I Cheerfully Refuse

I can't quite explain why this one hit so hard. It's written with the type of prose that hardly even needs to be paired with a plot to enjoy. And that's a good thing, because I was pretty lost on the plot for at least a third of the book.

I was lost because Enger asks a lot of the reader. Although the writing is beautiful, it is also skeletal. Details are not spoon-fed. We are never told explicitly how this dystopian world came to be, how exactly it functions, or what is the background of each character. Instead, the reader is forced to make a lot assumptions based on tiny bits of information scattered along the way. Events aren't always well explained as they occur, but rather conveyed via the emotional impact of a few carefully selected words.

The whole story openly invokes classics like The Odyssey, Don Quixote, Gulliver's Travels, and the myth of Orpheus, coinciding with the recurring theme of the value of literature. Throughout Rainy's journey, he has brief episodic encounters with wide-ranging characters, most of whom we don't spend a lot of time getting to know. Even Rainy himself is a unique character in that his inner dialogue never seemed to fully reflect the urgency of the situation he was in or deeply analyze the moral failings of society around him.

Despite its minimalist nature, I felt like every character served their intended purpose in the story's overarching message: How do we respond when society is crumbling and outside of our control? Can we remain hopeful in an increasingly desperate world? How do we treat others facing the same dire circumstances? I think I will continue thinking about this one for quite a while.

Book author: Leif Enger