TO SEEK FOR ELDORADO

In Holloway’s novel, set in the 1970s and structured as a memoir, a Canadian tells a tale of love and violence.

Lazlo Jar grew up poor near Kentville, Ontario, and survived a grim childhood by reading books referenced throughout (Bleak House, The Old Man and the Sea, etc.) and running through the countryside. As a teen, he falls for Lizzie, the preacher’s daughter, but when her father learns of their romance, he shockingly tries to shoot Lazlo and then relocates the family. The boy believes Lizzie’s family moved to Toronto and follows her there, but when he approaches the city, he feels like he’s in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The jungle experienced in that book, he writes, “could not have looked more menacing than the one I now rode into.” He fails to locate Lizzie while working at a factory for three years. Needing a change, he hops a bus to Winnipeg, unsure of his future but vigilant for traces of the vanished Lizzie. Holloway then sends the lovelorn Lazlo on a classic road adventure. He buys an old truck and decides to drive north, picks up a hitchhiker, and agrees to drive him to his gold claim in the Yukon, where they’ll split the mining profits. Along the Alaska Highway, the two hopeful miners meet a host of colorful characters eking out lives for themselves. Readers will root for the engaging duo to reach their claim and strike it rich. Eventually, the young traveler continues his search for Lizzie, and he meets violence in many forms before jumping ahead to wrap up his story in an epilogue. Holloway seasons the tale with many evocative descriptions of Lazlo’s misadventures, friendships, and mining travails and successes. Unfortunately, we never really get to learn enough about Lazlo’s inner workings. What drives him to always pine for Lizzie? Still, the epic travels and lively cast help to fill out the tale.

An adventurous, detailed novel that needs a more layered lead.