Book Review: The High Mountains of Portugal
by Walt Ludwick Sunday, June 12, 2016
Standing on line at CTT Lagos (post office) last Monday, scanning the titles on display (smart merchandising play by CTT, focusing attention of their captive & bored audience on a small selection of carefully chosen books!), i was quite surprised to see this title "The High Mountains of Portugal" by Yann Martel  -Canadian author of "Life of Pi," winner of Man Booker prize.

I found this surprising because: (a) This is the first i've heard, though i'm a fan of the author, and the book has been out for months; (b) Yann Martel is a Canadian (living in Saskatoon, of all places!), without any connection to Portugal that i am aware of; and mainly (c) What "High Mountains of Portugal" could he possibly be writing about? The highest is Serra de Estrela ("A Terra" of my wife's family, a region i know well enough) and -at less than 2k metres- it is nothing to write home about!


So of course i had to buy... And, though it started pretty slow (literally! narrated by a grief-striken man who walks from Alfama to Lapa backwards, followed by a 10-day voyage to northern interior in what must be one of the first motorcars in Portugal, circa 1904; so slow, i fell asleep the first few nites after only a few pages), the pace does accelerate as narrator Tomás' driving skill improves, culminating in a scene in tiny village of Tuizelo that i found to be quite worth the wait. Not to give spoiler, i'll just say that the title of this section ("Homeless," part 1 in the 3-part narrative sequence) says it all, as there is no redemption for our hero on reaching his destination.


The next story ("Homeward," circa 1938) is perhaps the most curious, in that -though set entirely in the basement of Bragança hospital, where resident pathologist Eusebio is pulling an all-nighter, on what begins a fairly boring piece of business-  it takes a turn for the fantastic that left me wondering just how much of this is real, and what part is dream. This is the part i want to go back and read again.


Final story in this trilogy ("Home") was the real page-turner for me (i.e. start-to-finish in one sitting), as i found it to be both most familiar and most uplifting. It follows the trajectory of hero Peter -a Canadian politician who loses both life partner and career at some point in early 1980's- as he finds his way with a new partner to a much simpler but more gratifying way of life in Portugal (quite like my own "redemption story" -except that politics was never my thing, and my partner-in-redemption happened to be a fellow human!). 

 Of course, to make a coherent book, these stories need to be integrated at both thematic and narrative levels.  Happily (or, satisfactorily at least, if not so happy): it does all come together in the end, though not in a particularly clever or contrived way, and -as with any good work of art- you are left to connect a lot of the dots for yourself. 


Overall: A good read, both well-written and sure to make you reflect on life's big questions from what feels like a very fresh perspective -much like "Life of Pi," only more grounded in the real stuff of life.  If that's the sort of thing that floats your boat, then you'll likely find "The High Mountains of Portugal" to be an uplifting experience.