The Way: An Exciting Novel
One of the first things that interested us about this book was that the writer wrote something very original.
A lot of people have written about the Camino de Santiago. Most deal with an emotional transformation, typical of stories where the characters travel. In a sense, this makes the story atemporal. The Camino could be Middle Earth or Route 66. This book is unique because it is rooted to the Camino, and the writer displays a lot of knowledge about the different towns and villages in northern Spain.
Through this, he shows a love for the country and its food, showing the richness that is Spanish gastronomy. He loves the stories and myths, something which unites Ireland and Spain. There are Celtic tales and stories about the Moors, showing the magic of the land and the history. Every church is a delight for him, and the main character stops frequently to look at the architecture and describe the doors and the designs.
This is not a vague story where a character changes. It is a story where, after reading it, you understand more about the character and the country. Apart from the interesting fiction, it is a book for people to travel through the pages. As they sit in a chair reading, they can travel as well. Thus, we can say it is a book of many facets.
The journey, not the destination
At the end of the story, he finally reaches the church of Santiago, and he is disappointed. There is no feeling of change. But he has changed. And the point is not the destination but the journey. This is a cliché. But it is true. It reminds me of a French king, a real one, who visited the north of Ireland in 1397. His mission was to travel to an island on the edge of Ireland and find a gateway to the afterlife. Ireland was the edge of the world, so this island had to be where an entrance to other worlds was located. He eventually arrived and he too was disappointed.
But was his journey a waste of time? No. He wrote a diary as he travelled, and the new customs and traditions of different countries are recorded. Thanks to him, we, the reader, have changed like him. We now have more knowledge about other worlds, other cultures, different people.
This book is a way to discover other books, as well. The author has read a lot. He quotes the great Irish poet Seamus Heaney, and the wonderful Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez. In fact, the author translated one of Hernandez’s poems into English. It is an achievement because the translation is extraordinary, and in fact, both poets had some things in common. They were defined by politics, and they witnessed social changes and conflicts between the ordinary people and the State. While he was in prison, Hernandez made things for his child, and he celebrated the beauty in everyday objects. Heaney did the same, and his poems are full of vivid descriptions of cooking a meal, a simple act, or his father the farmer, a humble man doing a humble job.
Through this book – The Way by Dermot Miller – you can also learn about the links between Ireland and Spain. These are direct and indirect links, and they give another dimension to a book that already has an interesting narrative. These are links that are universal as well as personal. They link the individual experience with something more profound and important. This book, like everything we have mentioned in this talk, is about layers and connecting things.
Northern Ireland
The shadow of Northern Ireland is in the book, and the violence that that implies. This a complex story about violence and identity. This makes the book unique as well because most accounts of Irish history, particularly the events in Northern Ireland between the IRA and the British government. The violence of the IRA is shown, and the violence of the British state is also present. The main character joins the IRA for a brief period, and it shows that these decisions are not always black and white.
He joins because British soldiers kill his friend, and he looks for revenge. The feeling he has is correct, even if his decision to join the IRA is not. In many ways, this part of the story is also universal. Sometimes, we make decisions when we don’t fully understand the consequences, maybe we are too young or lack experience, and then we must live with those consequences for the rest of our lives. This applies to Northern Ireland, and it could apply to any situation or to any place in the world.
Beautiful culture
As a result, this book is also a celebration of beauty. On the Camino, he distracts himself from the pain of Northern Ireland by seeing the beautiful things in Spain. In this way, this book is not just about the links between Ireland and Spain, it is also about how the Camino attracts people from all over the world. Many people try to forget their problems on the Camino, and people walk or cycle, do it for religious reasons or not.
The full range of the human experience is shown here. Which is appropriate, because the main character also works as an ESL teacher, living in a European capital, after moving from Ireland to London and then to Madrid. He is a man open to the world and its people. The people he meets on the Camino will also help him to understand his life and his decisions.
Music is a dominant theme in the book. It is part of the main character’s general culture, and it also helps him forget about the past. This is another way to understand the links between Ireland and Spain. In the Basque country, the alboka is a wind instrument that shares a similarity with a few wind instruments in Ireland. There are a few Hiberno-Spanish groups that play a mixture of Irish and Basque songs using a combination of Irish and Basque instruments. It is curious – while both musical genres have their defining characteristics, the styles sound good when mixed together.
The use of music is also interesting because is shows respect to this art. A song like Hotel California is as significant culturally as a church mosaic or an intellectual book. Personally, I love stories that show something unique and personal about a place. George Orwell’s book about the Civil War, for example, is full of personal anecdotes that are linked specifically to him, that tell us, the reader, more about him.
It is the same with the main character in the book. The fact that he hears a song in his head every day helps to keep him calm, but the one day he does not hear any song is when he feels something is wrong. Why has the music stopped? It is so personal and psychological, and it helps to make the story seem so real and dramatic.
And remember...…
This epic book of a few hundred pages deals with a lot of themes. And at its heart, is the enduring connection between Ireland and Spain.
