The Outrun - Amy Liptrot

The Outrun is both recovery memoir and nature book. Amy Liptrot returns to her childhood home of Orkney after being swallowed up and spat out by London in her twenties. A free and easy life as a Hackney hipster culminated with the loss of homes, jobs, her relationship and ultimately, a spell in rehab. The narrative cuts back and forth between urban and rural landscapes, and Liptrot doesn't belong in either place. Her English parentage means she is not a native Orcadian; in the vast anonymity of London, Liptrot's addiction spirals.

During her recovery, Liptrot retreats farther and farther north to the point where she is at the very edge of human existence, literally and metaphorically. The meditations on the natural world are starkly beautiful but I found it difficult to know the author - in fact, it seems like during this time, Liptrot didn't know herself either. Nature provides Liptrot with a distraction but this book does not get into the heart of addiction. Maybe I was expecting more. Like Liptrot, I grew up with a bipolar parent and although the film touches upon the link between mental health and addiction, there was little emotional exploration. The journey of The Outrun is escapism in a different form but what exactly is Liptrot running from?

The Outrun has recently been turned into a film starring Saoirse Ronan as the protagonist 'Rona'. It is a faithful rendering of the book and Ronan gives a strong performance. Maybe in keeping with the literary version, the film relies heavily upon the exterior world to convey story - the pathetic fallacy of extreme Highlands winds following a relapse maybe says what Rona cannot. However, with the cinema verité direction, I felt like an observer of a woman that drank too much, and then stopped, but I didn't get a sense of her interiority.