“The Long Way Home” - Louise Penny

 (Gamache book 10)

🌲 Book 9 was a major catharsis for Gamache fans. Here, we pick up with a happily retired Gamache living in Three Pines with Reine-Marie, and a happily married (and addiction-free) Jean-Paul Beauvoir and Annie in Montreal.

🌲Unusual for this series, rather than an investigation following a murder, we have friends launching a search with a terrifying fear of finding a body.

🌲 I’ll admit this one challenging partially because I was often in as much of a fog as the search party, but also because frankly, Peter is a loathsome, selfish guy especially when contrasted with Clara who tends to radiate likability to the point of naivety. I kept asking myself whether he would redeem himself or whether he was well beyond that point. The plot was such a departure and so inventive. I was on the edge of my seat!

🌲 Ruth articulates a guiding principle for Gamache in TLWH: courage isn’t the absence of fear, but acting despite it. It’s the intentional shift from thinking mode that eventually enables him to overcome the paralysis of fear.

🌲 These quotes encapsulate Gamache’s character arc in TLWH. As someone who has faced immense trauma in earlier books, Gamache is on a path of recovery. The phrase serves as a reminder to face inner demons and pursue truth in life, even when haunted by darkness. Besides Gamache, other characters are challenged throughout TLWH by the phrase (most notably Clara) are afraid of what they might find—about themselves, about others, and yet they press on.

🌲 Penny ties in “Samarra and the Parable of Death”, which illustrates the inescapability of fate, especially death. It’s a famous parable, so I did a small side quest to read about it, as I was unfamiliar. The story has been retold in various forms over centuries. It originates from Middle Eastern folklore, possibly from ancient Mesopotamian or Arabic sources. The version I came across was a retelling by W. Somerset Maugham entitled “The Appointment in Samarra”. 

Key takeaway: the inevitability of fate, particularly death. The servant’s attempt to flee death by going to Samarra is exactly what fulfills his fate—he goes to the very place where death awaits him.