Ponder: The Long Way Home

The Long Way Home © 2014, Louise Penny's tenth book in the Inspector Armand Gamache series, is indeed investigative but there is no murder at the beginning that focuses questions and assesses suspects. This book is about searching for Clara Morrow's missing husband Peter who did not return after a one year agreed upon separation.  Both Clara and Peter are artists and once again this book has an art theme similar to Penny's first book Still Life (my post for 2/28/20) and her seventh book A Trick of the Light (my post for 3/2/21). I particularly liked the following aspects of this novel:

• Increased knowledge of Canada geography
• Travel aspect (since COVID-19 has made me home bound)
• Perspective on the community of the art world
• Further appreciation of paintings
• Clever phraseology and word definitions
• Views on retirement
  
  

Louise Penny has a winner in the idyllic setting of Three Pines and wisely keeps it in each of her novels. However, it is difficult to maintain belief, even fictional belief, that such a setting can support so many murders. This problem is like the one in the sleepy Maine village of Cabot Cove from the 12 season TV series Murder She Wrote fame. Murder mystery author and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher in the show never seems to run out of murders to solve.  Three Pines still plays apart in this tenth novel but, I think the strength of this book lies in its varied settings.

In The Long Way Home Armand Gamache has taken an early retirement, moving to the quaint Village of Three Pines. Four familiar characters, Clara (artist) Myrna (former psychologist and bookstore owner) Armand Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir  set off searching for Clara's husband and take the reader along with them to various locales, following the trail Peter Morrow took to discover himself as an artist. This traveling device gave me the opportunity to learn about several places. 

Further appreciation of paintings
Art galleries in Toronto introduced me to the artist Clarence Gagnon. His works were described as so warm and colorful I was compelled to look them up. He painted many scenes from Baie-Saint-Paul, a Quebec city on the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River at the mouth of the Gouffre River; it known for its art galleries, shops, and restaurants. The search group went to Baie-Saint-Paul Here are two of Gagnon's works:  first, Winter Morning, Baie-Saint-Paul followed by A Québec Village Street. His works remind me a bit of Charles Wysocki.

Increased knowledge of Canada geography
Peter's trail out beyond the Canadian cities of Montreal in Québec and Toronto in Ontario is enabling me to pick up a bit more Canadian geography. Maybe I will get better at answering those province and territory questions about Canada on Jeopardy.

Travel aspect and perspectives on art world
Peter ventured beyond Canada in search of enlightenment, making visits to the countries of Scotland and France as well. I learned what Arrondissements (administrative districts) are in Paris, France. Peter's wanderings took him to 15th Arrondissement which is in Paris-South, south of the Eiffel Tower, bordering the Seine River, a gathering place for artists. The Wikipedia link for the 15th arrondissement describes it as 

... an eclectic residential area where quaint shops around La Motte Grenelle metro station give way to the Tour Montparnasse skyscraper. The Musée Bourdelle features sculptor Antoine Bourdelle's studio and garden where artists like Chagall also worked. The sprawling Parc André Citroën along the Seine draws tourists and families to greenhouses and a tethered hot-air balloon that offers city views.

In Dumfriesshire, Scotland I learned of an artist's garden called The Garden of Cosmic Speculation. Peter went there. The garden is private but usually opens for only five hours on one day each year for 1500 ticket holders, a fact alluded to in Penny's novel that piqued my curiosity enough to look up this garden.

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is a 30 acre (12 hectare) sculpture garden created by landscape architect and theorist Charles Jencks at his home, Portrack House, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Like much of Jencks' work, the garden is inspired by modern cosmology....The garden is inspired by science and mathematics, with sculptures and landscaping on these themes, such as black holes and fractals. (photo credit)

In this novel, the high intensity action scene typically found near the end of Penny's books was the journey up the St. Lawrence River from Sept-Illes (on map halfway across and one fourth down) to Tabaquen (near Gros-Mécatina far right on the map) in a ship during a horrendous storm. Tabaquen translates as "sorcerer", a name which further contributes to setting a mood of unease.

Clever phraseology and word definitions
This novel like other's of Louise Penny is sprinkled with memorable, pithy phrases.

on courtesy and kindness:
Chief Inspector nevertheless understood that courtesy should not be mistaken for genuine kindness. One was nurture, a polite upbringing. The other was nature. [Chapter 7]

on jealousy:
"It's like drinking acid," said Myrna, "and expecting the other person to die." [Chapter 6]

Views on retirement
Armand Gamache is able to help Clara in the search for her husband since he took an early retirement from his position as Chief Inspector of the Sureté. His search for internal for calm after his stressful job and other people questioning if this lifestyle will be enough for him are topics touched on throughout. These thoughts resonate with the process my husband and I went through when we retired. I find writing these blog posts is reflective. Their length is definitely greater than a mere book review merits.

Rating
Normally I race through Louise Penny's novels. This one was not as much a page turner. I enjoyed it over several days and I found looking up obscure (new to me) places rewarding. I rate it

★★★★☆      Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience

Perhaps I am slowing down because I am tiring of Louise Penny, but I do not think so. I still intend to forge ahead and read her seventeen books in the Gamache series. Correction – I just learned an eighteenth is due out August 2021. I can do it. I am retired.