The Other: Blog 1 2-19-09

David Guterson writes of a friendship between two teenagers, John William and Neil Countryman, that started in 1974; their senior year of high school. The book is written in hindsight of the actual events, by over thirty years, presuming that Neil is thinking about the events today. The two boys met each other when they finished in the two last spots, John William seventh and Neil eighth, in a track meet. They talked and a week later they ran into each other at Green Lake, I don’t know if it is an actual lake or just a country club area. They become true friends after this meeting, which resulted in a trip to the Space Needle and lots of dope. They went on multiple “adventures” together including climbing Mount Anderson, where we get to see John William’s true character. On their descent, they were so stoned that they lost their way down and came to a gap that was “broader than a city street” (26). John William decides to play a game of chance saying, “ ‘Screw it…Let’s die young.’ ” (26). Neil was unprepared for this statement and decides not to follow through with this outrageous decision. John William pleads with Neil asking two more times if Neil would jump with him. Their next adventure took them to the North Cascades, where they were essentially in a land of 8.5 million acres (13,281 million square acres) of undesignated pure forest. Neil, John William and Pete Jenkins, one of John William’s friends, went into the forest hoping to walk seven days towards and into Canada, then turn around and spend seven days coming back. Neil kept a diary of precise landmarks to keep them from getting lost, however the landmarks were very tough to follow when they were completely intoxicated by the amount of marijuana they had in their systems. Neil remembers, “We were lost, so it was time to smoke reefer. Pete…took over, and we lost track of things completely. Time, once again, for dope” (30). Being young men and having no knowledge of what the real world was like, they did not realize that they were in big trouble until they emerged from the forest on the fourteenth day, just south of Hope, British Columbia.
However, the entire book is not written about experiences Neil had had with John William, Guterson also discusses the events where Neil tried to find out about who John William was and events that occurred early in John William’s childhood. John William was a rich kid and as the stereotypical rich kid does, hated his parents especially his mother who had a sense of eco-craziness about her. John William told Neil that one night when his father was out, “his mother got her car keys, trapped a note under a refrigerator magnet—Rand, you’ve poisoned us with varathane—and told John William to get his coat” (15). His mother believed that polyurethanes were a threat to humans so she left with John William to go to the sea and be cleansed. It’s no wonder John William hated his mother, he didn’t know or care about polyurethanes, all he knew was that he was leaving his home late at night without his father knowing and that would be upsetting to his father. John also had odd views himself, for example he wrote a 47-page paper on Gnosticism, the concept that something is missing but you don’t know it, for English. He really liked the teacher in that class and he believed he had something more with her. However, “after her F, their special relationship was over” (25). He was heartbroken by his first love and by his parents, so he turned to marijuana and contemplation of suicide. His story is a sad one, and I can’t wait to see out it turns out from here. Until next time…