Journeys and Journeying

As the narrative follows both its central character (Deo) and its author (Tracy Kidder) on a variety of different journeys, it takes the reader on those journeys as well. There are physical journeys (through parts Africa, from Africa to New York, through New York, and back to Africa), and there are psycho-emotional journeys (from need through fear to hope). There are journeys through memory (the past), through day-to-day existence (the present), and into an improved life (the future). There are journeys from ignorance to knowledge, and back again; from joy to sadness, and back again; from resentment to gratitude, and back again. Some of these journeys are linear; some are circular. All are made available and accessible to the reader through the author’s telling of one man’s story (Deo’s) of his personal, physical, and spiritual journey from poverty in Africa to a personal...