Wanderers all

Wanderers All is a portrait of an American past, an American "primitive" in essence and form, an exploration of one man's roots. Incredibly enough, Gregory Armstrong's parents were both orphans. Gregory seeks to track down what evidence of his family history he can find. What he discovers is the core of this book, a painful pilgrimage to his beginnings, a study of his findings and how his discoveries affect himself, his parents and even his own children. On a level of action, what Gregory discovers is a harsh history of despair and deprivation, including murder, suicide, promiscuity and abandonment. But in terms of feelings, what he finds is an understanding of the anger of his own growing up, a developing sense of compassion for his parents and for himself. The land of his forefathers is also revealed, the hardness of the New England soil, the generosity and gentleness of the people who help him in his search, the strength of dignity and pride he sees in his father's relatives. The book is very American in its essence: as a nation of people with dim attachmen to our roots, we are made up of secret violences, of sealed-up sources of feeling, of pride and understanding. Gregory Armstrong's search for his own past reveals much of our own to us, and in his loving, tender finale about his parents, we share his mixture of concern and helplessness in the face of the human condition. The writing is fine, spare, mesmerizing. Throughout, the text is illuminated by a marvelous complexity of vision which lifts Wanderers All to the level of true originality.