife Carole Ridingham, his partner Coleman Snow and Snow's wife Ruth Farr -- have gone on a walking tour in Wales, during which a fatal accident occurs. The question of what happened preoccupies not only an ensuing negligence trial but also the narrator, Bobby and Carole's daughter. Susan lives alone in her parents' house near the coast of Maine, addressing us from a future in which property no longer shapes show more destiny, a position providing unusual perspective on the way we live now. Assisted by court transcripts, a notebook computer containing Ruth Farr's journal, as well as by the menacing young vagrant who's taken to camping on her doorstep, Susan ultimately lays open the moral predicament at the heart of the book: we are culpable beings, even though we live in a world of imperfect knowledge. By turns dazzling and dark, as dangerous and entrancing as the Welsh landscape it describes, The Walking Tour is part mystery story, part shrewd visionary meditation on the uneasy marriage of art and commerce. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
When I finished the book I was maybe less clear on what it was about than when I was halfway through--and yet, I continued to be completely intrigued by the characters and settings and how much was real and how much wasn't. Clearly not everyone's cup of tea (most people in my book group were put off by the unclear ending, and, I think, felt it was overly experimental, more of a writing exercise).
If I was going only on personal taste and you could do half stars I'd give it a 3.5. Beautifully written, puzzling, messy, intriguing, insightful, disorienting, unfinished, uncommitted, frustrating -- a little convoluted for my taste. The woman can write. Not a book for everyone, not always an easy read, but beautifully written. Personally I wish it had stayed with the walking tour.
If I was going only on personal taste and you could do half stars I'd give it a 3.5. Beautifully written, puzzling, messy, intriguing, insightful, disorienting, unfinished, uncommitted, frustrating -- a little convoluted for my taste. The woman can write. Not a book for everyone, not always an easy read, but beautifully written. Personally I wish it had stayed with the walking tour.
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Author Information
10+ Works 1,977 Members
Kathryn Davis is also the author of novels, "The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf" & "Hell." The recipient of a Kafka Prize, she teaches at Skidmore College & lives with her husband & their daughter in Vermont. (Publisher Provided)
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1999
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 148
- Popularity
- 221,099
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.58)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook
- ISBNs
- 6
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 3
