Much as he loves his freedom, at times the N. There is an obvious homoerotic undertone to their dealings, but the dynamic of the relationship is much more interesting than that. comes across as needy, at other times his concern for Victor seems fatherly. bends over backwards to please and help Victor while being aware that the young man is a complete cad who will ditch him, betray him or even kill him as suits. Like everything in the relationship between the 2 men, this nickname is ambiguous. Towards the end of the novel we learn that his name is Victor, but the N. One day he meets a younger man with a guitar who hates work of any kind and only makes money by cheating at cards. He may be on the run from something since at the beginning he half expects to see his name in the newspaper. The Narrator, whose name is never disclosed, is a man in his forties or early fifties who picks up work here and there although he is educated and personable enough to have a steady job. As always in Jean Giono, the language is rich in natural imagery and as ruggedly idiomatic as it is lyrical.Īmbiguous, suspenseful and haunting. But it is ultimately an exploration of the tensions and boundaries between affection and commitment, and of the competing needs for solitude, independence, and human bonds. While The Open Road can be read as loosely strung entertainment, interspersed with caustic reflections, it can also be interpreted as a projection of the relationship of author, art, and audience. He himself is a curious combination of qualities-poetic, resentful, cynical, compassionate, flirtatious, and self-absorbed. Everything is told in the first person, present tense, by the vagabond narrator, who goes unnamed. The action moves from place to place, and episode to episode, in truly picaresque fashion. He also picks up a problematic companion: a cardsharp and con man, whom he calls “the Artist.” He picks up work along the way and spends the winter as the custodian of a walnut-oil mill. The south of France, 1950: A solitary vagabond walks through the villages, towns, valleys, and foothills of the region between northern Provence and the Alps. A nomad and a swindler embark on an eccentric road trip in this picaresque, philosophical novel by the author of The Man Who Planted Trees.
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