The Searcher: Who is the Searcher?

I think there are two searchers in this book. Trey, for one, who is looking for her brother. She is searching for someone with the skills to help her find out where he is and she is tenacious about getting that someone, Cal, to help her. Ultimately, Trey is looking for peace of mind so she can move on with her life. During this search she finds herself developing new skills and defining her code of ethics which will define the rest of her life.

The other searcher is Cal. He is searching for a new way of life not only in a new country but in a rural community far away from his past Chicago lifestyle. He’s searching for acceptance in this new place, new friends to laugh with and enjoy life, and a new purpose while he recovers from a very unpleasant divorce. His relationship with Trey helps Cal in his search for a better way to communicate with his daughter after he seemed to fail her when she was brutally attack. Cal is also redefining his code which has become frayed in this new environment and culture.

I think the searcher is Trey Reddy, a thirteen year old looking for her older brother whom she thinks has been kidnapped. That is her quest. Apparently, he provided a sense of family and companionship which she did not otherwise have. Because of her mother and father, no one in the village seems to have a good opinion of any of the Reddys. The Guards have to go to their home to get the kids to school consistently. Noreen finds something missing whenever one the Reddy children come into the store. In Cal, Trey finds someone to help her. To a lesser extent, Cal is a searcher, looking for peace and a new beginning. He left his job when he no longer felt relief when he fixed something. Cal’s ex-wife said that “Cal was addicted to fixing things, like a guy jabbing on and on at a slot machine, unable to leave it alone until the lights flashed and the prize came pouring out.” But letting the world take care of itself makes Cal uneasy in ways he does not completely understand. He works on something or calls his daughter to get away from that restlessness. But it is more difficult because he doesn’t know the boundaries and what the village is willing to do. So when Cal finds out what happened to Brendan, he has to tell Trey to leave it for her own safety. For Trey, “the idea of a world with no quest in it has left her lost.” Cal gets one of Lena’s pugs for Trey and lets Mart know that Trey will continue helping him and he wants no shit about that. In the end, they help each other in their personal searches.

Definitely agree! Both Trey and Cal are searchers. Trey searches for her brother Brendan, a search that consumes her. It is truly a quest as the quote Nancy mentions captures so well, a pursuit that takes on a life of its own in some ways, that has an intensity Trey cannot simply move past without an answer.

Cal is certainly a searcher; I would consider him “The” searcher for all the reasons Nancy and Libby mention. He is fundamentally looking for himself, for who he is now that he is no longer a Chicago cop or Donna’s wife and his daughter is half a world away and on her own. And he accepts responsibility for the search for Brendan.

I think there are two other searchers or seekers. The first is Lena. She is most definitely not searching for who she is. But she is open to living differently, to a life after the death of her husband, to other critters and people in her life. “Cal wasn’t aware, till that moment, that he was being evaluated.”

I think the other searcher is the reader. I find an element of Cal in myself and, I think, in all of us at various points in our lives. Not necessarily in the specifics but in the experience of needing to change, to rethink what we do, what is important, how to relate to others and to the demands of our lives. In that sense, I find Cal’s search both challenging and reassuring.

I’m in agreement with everyone else that both Cal and Trey are searchers. Trey is searching for her brother and Cal is also searching for her brother. On a deeper level, as Libby, Jane, and Nancy mentioned, Trey is searching for closure so she can move on with her life and she can only do that when she knows what happened to Brendan. She is also searching for something or someone she can look up to, to guide her. Without Brendan looking out for her, she doesn’t have someone truly looking out for her, her mother is too busy with her younger siblings. So Cal is like a substitute parent. And I think him showing her how to fix the desk and carpentry helps her build confidence in herself.

For Cal he’s also searching for a new life. With his divorce and his daughter grown up he’s feeling untethered from what was once his family. He also grew weary and lost at his job as a detective, unable to distinguish if he was doing good work. So he’s searching for an internal stability and renewed sense of purpose and maybe also a new family (although he doesn’t know it). He thinks that he would rather be alone and work through his thoughts and feelings quietly but Trey pulls him into the search, which pulls him into the deeper relationships going on in Ardnakelty.

I also like Jane’s point that the reader is also a searcher. I hadn’t reflected on that but I was not only drawn into the search but also into reflecting on the choices Cal and others make.

Yes, I agree that both Cal and Trey are searchers. I did wonder, when reading the book, if the author meant us to focus on one or the other as being “it,” but can’t in my mind eliminate either of them. As you all have so eloquently stated, they are both searching, not just for the physical, worldly object of Brendan, but also for their places in the world. As I read, I kept seeing the parallels of their lives that way. In my head, the book would have to be called The Searchers!

I think the whole book in its essence is about searching. Cal is searching for a way to recover his moral center. He is also searching for a missing person. He is searching to restore his relationship with his daughter. Trey is searching for her brother. She is searching for a father figure as well. Brendan and the other young men are searching for ways to not only survive but thrive financially so they can gain freedom. The village is searching for a way to protect its next generation. And I also felt that essentially Trey and Cal were searching for belonging, for a place in the world. Both feel like outsiders, in a sense. Everyone wants to feel a sense of belonging, of purpose and I think the book examines the different ways people search for that and the negative impacts it can have in people’s lives if they are not accepted, shunned, or misunderstood. And the positive impacts when people take a chance and embrace a stranger, or look past their own interests.