The Walkaway

"The Ice Harvest" was my favorite book of 2000. With "The Walkaway" Scott Phillips confirmed my suspicions that he is one of the best writers working today. Yes, there are many characters and overlapping storylines in this book. So what? I had no trouble whatsoever following these stories, and the subtle emotional payoff that was delivered as they all tied together was an original, unexpected delight. Phillips doesn't write for dummies. He's hunting big game on the literary frontier. And with this book he has bagged a winner. He manages to combine deadpan humor, stark reality and deep, resonant emotions in a way unique to the current spate of by-the-numbers best sellers clogging the bookstores. I can't wait to see what he does next!

After reading ICE HARVEST, I could not wait to get my hands on Phillips' next novel. If it had been another pulp yarn in the vein of his first novel, I would have been plenty satisfied. But THE WALKAWAY goes far beyond expectations. It is a sophistcated book showcasing Phillips' deft skills as an author. He expertly handles different times and points of view. The novel works as a literary achievement as well as a top-notch crime tale.There's a lot of [stuff] to wade through out there in the book stores -- same-old-same-old cops-n-robbers plodding through the usual formulas. It was a breath of fresh air to read a novel with ambition and style.

I found the Walkaway to be a compelling and dark novel about memory and crime. It's not a mystery in the conventional gumshoe sense, though at its heart it is a convincing tale about crime and the way crime dominoes into lives. Both funny and chilling, The Walkway is the Ice Harvest times two: twice the characters, twice the violence, twice the emotional significance. If you loved The Ice Harvest, you'll cherish The Walkaway.

This is an interesting, character-heavy book, which relives the past while living through a present-day upheaval. The upheaval in question revolves around Gunther Fahnstiel who has walked out of his nursing home without any of the nursing staff noticing. Naturally his family is beside themselves and are very keen to have him found again. Gunther was in the nursing home because of the steady onset of senility. He's an ex-policeman and believes that he has some urgent unfinished business to take care of, leading him through the streets of Wichita, Kansas.The time setting switches from chapter to chapter, taking us from 1989 back to 1952. The chapters about the earlier years are all written from a third person perspective, but the person whose perspective it is coming from changes in each chapter providing very interesting insights into each character.Through Gunther's slipping mind it becomes clear that something very important happened in 1952 that has affected Gunther and most of the other characters in the book quite deeply. Gunther is drawn back to the place it all happened thinking he has some loose ends to tie up and so, all plotlines are inevitably drawn along with him, providing a satisfying, yet somewhat wistful ending.

Scott Phillips has managed to both top his sparkling debut The Ice Harvest and create expectation for what he might do next. This novel within a novel -- the story takes places in two different time periods and in several voices -- is just as violent, funny, and well written as Phillips' debut while maintaining a fascinating narrative thread. Only two books into his career and already Phillips has to be considered one of the best in the business. A great read.