When I first got the Libby app on my phone, this was one of the first books I found that I wanted to read. Unfortunately, I needed up being 400th on a waiting list for it. So, it was a surprise the other day to walk along the shelves at the library and find it just sitting there. Of course I took it. Lief Enger has been a favorite author of mine since I read Peace Like a River many years back and while I did enjoy aspects of this book, I didn't love it.
Set in an undefined near future, the book follows Rainey, a bass player, as he embarks on a dangerous journey on Lake Superior following the loss of his wife. Lake, his wife, was clearly the driving force in his life, a force of nature whose intelligence and curiosity was enough to drive them both. In this particular dystopian future, she ran a bookstore, selling something that is no longer valued by most people.
Unable to face staying in the house they shared after she is killed, Rainey takes off in the ramshackle boat he and a friend have been restoring. He has a vague idea of going to islands where he and Lake once spent the happiest days of their courtship. If she remains on Earth, he's sure what remains will be there.
But the lake is capricious and dangerous as are the people who live on and around it. Rainey's journey has him facing storms, beaurocrats, dangerous thugs and more. Yet, he also encounters human kindness and compassion.
The future world Enger paints here is one deeply divided. The wealthy, ruling class (known as astronauts) is happy to keep the rest of society illiterate and increasingly dependent on a mysterious supstance known as "willow". Those who work for the "astronauts" are virtual slaves, while those who refuse are forced to scrabble around for enough scraps to subsist on.
I enjoyed Raineys journey and the colorful cast of characters he met along the way. I also ejoyed the way Rainey became almost a hero by the end, inadevertently leading a quiet revolution against the powers that be.
What I struggled with was how unemotional he was about everything. I never felt that Raney was struggling despite him saying he was. None of the emotions felt like they were being experienced in real time and it made it difficult to connect to the characters.
Which is a shame, because the story is gripping and beuatifully written. I just never had the kind of emotiional immersion I need to truly love a story.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician setting sail on Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. An endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, he seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. After encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, he eventually lands to find an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, a crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. As his guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his wake.
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