İz

by Forrest Gander, Olcay Sevimli (Translator)

Yollar karışıyor, aile parçalanıyor, çöl yanıyor. Kapalı kapılar ardından sızan toz, yaşamı tehdit ediyor.

Dale ve Hoa, yirmili yaşlarının başındaki idare etmesi zor oğullarıyla girdikleri mücadeleden bitap düşmüş, bunalımlı günler geçirmektedirler. Evlerinden ve kendilerinden biraz uzaklaşmak arzusuyla Meksika’ya doğru bir yolculuğa çıkarlar. Huzurlu tatil hayalleri çölün cehennem sıcağında, adeta paramparça olmuş bir dünyanın içinde buharlaşır. Yaşamları tehlikeye düşer.

Şair/yazar Forrest Gander bu çağdaş romanını yine şiirsel bir dille ele almış. Yer yer akışı yavaşlatma pahasına çektiği çok ayrıntılı ve capcanlı fotoğraflarla okurunun duyularını zorlayarak açıyor. Beklenmedik anda tempo kazanarak okurunu peşinden koşturan, soluk soluğa bırakan romanıyla Gander, bir dil sihirbazı olarak çıktığı yolda usta bir kurgucuya dönüşüyor.

Forrest Gander 2019 yılı şiir dalında Pulitzer Ödülü sahibidir.

İz, yazarın Şair’in Vedası’ndan sonra Türkçeye çevrilen ikinci romanı.

Genres: Fiction, Westerns, 21st Century, Novels, Literary Fiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2014

About the author

Born in the Mojave Desert, Forrest Gander grew up in Virginia and spent significant periods in San Francisco, Dolores Hidalgo (Mexico), and Eureka Springs, Arkansas before moving to Rhode Island. He holds degrees in literature and in geology, a subject that recurs in his writing and for which his work has been connected to ecological poetics.

Collaboration has been an important engagement for Gander who, over the years, has worked with artists such as Ann Hamilton, Sally Mann, Eiko & Koma, Lucas Foglia, Ashwini Bhat, Richard Hirsch & Michael Rogers. He also translates extensively and has edited several anthologies of contemporary poetry from Latin America, Spain, and Japan.

He writes across the genres. A recent project with the Chilean poet Raul Zurita is Pinholes in the Night Essential Poems from Latin America. Other titles by Gander include The Trace, a novel set on the border with Mexico; Fungus Skull Eye Wing Selected Poems of Alfonso D'Aquino, translations; and Redstart an Ecological Poetics, essays and poems written with John Kinsella. Gander's 2011 book of poems, Core Samples from the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Reviews

[Frances Mayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forrest Gander has written a seamless novel that's hard to put down. The writing is compelling on every page, so compelling that you know you're in the hands of a superb prose stylist. I especially enjoyed the spare descriptions of the desert landscape, creatures, geology, and atmosphere. Gander's joy in the choice of words celebrates the language on every page. The story is harrowing, emotional, and brutal, and at the same time the characters are nuanced and subtle. This strange variation on the classic American theme of the innocent abroad reminds me of all we don't know or recognize when we travel, and how our assumptions of ourselves as we sally forth with our personal agendas can be so dangerous. The couple has no expectation as they begin a literary quest (and the quest to find each other again) that they will encounter pure and random evil. This book is both a page turner and a literary triumph.

[Ezgi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoa ve Dale’in oğulları ile yaşadıkları sorunlardan sonra çıktıkları Meksika gezisini anlatıyor. İyi bir yol hikayesi. Çok sevdiğim de bir konu. Oğullarıyla olan sorunlu ilişkilerini de bir yandan düşünüyorlar. Yolculuklarına takıntılı oldukları Ambrose Bierce da eşlik ediyor. Bierce 1913 yılında Meksika’ya gidiyor ve ortadan kayboluyor. Pancho Villa’ya katıldı ve öldürüldü şeklinde pek çok spekülasyon bırakıyor ardında. Hoa ve Dale, Bierce’ı anlamaya bir anlamda onu bulmaya çalışıyor. Ama tüm sorunlarını da yanlarında götürüyorlar. Kurgusu parçalı. Şair olan Gander bölüm başlarına şiirlerini de almış. Romanın anlatımından epey keyif aldım. Sorunlarına rağmen yolda olma hallerini okumak eğlenceli.

[Leylak Dalı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yazar Ambrose Bierce'nin izini sürmek için Meksika yollarına düşen, 20'li yaşlardaki sorunlu oğullarıyla mücadele etmekten yorgun düşmüş öğretim üyesi Dale ve eşi Hoa'nın güzel başlayan yolculuğu çöl sıcağında cehenneme dönecek ve yaşamları tehlikeye girecektir.
Forrest Gander'in bir oya gibi işlediği ayrıntılı cümleleriyle sakin bir tempodan soluk soluğa bir gerilime uzanan kurgusunu çevirideki bazı cümle düşüklüklerini görmezden gelerek büyük bir keyifle okudum.
Benim gibi ayrıntılı betimlemeleri seviyorsanız, zamanda ani geri dönüşlerden hoşlanıyorsanız bu kitabı seveceksiniz...

[Ilkim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written with imagery and poetry. Yet there are a few things that make this book short of 5 stars.

The first is that while the plot and the setting are intricately woven with detail, we are given very little of the personality of the main characters. Dale and Hoa, until the point they are separated in the desert, exist as a couple together; their identities are intertwined, and the characters are only described through the eyes of their partner. What is missing is what makes Dale “Dale” or Hoa “Hoa”. Perhaps this is intentional as their symbiosis becomes destructive and leads to the breakdown of their son. But the son’s disappearance is also hanging in the air as we also do not know much about what leads to this in their family life.
This lack of character depth makes it hard to build empathy on the reader’s part.
Another problematic part is the ending. Dale appeared like the passive part of this “mourning” and Hoa is the more actively damaged one. Perhaps, this is true for their character overall. Therefore, Dale’s sudden change in character is surprising and it is not clear how he suddenly goes from suffering in a cave to stealing the smuggler’s van. I would expect Hoa to have a bigger role in their escape or Dale to experience a more obvious/profound transformation.
Another strange detail is Dale drinking a whole bottle of tequila as soon as he finds out they are stuck in the desert. I mean, that is a strange choice given that he is a professor who perfectly knows about dehydration. Yet this gives important clues about how he deals under stress. By escaping. Then again this highlights my comment about Dale’s abrupt transformation.
Regardless of these minor problems, I was able to feel like a part of Dale and Hoa’s roadtrip and at the end of the book I felt equally worn out as them, stranded in a desert. Kudos to Gander.

[marjinal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kum Kuşu
Şairler ekonomik,  dolaysız yazıyor diye deliler gibi şair romanı aradım durdum da bula bula İz'i buldum. Sıkıntıdan patladım! İnsanda şans olacak.          İz'in saçmalığı baştan kapağından belli: Benim için bi zahmet bakar mısın kapağa? Güneş yok orada, araba gerekli değil mi Dale-Hoa çifti seyahatte; çölde yolculuk yapıyorlar. Beş yaşındaki çocuk size bu resmin kralını yapar. Ayy bakar mısın resime? Saçma! Kapak yordu beni! Geçelim.          Tanıtım yazısına gelelim:, Dur ben özet geçeyim: Dale ile Hoa, yirmili yaşlarındaki sorunlu oğullarından ötürü zor günler geçiriyorlarmış.Hava değişimi için Meksika'ya tatile çıkmışlar. Huzurlu tatil arayışları kabusa dönmüş, yaşamları tehlikeye girmiş. Bu kadar. Hayır devamı var şöyle: Şair yazar Forrest Gander bu romanı şiirsel dille yazmış ve akışı yavaşlatma pahasına capcanlı fotoğraflar çekip beklenmedik anda tempo vermiş ve okuru soluk soluğa bırakmış. Soluk soluğa kalmaktan hoşlanmam ama sorun yapmadım okudum. Uzun zamandır heyecan yaşamıyorum çünkü. Fakat o heyecanı pek bulamadım.  Forrest tempoyu 210. sayfada veriyor, kitap 225 sayfa, kitabın neredeyse sonu. Tempo da tempo olsa hani. Karakterler çölde kaybolmuşluklarından nasıl ki bitkin düşüyorlarsa, ben de tempoya gelene kadar tasvir yoğunluğundan kitaptan düştüm.          İz'de her üç cümlenin yedisi tasvir. Aman Tanrım, görsen var ya, Tanrım öldür beni dersin. Yer gök tasvir. En küçük eylem ve durumlar istisnasız tasvirle anlatılıyor. Sevgili Dale- Hoa çifti lokantaya giriyorlarsa mutlaka ama mutlaka o esnada oradan kareli gömlekli kasketli biri bisikletiyle yavaşça geçiyordur. Veya Dale benzin parasını ödemeye giderken sağ eliyle tuttuğu tişortünün sol iç tarafıyla yüzünün terini silerken, Hoa da o an burnundan doğru uzanan bir tutam saçını terli elleriyle kıvırarak tam karşıda yanıp sönen yeşil ışıkları takibe almıştır. Tanrım bana acı! Tasvir niye yapılır arkadaş? Forrest Gander yazarlık kursu talebesi psikolojisiyle "bak ben ne güzel tasvir yapıyorum" havasında yazmış gibi duruyor metin. Sahi tasvir niye yapılır? Charles Dickens zamanlarında değiliz ki. Klasik yazmıyorsun. Charles tasvire mecburdu. Ya sen? Eski kitapları okuyabiliriz ama eski alışkanlıklarda yazamayız. Bu zamanda tasvir vakit ve sayfa kaybıdır. Nokta.          Diyaloglar için ayrıca bir kitap yazmak lazım! Dale-Hoa çifti yolculuk boyunca geyik muhabbeti yapıyor: Arabada gidiyorlar, önlerine birden bir kuş çıkınca "Ah o da neydi kara tavuk mu bu?", "Hayır sevgilim o bir kum kuşu, sadece buralarda yaşar." Hadi bakalım sayfalar boyunca kuş muhabbeti. Dale zaten kafayı şeye takmış, neydi o adamın ismi, hep unutuyorum, Amerikalı gazeteci miymiş neymiş, Meksika'da öldürülmüş, neydi ismi, işin yoksa sayfalarda ara, neyseki üç sayfada bir bahsi geçiyor, ben hemen bulurum şimdi. Bir saniye. Ambrose Bierce. Evet, adamın ismi bu. Dale aralıklarla bu adamın hikayesini karısına anlatıp duruyor. Şöyle öldü böyle öldü, bir rivayete göre nasıl öldü biliyor musun, lokantada anlatırım. Tanrım bu saçmalıkları neden hep benim önüme koyuyorsun! Ambrose ve diğer geyiklerin anlamı ne, metafor mu yapıyor? Ben metin çözümleyicisi değilim ki. Bir okurum. Romanda dönen dolapları bana hissettirmeye mecbursun. Ambrose ne için var romanda?          Çeviri konusuna girmiyorum. Dipsiz kuyu. Sayfalara bakarsan çeviri göz kamaştırıcı gibi duruyor. Yok eğer okumaya kalkışırsan o vakit işin rengi değişiyor ve madalyonun öteki yüzünü görüyorsun. Yazının süresi doldu.

[Luke Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a part of two book clubs, and I happened to read Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West for one and The Trace immediately after it for the other. I couldn't help but put the two in conversation, and I honestly preferred this one. The writing is really exquisite here. Gander's poetic attention to language imbues even the most seemingly arbitrary and casual moments with a richness that had me keen to keep reading (although I will note there are a surprising number of scenes detailing a character emptying their bladder/bowels). And when he's actually describing more intense moments, he can dial up the ominous tension so effectively -- the first chapter is an especially vivid and gripping example, but the entire book features a building dread that I felt growing in my gut. I also loved how the desert seemed to function as a metaphorical landscape for Dale and Hoa's grief: This barren, alienating, antagonizing emptiness that simultaneously separates and joins them together.

That said, I was more than a little underwhelmed by the ending, especially in light of Gander's talents. It felt pretty anticlimactic after so much build-up around the unnamed third character we got an occasional chapter from, and while those parts were especially gripping to read, they didn't ultimately have much payoff. It also struck me as an interesting choice to keep the dynamic with their son Declan mostly shrouded in ambiguity. Both of these elements could be regarded as signs of Gander's admirable restraint against a more bombastic approach, but I was left unsatisfied, especially in light of how the latter is framed as the emotional landing Gander attempts to stick. While his skill as a writer ensured this was always engaging to sit down and read, I don't know that it accomplished anything with much staying power.

[Ethan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Recently I was asked about my approach to finding the books I read: where do you look? How do you decide? Where do you even begin your search?
In this era where there are enough entertainment reviews to justify the success of aggregator sites like Metacritic, where the passing of a movie critic is a cultural moment warranting a biographical documentary, and decades old music magazines clash with modern webzines to gain notoriety sifting through the web of recommendations surrounding buzz bands, it’s interesting that books recommendations still remain so grassroots and word-of-mouth. Sure, there are still book reviewers with some level of fame and prestige (and then there's the excuse that books are apparently a “dying medium”), but there is no defining literary critic whose thumbs up or down causes waves in the literary world or even singularly moves books off of shelves and onto the charts.
So what is the answer? How does one find one’s next reading endeavor? That kilobytes-small file or smaller-than-a-breadbox tome that may take a month’s (or afternoon’s) journey to complete? My long answer is built up of a web of key authors whose words I feel know well enough to decipher at the blurb-level to understand which authors get my favorites excited. (I still haven’t read the back cover synopsis to Horacio Castellanos Moya’s The Dream of My Return, but recently purchased and anxiously await reading the small novel thanks to Roberto Bolaño’s bombastic blurb: “Acid humor, like a Buster Keaton movie or a time bomb.”)
In short, I simply tell people to buy whatever New Directions is putting out these days. Although, now I’ll have to supplement this with “except The Trace by Forrest Gander, don’t pick that one up.”
Listed as one of New Directions popular recent releases, The Trace seems so full of promise: a pulp-hip cover, an NBCC-finalist poet-author who was born in the desert, a road novel tracing the last steps of a famous author who disappeared in a war, Mexico!...and it was this promise that propelled me through enough of the book to feel it was worth finishing more than dropping, even as the first 150 out of 240 pages went by without much (or any) incident beyond what is shown in a couple of small passages (including the opening chapter) that detail an unnecessarily evil drug dealer ("unnecessarily evil" is about all that is given in terms of development).
The characters, Dale and Hoa, are a couple of dorks whom at multiple moments react to phantom vibrations to check their blank-screened phones, use words like “tush”, don fedoras, and fill most of the pages of this novel with bickering and nauseating married-life details. Between bouts of complaining about the heat we find out that Dale starts his stories with “So…” and that Hoa tends to drive in the slow lanes and never passes (both of which we’re told but never get a chance to actually see). Or take this nugget of marital bliss reflected upon in the desert:
“Dale stood…thinking about the little unspoken twenty-year contention they had about toilet paper in their bathroom. Hoa would always put the roll on the holder in the under position, and Dale would sit down, take off the roll and put it back in the over position. Generally, it would stay like that for a few days, a week or two, and then he would find it reversed again with the toilet paper hanging down against the wall. Neither of them had ever mentioned it.”
And much of the novel takes on this tone as though Gander himself took a trip to Mexico with his wife with the aim to gain details for a novel but ultimately spent more time bickering than taking notes, and the plot seems awkwardly laid over these bits of character non-development as Gander seems to try to put a kind of college-writing class horror spin on the whole thing.
“What she didn’t know was that something would happen in a few hours that would alter the whole trip.” Writes Gander at the beginning of a chapter, “ Alter her marriage.” I mean holy shit! this sentence written by a man who teaches Comparative Literature at Brown.
Another promising setup is dashed when Dale’s memory of taking a homemade hallucinogen and going to a Neil Young concert is boiled down to a detail that seems to have been written while still coming down while sitting on a dorm bed: “It sounds corny, but I saw myself that night more nakedly than I ever had before. Or want to again. With brutal honesty. It was completely humbling. I’ll never forget it.” Tell me more, brah.
The Trace is a painful read that makes me curious what propelled New Directions to publish it. Were they contractually obligated? Trying to capitalize on National Book Critics Circle finalist buzz before it faded? (which may explain the lack of editing). As a huge proponent of New Directions as a forefront of literature these days, always pushing them as an excellent source for blind book-buying for any reader, guaranteed to entertain and enlighten, this book is a major frustration.
God, what a piece of shit.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dan! I waited too long
to reply to your text!
Here is a review!

[Andrew Brenycz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the road trip portion of the story and the two main characters. While reading I found myself thinking, this is great, I’d be satisfied even without the car breakdown plot that I know is coming. When we got to that turning point I still wanted to hear them talk about Bierce theories and their married life.

I’m not so sure how I feel about the other main player in the story, and wondered how the story would play without his role entirely. The desert is probably scary enough so the threat of danger would still be in the background. Still a memorable character though.

Overall a mysterious and fun read. I’d recommend this book noting that some portions are pretty disturbing. I will definitely check out some other books by this author.

[Lucas Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times I feel as if the prose itself is what I'm interested in and have to to put the actual plot aside in my mind. The structure, the description, all of the writing is really great. the book remains interesting and experimental without being difficult to follow, which is a hard combination to maintain. Also, I love books that have detailed descriptions of crafts or trades. I'm probably one of the few people who enjoyed this book that walked away from it really wishing the descriptions of ceramics were more fleshed out. I cared more about that proposed anagama than the characters.

It's a desert, and you have to walk all the way across it, it is hard, but you are alive at the end. Staring back over what you have crossed.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. It took me a while to get engaged, don't know why, because it is beautifully written. This is really a story of intense marital fidelity and not in a sexual context, but rather an allegiance and loyalty that is hard to achieve. This couple faced with extreme circumstances with a difficult adult child and then the physical peril of the Mexican desert accompanied with the threat of brutal drug smugglers somehow survive with their relationship not only intact, but a source of strength. It is indeed a road trip novel, beautifully written with descriptive passages and poetic chapter introductions. This is well worth the read.

[César Iván · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hay algo en la novela que impide avanzar, no supe si fue la traducción o la forma del texto. Casi al final, cuando se pierden en el desierto, se convierte en una novela con un ritmo muy interesante, pero antes de eso no hay mucho que haya disfrutado.
Creo que esperaba algo más cercano a "Como amigo", pero no hay nada de eso.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give it 6 stars--or 7...

[Hale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gerçek anlamda bomboş bir kitap. Hiçbir olay yok, diyalog desen anlamsızca. Amacı yok kitabın bence sorunu bu.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strongly disliked the feelings this book aroused in me. I don't often comment on authors, but this has a lot of hallmarks of someone I would not associate with, ever. Yes, it is fiction, and characters are created for affect, but this book just felt ugly and awful. Undercurrents of racism, sexism, white tourist notions, loads of overgeneralizing about too many subjects, and pages woefully forced writing stylistics. Combine that with dull narrative subjects and we are left with nothing to care about. I am guessing the author is intrigued by Ambrose Bierce's death and the firing of clay, since too much of the book is useless details about the latter, and an uninteresting journey to find the former's burial site. The interspersed 3rd character felt like "trying to be Cormac McCarthy", and the unexplained Declan tangent disappointed. Not an author I will follow based on this meandering piece.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reads like it's setting. The pace, the tone, the dialog -- all match the setting of a drive in the desert. I have no idea why I recently added this book to my list, but I'm glad I did.

[Wheeler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing happens. Nothing revealed. No reason to read this book.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

uhoh, they took the short cut..... a history professor and his wife take a summer vacation for hubby to do some research on locations ambrose bierce may or may not have visited in northern mexico, when bierce disappeared. the couple too has been struggling mightly with the loss of their child recently.
so we get some nice intermingling of usa'ers, eggheads, touring around what is now very very bad lands of Chihuahua state and surrounding states, deep in historical happenings, and also modern day ones of drug smuggling, illegal immigration routes, disappeared women epidemic, and not well marked roads to boot. plus it's hot n dry right? the desert? yes, desert.
well, we knew, the car breaks down on the short cut. dryness and terror ensue.

very nice descriptions of local characters, geology, plants animals, and history, and usaer eggheads too.
gander's book of poetry looks at some of the same topics here Core Samples from the World

[Daren Girard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A husband and wife take a road trip through Northern Mexico following the purported trail of the last know whereabouts of Ambrose Bierce. Dale, the husband, is a history professor writing a biography on the American journalist. The couple's marriage is a fragile compact that has been seriously strained by the protracted mental illness of their college-age son. They struggle to close the gap that has divided them. The dialogue is authentic with moments of tenderness, as well as frank expressions of frustration and recriminations. When they have car trouble and breakdown in the middle of nowhere in the Chihuahua Desert, they must rely on each other for their very survival.

[Owen Curtsinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times gripping and tense, other times a beautifully-written travel tale, other times a little too academic and lofty...all these disparate aspects trip up the rhythm of reading and cause the book to fall flat in the final pages. The suspense was well-crafted, but lacked a Hollywood finish that we're sometimes led to expect with suspenseful tales. On the whole worthwhile read, especially against the backdrop of a rich and multi-layered landscape, but failing to live up to some of the momentum that the writing conjures.

[kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved As a Friend . I liked this one but at points too many words and a little clunky but the expansiveness felt like the desert and well, that was the point, right?

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a hundred pages until I was hooked, but then the story pulled me in.

[Allya Yourish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The actual story of this novel is great, and tense and upsetting in all the right ways. A couple in crisis travels around rural Mexico doing research for the husband's book on Ambrose Bierce, and runs into trouble both on the interpersonal level and with the forces that are also undermining that very rural Mexican society, leaving them in all kinds of strained peril that feels very intense and real.
The thing that kept this from being higher rated is that there are certain strains of the novel surrounding gender roles and ethnicity that I'm not sure are to be ascribed to the characters themselves, or just to the author. Part of the trouble for the characters is caused by a certain American feeling that they can do whatever they like, and have expectations of their environment always being hospitable that really seems very like a very "American-abroad" thought line, which I can more readily think is due to the characters themselves. However, Gander also has a certain amount of stereotyping, in the "Mexican culture is..." and "the Vietnamese-American woman is..." sort of vein that come off as more of an author's problem. The wife's ethnicity, particularly seems to be a sort of arbitrary American trope, more than anything relevant to the story. Her father meets her mother while he's in the Vietnam war and marries her and brings her back to the states, all of which is noted and kind of irrelevant. Maybe I'm missing something, or worrying too much about the decisions around mentioning it, but, except for occasional curses in Vietnamese, Hoa seems completely divorced from heritage. So does the husband, but the author doesn't spend page after page telling us his family history. Also, the professor marrying a former student from his university seems like such an overdone male-fantasy that it kind of irked me, reading it.
It's true, though, that the emotional interplay between the two characters can rise above these little tics in the set-up, so it's still worth a read. The latter half is especially tense and insightful as far as the workings of a loving marriage in turmoil, and the characters' backgrounds have no real part in this central crux of the novel.