Enoch Wallace fought in the American Civil War. It is now the 1960's and Enoch is still alive, which would make him at least one-hundred years old. However, Enoch doesn't look a day older than his mid-thirties. What's more, Enoch still lives in the same house that he grew up in, and it, too, has conquered the effects if gravity and decay. But that's not all. Enoch is also the caretaker of a Way Station, an intergalactic embassy/terminal, a mysterious rest stop, a place for alien lifeforms to relax while traveling along the super-highways that connect one planet with another.
Enoch Wallace is the Earth's representative, the liaison between humankind and non-humankind. For decades, things have gone well for Enoch, his strange house and his otherworldly career. But things change, and soon he finds himself in the midst of an intergalactic social snafu that could determined the fate of the Earth's status in the planetary congress.
Clifford D. Simak's Way Station reads like an X-Files episode penned by John Steinbeck or Ernest Hemingway. With the rural country side of Wisconsin as the backdrop, Simak paints a pastoral picture that bursts to life with Americana, antique relics, old houses and a simpler, but not simple minded, way of life. Way Station is teeming with passages depicting Enoch's natural surroundings, and I longed to experience the place for myself. I envied Enoch's life, his long walks throughout the forests and meadows, and his contemplative mood birthed from the immense amount of time he has been alive.
What an existence! As if near-immortality isn't miraculous enough, he also gets to meet hundreds of alien species, talk to them, exchange gifts with them and learn of the universe in all of its capacity. Of course, such a life has a dark side. One can't be alive for this long without drawing some unwanted attention, and loneliness is often a symptom of longevity. All too soon I found myself empathizing with Enoch as his amazing life began to crumble.
Enoch Wallace is an amazing character. One of my all-time favorites. I loved every moment I got to spend with him. I would love to meet someone like him in the real world. The name Enoch is a fascinating one, one that carries with it deep rooted spiritual connotation. It is a Biblical name, the name the angel Metatron had before his heavenly ascension. Metatron acted as the voice of God, he was God's liaison with humankind, a heavenly voice box if you will.
The name also has importance in the occult. The Enochian Language is said to be the language of the angels. This idea was popularized in the early 16th Century by Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly, two occult magicians, some say charlatans, who tried to decipher and discover a great spiritual power. In each of these mythologies, the name Enoch is defined as some form of language, or a kind of communication, and Simak expertly infuses his character with these qualities.
Simak's prose is deceptively simple. It is hard to write in such a concise and powerful manner. By avoiding flowery and ornate description, Simak's writing expertly mirrors the mannerisms of Enoch. As the POV character, Enoch is direct, he gets to the point, says what he means, and doesn't mess around; throughout his long life, he has learned to chose his words wisely.
Simak constructs his sentences in the same manner - form follows function here. Isaac Asimov once said that “[he] couldn't help but notice the simplicity and directness of [Simak's] writing - the utter clarity of it,” and so “[he] made [his] mind up to imitate it.” And it's true. Reading Way Station was a breath of fresh air. It is so direct, so terse, so engaging that I simply couldn't put it down, and I read the entire thing in a single sitting, in around six hours.
Clifford D. Simak seems to be a forgotten treasure of American literature. I don't know too many people who have read his stuff, and yet he was highly admired by his peers and won multiple awards, including a Hugo for Way Station (controversially beating Dune for top honors). In the simplest way possible, the best thing I can say about Way Station is that it blew my mind. Truly. With each passing page I fell more and more in love with Simak's prose, the characters and the narrative.
The relationships Simak depicts are powerful and emotional, and there were a couple of moments that almost brought me to tears. Way Station has become a book that I will gift to others, even if the recipient has not declared him or herself a fan of science fiction. I want others to experience the power of Simak's story, and I can only hope that they will be half as engaged and moved as I was.
