Some time ago I told you about Insularity, the inner journey of a runner, Ralph del valle, finalist of the Uneven Literature Award 2014. The publisher was kind enough to send me a copy of the book, which has more than met the expectations I had for it. Almost three months have passed since that. But do not think that it took me almost three months to read it: I have read and reread it during all that time several times. And I will do it again. The thoughts, the situations, the reflections, the story itself have impressed me so much that over and over again I feel the need to reread the paragraphs several times, and stay "licking" phrases in my head like the one that turns a candy in the mouth.
If you run, if you have ever run, if you feel the need to start running, if you need to understand why people rush to devour the road with their shoes (or with their bicycle, with their poles, what does it matter) or simply you are curious to know why people run, then you have to read this book. Perhaps the statement with which the story begins, "A man who runs is a man who runs" seems too radical to you. But you will understand many things if you read this book, and not just about running. Because Insularity is a inner journey that explores many things, and that, whether you run or not, surely you feel identified with some of them, to a greater or lesser extent.
Insularity It's a bit of a strange book. And that, in literature, is a compliment, at least that's where my intention is. It is the story of a young man who captures his reflections while gradually telling us a story that, as readers, we have to rebuild. But the story is simple. Our protagonist is a separated man who, after a love failure, a failure that he has not managed to overcome, moves near Berlin, at least that is supposed, because he never really says exactly where he is. Really, everything is wrapped in a kind of aura of mystery. We do not know his name, and he only uses initials to mention other people, except those who are not relevant and are simple characters who cross paths at some point in his life to never return.
The story is written as if it were a diary. In this sense, it does not have a very defined apparent structure, but rather the protagonist advances, sometimes writing more and other times less, and inserting bits of his life that serve to illuminate his thoughts and try to find an explanation for his life, as who has already lived what he is living.
The protagonist begins his story in the middle of "Prussian winter", in a hurry. But, Why are you running? This is one of the great unknowns that he tries to decipher himself: the reasons that lead him to train with the intensity that he does, the reasons that push him, the reasons why he needs it, such as breathing. As the story progresses, the protagonist reveals to us that, due to his sentimental failure and just after reaching his new destination, he decides to challenge himself: to run a half marathon in a period of approximately 6 months. But our protagonist is not even an athlete.
Have you ever set out to achieve a challenge that seems impossible to you? Because this is one of the great themes that this book talks about: the power of improvement, effort and the need to set goals to overcome one's own limitations.
"Life is to settle outstanding accounts"
For me, this is the phrase that best summarizes the essence of this story, at least the one that has struck me the most, and that keeps ringing in my head, like those motivational phrases that everyone likes so much and that can become In a lighthouse in the middle of the night And that the book is full of sentences and wonderful fragments.
Actually, the whole book revolves around this idea. And in the end, after having dragged the initial idea (running to flee), we reached a resolution full of hope. Because, in the end, we can settle those outstanding bills.
