{"id":1271,"date":"2020-10-03T19:20:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-03T19:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2020-10-07T15:13:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T15:13:46","slug":"the-searcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/03\/the-searcher\/","title":{"rendered":"The Searcher"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Searching for Solid Ground in The Searcher<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The stakes in The Searcher<\/em> aren’t as explosively high as in Tana French’s other novels. Instead, she explores the shifting moral landscape of modernity through the lens of a missing teen, his vulnerable younger sister, and the retired cop who helps her with the search. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Peter Blair
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Love is whatever you can still betray… betrayal can only happen if you love,\u201d reflects Magnus Pym, the central character of John Le Carre\u2019s novel A Perfect Spy.<\/em> Like Le Carre, Tana French is a writer whose characters know betrayal. Le Carre writes about spies, French about detectives, but both write about betrayal\u2014by colleagues, communities, friends, or family. French\u2019s latest novel, The Searcher, <\/em>is no different.<\/p>

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French herself has described<\/a> The Searcher<\/em> as having \u201ca flavor of a Western, almost, in that it’s the retired gunslinger being dragged out of his retirement for one last job.\u201d Its premise bears some traces of the genre, as it involves a thirteen-year-old girl working with a retired law enforcement figure to track down the person who killed her male relation. The retired cop in this instance is Cal Hooper, a former Chicago detective who left the force early and bought a fixer-upper in the Irish countryside. The girl is Theresa (Trey) Reddy, whose beloved older brother Brendan has disappeared. The official story is that he left home of his own accord, perhaps to live a better life elsewhere, or to escape local trouble, but Trey believes he was abducted. When she hears that the new \u201cblow-in\u201d (read: interloper) used to be a cop, she asks him to help her find out what really happened.<\/p>

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Though it contains its own dose of betrayal, The Searcher <\/em>is a departure from some of French\u2019s earlier novels, which position the reader to expect an apocalypse\u2014you\u2019re aware that something explosive is waiting around the corner. The true nature of the crime will be unveiled and the revelation will destroy lives, careers, psyches, and relationships. The Searcher <\/em>is quieter. The rhetorical stakes are lower; it\u2019s more about healing than destruction.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The novel is about more than moral disorientation alone, if morality is construed narrowly. It\u2019s about existential disorientation more broadly, and the possible remedies for it.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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French\u2019s novels are often<\/a> intertwined<\/a> with their economic, social, or political contexts. Her 2012 novel Broken Harbor <\/em>is about a triple homicide, but it is also about Ireland\u2019s economy after the 2008 financial crash, which ended the country\u2019s \u201cCeltic Tiger\u201d period. The murder victims live in a \u201cghost estate\u201d created by the crash, and their economic misfortunes play a large contributory role in their deaths. The Searcher <\/em>is similar. The context for Brendan Reddy\u2019s disappearance is the hollowing out of the Irish countryside by mass exodus of its young, low marriage and birth rates, drugs, and deaths of despair. \u201cWe lost enough of our young men,\u201d remarks one character, \u201cThere\u2019s a few of them… that keep their feet on the ground regardless. The rest are hanging themselves, or they\u2019re getting drunk and driving into ditches, or they\u2019re overdosing on the aul\u2019 heroin, or they\u2019re packing their bags.\u201d<\/p>

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American circumstances also feature in the narrative. Cal, we learn, retired early in part because of his involvement in a foot chase in which his partner fired on a Black eighteen-year-old bail-jumper. The partner believed, or at least claimed to believe, that the teenager was reaching for a gun. Cal doesn\u2019t spend much time reflecting on this incident, and its importance in the novel is obscured by French\u2019s choice to make Cal\u2019s early retirement overdetermined (he also turns in his badge because of an unrelated subplot involving his daughter and his ex-wife). However, French makes it clear that the shooting shook him. In giving his account of the incident to Internal Affairs at the time, he backed up his partner\u2019s story that the teenager was reaching for his pocket when his partner fired:<\/p>

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It might be true\u2014Cal thinks it is, he thinks that probably is what he saw. That doesn\u2019t alter the fact that he didn\u2019t say that to IA because he thought it was the right thing to do. He did it because he knew everyone around him believed it was, and he himself had no ideas. He was so deafened by the locust buzz of all the anger and the wrongness and the complications surrounding him, he couldn\u2019t hear the steady pulse of his own code any more, so that he found himself having to turn to other people\u2019s\u2014a thing that in itself was a fundamental and unpardonable breach of his own.<\/p>

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In an interview,<\/a> French said that, in writing this novel, she was thinking about the nature of morality today, as she sees it. As one might expect with an Irish novelist, the contemporary moral landscape is defined in contrast to Ireland\u2019s Catholic past:<\/p>

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I was thinking a lot about how complicated it’s become to try and navigate your way through right and wrong. It used to be, I get the sense, quite easy. You were told, in Ireland by the Catholic Church, but you were told wherever it was by a religion what was right and what was wrong, and for most people, that was the end of the story and you knew. It was a very solid thing. Nowadays it’s much more complex. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. It’s a good thing we’re being forced to work to figure out for ourselves what constitutes right and wrong. But it’s also constantly shifting… I was thinking about that a lot: How somebody who doesn’t like morality being complicated navigates a world where it’s getting more and more complicated. And how that defines his right and wrong in the midst of all that.<\/p>

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This theme also shows up elsewhere, like when Cal explains to Trey his understanding of the difference between etiquette (purely conventional), manners (\u201ctreating people with respect\u201d), and morals (\u201cthe stuff that doesn\u2019t change\u201d), while reflecting on how younger generations don\u2019t maintain these distinctions. But the novel is about more than moral disorientation alone, if morality is construed narrowly. It\u2019s about existential disorientation more broadly, and the possible remedies for it.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The most memorable aspect of the novel is the father-daughter bond that forms between Cal and Trey, and the way it develops over shared, skilled work.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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More than the crime itself, or the efforts to uncover it, the most memorable aspect of the novel is the father-daughter bond that forms between Cal and Trey, and the way it develops over shared, skilled work. At the novel\u2019s start, Trey is too wary to ask Cal straight off to help figure out what happened to her brother. She hangs around his property but doesn\u2019t open up. Cal earns her trust by teaching her to do some basic carpentry. He also teaches Trey to hunt with his Henry rifle, to dress a rabbit they catch, to cook. After the novel\u2019s final revelation, the story ends more or less where it began, with Cal and Trey working together to repair a desk.<\/p>

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Trey comes from a poor, broken home\u2014her father, an unreliable figure, left the family to try to make money in London. She and her siblings are seen by the area as \u201cwhite trash,\u201d delinquents who don\u2019t attend school and who can\u2019t be trusted. It\u2019s clear that nobody has taught her much of anything and that her life lacks solid moorings, especially after the disappearance of her brother. In learning from Cal, her surrogate father, her life begins to be redeemed, bought back from the disorientation that surrounds it.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Peter Blair<\/em><\/strong> is the Program Director for the Augustine Collective at the Veritas Forum. Before joining Veritas, he worked at\u00a0the <\/em>American Interest and the Thomistic Institute. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of <\/em>Fare Forward, and currently is\u00a0Editor-at-Large for <\/em>FF. He tweets at\u00a0@PeterAWBlair and runs <\/em>The Pelican<\/em><\/a>, a pro-life newsletter.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

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The Searcher <\/strong>was released on October 6, 2020, by Penguin Random House. <\/em>Fare Forward thanks the publisher for providing our reviewer with an advance reader copy of the novel, which you can purchase from their website here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tana French’s new mystery explores a disappearance–and, along the way, takes a look at finding our way through our shifting moral landscape. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-newsletter","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/The-Searcher-3D.jpg?fit=1500%2C1383&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1276,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions\/1276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=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