The Hike: Homeric Hysteria

I've been binge watching a lot of TV shows lately, but it's been a while since I have felt compelled to binge read a novel. However, thanks to a recommendation from my boss (name-dropped on the blog again, Anthony, how does it feel to be famous?), I found myself feverishly turning the pages of Drew Magary's The Hike and devouring it over a single afternoon. As I got more invested in the story, I grew increasingly terrified that the ending would be a massive let-down. But then I read the final page and knew this book had instantly been elevated into the pantheon of books I will treasure forever.

This novel is impossible to describe (so why I am bothering to write a review? Who knows, I'm a besotted fool.) In very broad strokes, it is the story of a man named Ben, who decides to go for a walk before a business meeting and ends up on a nightmarish journey that is the modern-day equivalent of The Odyssey. He encounters bloodthirsty monsters, talking animals, mysterious crones, and a flirty cannibalistic giant. He spends every chapter desperately fighting for his life and the chance to return home to his wife and three children. Each scenario is more surreal and brilliantly realized than the last, and if you're still in a post-4/20 haze, you might want to wait for the fog to clear, because this book might break your brain. And through it all, most importantly, it is wickedly funny. Ben might be at the end of his rope, but he is never at a loss for words, and as he curses his way through this series of unfortunate events, you can't help but root for him every step of the way.

Drew Magary is a magnificent writer with a searingly vivid imagination. In a few sentences, he can render an entire world and perfectly describe some hideous beast that you've never heard of before but certainly won't be able to forget in a hurry. I didn't know what a Mouth Demon was before 2 pm today, but I sure as hell will have nightmares about it tonight. But the most important part of any fantasy novel is the human element. An author can demonstrate as much competence as possible when describing new frontiers and weird creatures, but if he cannot make you empathize with the plight of the central character, there's no real heart to the story. Thankfully, in Ben, Magary has created the perfect protagonist. He is a modern-day family man, staunchly reliant on his phone to solve all his troubles (Magary's descriptions of the terror of watching an iPhone run out of battery might be the most frightening portion of the entire book), who refuses to give up on this heinous journey until he is reunited with his family. The book is littered with illuminating flashbacks to formative experiences from his youth and funny-sad-romantic passages where he yearns for his wife. I was constantly reminded of Odysseus, fighting his way back to Penelope for years against unimaginable horrors and ordeals. It might seem like a fanciful comparison, but trust me, this book is that good.

The Hike is an unrelenting pleasure. It is wildly inventive, deliriously absurd, and breathtakingly heartfelt, burrowing deep into your soul in a way that you never expect. And as I mentioned at the beginning, it has a glorious finale, a climactic twist that makes everything that came before it that much more poignant. So pick up a copy and hunker down for a few hours. It might seem too strange at first, but believe me, this is a literary journey that you must take.