So torn over this novel!
I'm a fan of Leif Enger (if you haven't already, read Peace Like a River right now). But apocalyptic fiction - or anything set in the future - is of no interest to me. I'd much rather read The Way We Live Now than The Hunger Games.
While reading it, I felt exhausted and anxious and pessimistic - this really could be how it's going to be not too many years from now.
I talked about it as often as I could to try to figure out why I kept reading it. While there are dismal developments, there also are hopeful scenes of kindness. And the writing kept me going.
I finally settled on my conclusion: Don't like the story, but very much like how the story is told.
Lines that made me think: "As enemies go, despair has every ounce of my respect." "Nothing sinks your spirit like your own cruelty."
There's a lovely scene at the end where Rainy wants to be at a town street party, but also wants to be out alone looking at the comet that's been traveling by. "I didn't want to miss (the party), but any quixote would see the sense of this: if you're heading out to sea to find the spirit of your beloved, then go while something rare and infinitely lucky is hanging in the sky." ( )

I could not get through it. 125 pages in and I gave up. ( )

A lyrical tale of a world where the 1% rule the country and normal people try to live off the radar. ( )

Set in a not-too-distant future marked by climate change, lawlessness, and corruption and governed by a dictatorial ruling class known as the astronauts, Rainy, a musician, and his beloved wife, Lark, a bookstore owner, live on the shore of Lake Superior until she is murdered. Rainy, in his grief, sets sail in an old sailboat partly to escape the perpetrators but also in the hope of finding Lark’s spirit. In his journey, he confronts severe storms, extreme evil and violence but he also finds friendship and hope along the way.

I Cheerfully Refuse by Lief Enger is a beautifully written dystopian tale full of contrasts between the beauty of the landscape and the horrors he encounters on shore, between the kindness of some of the characters he meets and the shocking cruelty of others and all written in lyrical prose. At times, the tale feels like a wild adventure and, at other times, like a fairy tale wonderfully told. This is not always an easy story - there are suicides, references to paedophilia, lynchings - but, in the end, there is hope. I listened to the audiobook narrated by David Aaron Baker who does an absolutely wonderful job of conveying the beauty and lyricism of Enger’s prose.

Thanks to Netgalley and RB Media for an audiobook of this novel in exchange for an honest review ( )

Gdrd 4.24 1@5