La route d’Altamont is one of those quiet but profound books. It is fashioned as a book of memories, but it is a philosophical work centered around a theme dear to Roy’s nomadic heart: journey. Every character in this four-story cycle has le mal du départ.
We read memories of the narrator’s grandmother, then of the narrator’s childhood friendship with an elderly neighbor, then of the curious girl’s trip across town on a mover’s carriage and finally, the narrator’s travel across the plains with her now elderly mother. Each of these parts describes a travel experience occurring in life’s extreme ends (the early and the late one) which of course goes beyond geographical: a child yearns to travel in order to discover the world, the old person - to go back to oneself, to what’s essential. These journeys frame human life and provide Roy with a way to look into the eternal questions of aging, death, life and love.
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