Reviewed by Jaylynn Korrell
A nostalgic novel full of little lessons of life on the house, the need to escape and the shock of rediscovering what you left behind
With North Wisconsin full of nature as a backdrop, North of Highway 8 Examine the idea of ​​returning home when you feel like you’re out of it. It does not take long for Matt, Gardner’s protagonist, to realize that there is more to his old town than he once believed.
Matt works for a large public relations firm in Atlanta and is a little shocked to hear that he is the leading candidate for a new temporary position with a large salary. With only a few months of work required, this is the kind of work he can only dream of taking on.
But there is one drawback: it forces him to return to the rural Wisconsin where he grew up. He has the task of convincing very stubborn people to join a new technology company moving to the city. When faced with what he has left behind, his career hangs in the balance, as does his way of thinking.
“The things I hide in the monotony of everyday life began to boil. To cool them off, I spoke.”
Years of overwork have led Matt to a pessimism that I do not often encounter in heroes. He gets annoyed by the environment in which he chooses to put himself. Mutual fund colleagues and ostentatious businessmen do not sit down with him no matter how hard he tries to integrate with them, and he is sure to respond to the ridiculousness of it. Every opportunity he has.
But where Matt’s pessimism stands out, it’s the secondary characters that help the novel shine. Matt Britt’s assistant, for example, accompanies him on the journey and provides a fresh breeze, often reminding Matt to humble himself. When a black woman has fallen into a completely white rural area, she has more differences to fight there than to him, allowing us to move away from the hero, see him objectively and recognize that he has something to do.
Britt is not the only great secondary character. Nicole and Patrick, two locals in northern Wisconsin and vehemently rejecting Wolftek, both provide an optimistic and positive balance to their relationships with Matt. His parents are also an inspiring duo, showing in the example that a simple life is not really something that can be underestimated.
Gardner does a great job using an unhappy character to showcase all the positive things that can come when you update yourself and go back to worrying about what really matters.
North of Highway 8 is where Matt says the true north begins. This setting is written with such love and caring. Jacob Gardner’s descriptions of the landscapes, lakes and other aspects of nature in the north are written about it gently until you want to see it for yourself, even if the weather gets cruelly cold and people may be less friendly to new immigrants. .
As someone who moved away from home and returned later, I could very much appreciate Gardner’s serious approach to the concept You can not go home again. Anyone who has strong feelings about where he came from – in love or hate – will feel that this book was written for him.
Publisher: Issuing a new degree
genre: Literary Fiction / A small, rural town
Print length: 204 pages
ISBN: 978-1637306895
Thanks for reading “Book Review: North of Highway 8” By Jailin Coral! If you liked what you read, please take more time with us in the links below.