I can’t remember the last time I read a book with a truly passive protagonist, where his qualities are not his weakness, but his strength. He doesn’t change who he is. There is no lesson needed. He is the virtue, not the flaw. Le Guin stacks George Orr up against the passionate Huber who wants to save the world, and carefully and thoroughly makes the case for the former. It’s a profound mental shift, one that makes me realize just how much our culture—even in books where quiet people can get their due—is geared toward the opposite.
The book does tend to raise more questions than answers, and I like it that way. I don’t want a sermon; I want food for thought. I think George Orr might stick in my mind for a while.
He was the strongest person she had ever known because he could not be moved away from the center.