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Journey Home, Jim Willis (2000)
Haley's 1 884540 43 0 Paperback 150pp $14.95
The interior monologue of a Church minister on a ride from Florida
to Massachusetts that starts promisingly but is waylaid by a more
personal psycho-drama
 
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Setting out on this journey with Willis, the idea for his book seemed
brilliant.
Although it is structured around an actual tour, the familiar traveller's
narrative of sights and experiences is nowhere to be found. Instead, he
concentrates on the inner life of the long-distance cyclist. This is an
attempt to set down the conversation one has with oneself during a long,
solo road journey.
On the pleasures of conceiving and planning a tour, he has interesting
things to say. Likewise how our differing senses of time and its importance
effect out understanding of distance, and the unique routines of a long-distance
tour. Unsurprisingly, religion plays a role in his conversations, although
there is no proseltising in the book, and Willis clearly accepts that
his own church is by no means the only route to spiritual nourishment.
Occasionally his introspection produces homilies that could have sprung
from a self-improvement manual. "Some days are better than others,
and I've learned that when the tough ones come, there's nothing to do
but ride within that day's abilities and ignore both the clock and the
odometer. When my inner coach tries to raise his voice, I just tell him
I'm doing the best I can. That usually shuts him up."
Sadly, however, the further the book progresses, the less important the
cycling becomes in his journey to self-knowledge - not least because in
injured ankle in Savannah, Georgia forces him to abandon his tour.
This does not arrest his philosophical pilgrimage, and provides space
for some lengthy narrative detours - the pleasures of hunting, the life
and death of this first wife and, his enthusiasm for marathon running
- for example. And, at journey's end he has achieved a measure of resolution
- a house move and a change of career. Uncoupled from the cycle journey
that had brought me to him, however, I finished the book feeling that
Willis had rather oversold the two wheeled element of his odyssey.
PS Oct 09
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