2023 #25 The Trail (Hashimoto)

 

The Trail by Meika Hashimoto
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read a lot of reviews of this book because it occurred to me that I don't have a good sense of reading through an eleven or twelve-year old's eyes. My goddaughter was assigned this book for school, so I read it (as are her parents). I sat with it for awhile and looked back through it, trying to parse the pet peeves from the genuine criticisms.

There's a lot about it I don't like. The 12-year old protagonist Toby was not, in my opinion, at all memorable. When I think back to books I read at that age, even if I disliked them, the characters stuck with me (e.g. Holden Caulfield, Piggy, etc--and I REALLY disliked Lord of the Flies). Again, I recognize that having spent over four decades on the planet may bias me, but it wasn't until the last 15 pages or so that I started to like this character. I understand that he's on a journey and I do want to say that I respect that the "journey" does turn out to be far deeper and metaphorical than a 12 year old hiking the Appalachian Trail.  And the human characters he meets often give the story some more heft, but there is an imbalance and weak sense of rhythm in terms of how and when these characters appear. 

And yes, about that. How many 12 year olds undertake hiking the AT--by themselves? Is that something we really want 12 year olds thinking they should do to go find themselves? This isn't a situation where he's lost (at least physically), or some sort of adventure where he got marooned on a desert island and has to save himself. He makes a conscious decision to do this horribly dangerous thing, and evidently hiking with his friend Lukas and his dad a few times equips Toby to be fairly adept at solo hiking, for miles at a time, in all conditions--enough to feel confident hitchhiking. Again, I'm sure there are very adventurous 12 year olds out there, but the moral of this particular story doesn't necessarily dissuade readers from undertaking a similar journey.

This book barely passes the Bechdel test either--and while that normally isn't a huge issue for me, I think for a book that is assigned reading, it falls really short. There are only a few women characters: the "offscreen" Gran, Abbey with her "beautiful face", the spunky Sadie (who I wish had been a prominent character throughout), and the motherly Marsha. With the exception of Sadie, the interesting characters are all male (Denver, "Wingin' It", Washboard--even the dog) -- or presumably so. While race is not frequently mentioned (if at all -- I wasn't reading for it), let's just say The Bluest Eye this book is not. Again, for an assigned read, I would have hoped to have more obvious amplification of diversity. I don't believe we are yet at the place where we can take it for granted, particularly when it is part of living discourse for young folks.

In the first part of the book the product placement was to the point of distraction. I do realize this may be targeted to the age group and their budding consumerism, and while I, too, am a fan of Darn Tough socks, I'm just not sure what these particular details (REI, Subarus, etc) added to the narrative except to reinforce branding and consumerist culture.

What I did like was the specifics about the Appalachian Trail. Children who live outside of hiking culture might struggle with some of the references or lose interest. I liked the map at the end, but would have loved to see it integrated---perhaps tracing Toby's path as he moves through the trail in each chapter. Particularly for those readers who are not familiar with the AT, little details like that would have lent a lot to the book, making the ending all the more powerful. Like I said, I did like the end, and I hope that discussions and class sessions help young people see their personal Katahdins.

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