A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom

John Boyne writes either brilliant books e.g. \’A History of Loneliness \’ and \’The Absolutist\’ or absolute crap e.g. \’A Ladder to the Sky\’ and just about everything else (I exclude his YA novels). Unfortunately his latest belongs to the latter category. I read nearly a quarter of the book before giving up – exactly what he was trying to achieve by repeating, chapter after chapter, the same story, with the the same characters albeit with different names and in different localities, is beyond my understanding. I shan\’t be pre-existing the next John Boyne novel as I did this one, that\’s for sure.

This book was… a journey. A three week journey I kind of wish I could take back. This is a story about a man and his life, but it isn’t a normal story, rather it crosses many centuries. It was a unique idea, and for the most part, done really well. It wasn’t a particularly unique story, in and of itself. The man’s life was a bit… boring, but it was beautifully written. If you had asked me at any point during the first 3/4ths of this bio I would likely have rated it a 4 star read, but the ending… well the ending did me in, and not in a good way. Through the vast majority of this book the main character is on a mission to complete something. I won’t go into detail, I don’t want to spoil. He finally gets to the point at about the 75% mark where he either completes this mission, or doesn’t. Either way, this should have been the point where the book wrapped up. Instead the author chose to ramble on and began to really go off the rails. The end just didn’t really fit with the rest of the book. Then the final chapters just felt like a political rant pulled from his Twitter just because. Like what he really wanted to do was let us all know his feelings but instead of just telling us in an editorial, he decided to mask them into a novel. It was bizarre and unnecessary, and honestly makes me wary of reading any of his other works, even though I always hear amazing things about them. Overall the end really brought me down and left me with a bitter taste. While this wasn’t extraordinary, it could have been good had it cut off but it just wasn’t for me.

I\’m a fan of John Boyne\’s books, but I hit a wall on this one. \”A Traveler…\” is something like a literary Groundhog Day, with the same story told over and over again, through 2000 years and in many disparate geographic locations. Author Boyne seems to be making the point that humanity always repeats its behavior-particular the worst of it. Violence and hatred trumps everything else. Maybe he\’s right, but presenting the theory in this particular form does not make a very good book. The are some especially irritating moments in the novel when history and geography don\’t seem to match up; and when the author uses characters in his timeline from previous novels – \”The Absolutist\” for example. A penultimate chapter looks at the 2016 general election in the U.S. and comes up with an ultra-simplistic rationale for Trump\’s victory–no criticism of Clinton\’s candidacy. I was no fan of DJT, but you can\’t write off all Trump voters as complete idiots. I found the novel tiresome and without purpose by the last chapter, and its conclusion gives no hope for anything better in the future of humankind. This isn\’t necessarily a major departure for the author\’s sometimes bleak view of the world, but it doesn\’t provide much in the way of entertainment for the reader.

As other reviewers have noted, Mr. Boyne has written some terrific stuff, and I applaud him for trying something new. However, this is far from his best. In fact, were it not for his incredible ability to tell a good story, this would have gotten only one star. The book follows a character from time immemorial into the future, constantly changing venues and names (his and the other characters\’), but continuing the plot. The chapters are short and each does little to advance the story, which perhaps is why is takes 2000 years for the culmination, such as it is. And then he adds on two chapters about the shock at the election of Donald Trump and then a world of the future in which people are living on outer space colonies due to the destruction of the earth. Again, I think it\’s great that Mr. Boyne is willing to try new things, but not every new idea is a good idea, and this one is bloated and pointless. The writing is relatively juvenile, perhaps reflecting Mr. Boyne\’s past successes at YA literature, but from my perspective it was a waste of time and money.

A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom is only my second. My first was A Ladder to the Sky, which I loved. A Traveler was so very different from that one, and I think that speaks to Boyne’s immense talent. In a nutshell, this book travels from ancient time through the future with common characters and story elements. It also travels through different places/countries over that period. It is epic in scope, and I cannot imagine the level of research and detail it took to put this book together. While I typically prefer my books much more character-driven than this one was, the story served a much different purpose, one you have to “explore” for yourself when you read this book. A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom is a feat, a marvel, and most definitely an experience of a read!

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