I Cheerfully Refuse

The story here was geographically massive in scope---in that Enger covers a lot of earth, as well as the inland sea of the Great Lakes, and the Canadian Slate Islands. Nothing is inert or stagnant, the movement in this journey is formidable. The sea is rollicking and wild, tearing up rocks, the winds tossing it even more, and the near-future dystopian-esque land and life has been drained by climate change. In this future epoch is an inexorable, credible vision of life and death. The main characters are Rainy (a bass guitarist in a band and all-around great husband) and his wife, Lark—a bookstore owner in the midst of an era when people no longer read—only the “ancients” open books. She is also a masterfully skilled sailor.

Rainy and Lark live happily in (fictional) Icebridge, Michigan, and then a young dude stranger shows up with car troubles and other troubles, including a nitrous oxide habit. Events unfold and danger lurks, a villain is referred to, and the reader is aware that things are about to get real for the couple, and their new friend brought trouble with him, however inadvertently. Best of all is this inscrutable author—Lark’s favorite—named Molly Thorn, whose work Lark adores. She is trying to obtain all her books—there’s a whole myth surrounding Molly, not the least of which, is she dead or alive? Does it matter?

No spoilers here, so I will just dance around the plot so I don’t spoil anyone’s discovery. Rainy is about to go on a journey worthy of Orpheus. From Lark, he learned how to sail, and even gained some advanced knowledge, and he was a quick study. Enger thoroughly saturates us into the inland sea, the Great Lakes region, lots and lots of boat v water, too! The setting itself is a character; I’ve never felt such an unremitting sea that delivers like a determined antagonist, pushing up against a relentless protagonist in a way that makes the sea almost human and Rainy practically a human halyard.

It's the near future, but I suspect that Enger purposely refrained from giving an actual time period. 25 years from now? 50? It’s hard to say, but it feels immanent and authentic, an era that can’t be forestalled indefinitely, and has come with more warnings. The class system is worse than it is now, with the rich folks living on the east or west coast. Reading is done by “ancients” and there are odd weather hazards/storms we’ve yet to experience in our lifetime—like bursts or microbursts, and other hair-raising incidents that I don’t want to give away.

New times bring more alarming medicines and treatments, including “Compliance” meds that compel the user to comply with societal “norms.” Aggressive meds, also--a cache of them is worth a pirate’s plunder. You can purchase a modern-day hemlock drug, which removes you from this life to whatever is next (they don’t call it straight-up death) and allows you to spend your final hours in an elated mood, and then you quietly, painlessly stop breathing in this life--and these drugs are worth a lot of money, and is run by a dangerous man and his crew. People seeking this drug believe that we move onto another type of existence, not permanent erasure.

Rainy’s adventures while sailing the boat are many and detailed with both menace and beauty. It won’t take long before the reader feels waterlogged, in a way that sluices you into the story. I felt Enger’s characters right at my heels, or my shoulder, and in my heart.

“Earlier I’d begun to imagine the lake on my side, a protective demigod, the queen herself, adorned with thunder, stepping between me and those who’d have my skin. So much for all that. Deceived is what I felt… Superior had forgot that she was a lake at all—no, she was like her sister the North Atlantic and her cousins the hurricanes who pull down houses and urge barns into the sea.”

Especially since it took place along and on beautiful Lake Superior. The interesting places and people that Rainey meets along his journey to reconnect with his love. Apparently, this story unfolds in a future time where suicide pills are available because the future for so many is dim. This is also the backdrop of the novel which makes the story even more interesting.

This "not so distant" world is ruled by the wealthiest. The working society who struggles to eke out an existence lives on the periphery of the wealthiest individuals who fly in on helicopters to enjoy their waterfront living.

Against this dark backdrop of inequality, hard-scrabble life, crumbling society, and an earth clinging tenuously to survival, we meet Rainy as he reminisces about his life with Lark and what led to him sailing around Lake Superior in search of her.

Rainy (short for Rainier) is a big, gentle bear of a man who is totally devoted to his wife and their life together. There's such a sweetness and gentleness between Rainy and Lark. This is a romance for the ages against a dark landscape.

Rainy meets Lark after basically stalking her when she was a librarian. Thanks to Lark, Rainy discovers the joy of books and the worlds to be found within them.

And Rainy falls almost instantly in love with Lark just by her voice, her kindness, the way she can intuitively tell what a person needs and make the perfect book recommendation for them. His love for her grows through the years, as does their respect and care of one another.

Rainy is friends with a local bar owner (where Rainy often plays bass guitar) known simply as Labrino, a rather melancholy guy. "Still, it was good he knocked at all. There were times Labrino was so melancholy he couldn't bring himself to raise his knuckles, and then he might stand motionless on the back step until one of us noticed he was there."

But he is also a man of grit and endurance. And thanks to Labrino, we have one of my favorite scenes from the book when Lark arrives home to find her husband soothingly playing guitar for Labrino.

"He grinned-- a wide grin, at which Lark danced back into the kitchen and held out her hand. Labrino took it and got up and followed her lead. She whisked him about, I kept playing, and Labrino kept losing the steps and then finding them again-- it was good to see him prance around like a man revived. By the time I brought the tune to a close Labrino was out of breath and scarcely noticed as Lark snagged his coat and lay it over his shoulders. With genuine warmth she thanked him for coming and suggested dinner next week, then he was out the door and turning back to smile as he went."

Lark is so empathetic, so intuitive and kind-hearted, and she knows just how to give someone what they need in that moment.

And then Lark brings home a stray by the name of Kellan who she's taken on as a room boarder. Lark describes him as "Enigmatic. Obscure." Rainy describes Kellan as having a "kid brother quality" and "plucky doomed optimism" that made you want "to take care of him". And Kellan needs someone to take care of him. He is running from his past and needs the soft landing that Rainy and Lark offer him for a time.

The idyllic life that Rainy and Lark have built together is shattered, leaving Rainy living on the shifting winds of Lake Superior aboard the boat Flower.

The author is a skilled wordsmith and this story is well-crafted prose, creating a world that is equal amounts beauty and tragedy. Nature and nature's beauty is a recurring theme, as well as her indiscriminate wrath. I noted how even many of the character's names have the earthy feel of nature to them (i.e. Rainier/Rainy, Lark, Sol/Sun, Thorn, Beezie, and even the boat's name Flower).

But there is also a darkness in this dying world where you can find both the best and the worst of humanity. "What scares me is the notion we are all one rotten moment, one crushed hope or hollow stomach from stuffing someone blameless in a cage."

My final word: This book is "simple" in the very best meaning of the word. It's stripped down to the basics and helps you find joy in the simple things. It's optimistic and hopeful even amid tragedy, and... atmospheric. You get the sense that Rainy and Lark were destined; their love was written in the stars. "Yet we were also, as Lark liked to whisper in the dark, quixotes, by which she meant not always sensible. Open to the wondrous. Curious in the manner of those lucky so far."

And you learn through their story that sometimes things have to get really dark for you to see the light. It's just a beautiful story. Let Rainy take your hand and lead you to the light.

3.5* In a not-so distant future, after cycles of floods, droughts, famine, and societal collapse, Rainier “Rainy” and Lark are a happy couple who live two blocks away from Lake Superior, Michigan, in the town of Icebridge. Rainy is a part-time bass musician, and Lark co-owns a bakery/bookstore. Occasionally they rent their attic to itinerant travelers, and is one of those—an indentured servant escapee from a medicine ship who is on his way to Canada— who brings trouble to their door, for this young “squelette”, as those escaped servants are commonly referred to, has stolen valuable goods from a very ruthless man. Rainy’s odyssey across Lake Superior escaping his pursuers aboard a boat—on his way back to his wife— will make him cross paths with an assortment of characters who will make him recover hope and believe in love again.

This fast paced narrative is easy to read and solid four stars almost from the start, however, the story occasionally bogs down towards the middle and also towards the end, reason why I settled for a 3.5* rating. This first person narrative jumps right into the action, with no preamble, no information dump. The descriptions are very visual, the characters colorful, crisp and interesting; they sound like people one would love to know. Even the villains have depth.

I Cheerfully Refuse is a dystopian novel with a lot of darkness but also inspiring feats of heroism and survival. A novel within a novel, set in a world where books are rare as a consequence of being vilified, banned, and burned en-masse, this novel is an ode to books and reading, to the power of friendship and storytelling, and the power of love and hope to heal all wounds.

A tighter editing focusing on reducing the amount of nautical terms would have done wonders for this book. It’s a pity I had to subtract from its overall rating. Despite its heavy topics, I found I Cheerfully Refuse very entertaining and enjoyable.

I was so tempted to put this book down, but I couldn't! My frustration arose from not knowing how the world got to be such a dystopian place. "Did I miss the first book in this series," I asked myself. But no amount of vexation could deter me from plowing ahead to find out what would happen to protagonist Rainier and his wife Lark, who inhabited a territory (I'm not sure there were any official "states") near the Great Lakes. They eked out a meager living from Rainier playing bass guitar and Lark selling vintage books in a small shop. Books were outlawed long ago. Other black market items drove the one-sided economy, in which everyone was poor except for extremely wealthy individuals called "astronauts." (There was no connection to outer space; think oligarchs on steroids.)

Desperate people signed contracts to be human guinea pigs in medical experiments. Those who regretted their decisions and escaped were hunted down. Much of the action in Enger's book centered on one such escapee and his cruel and relentless pursuer. Possession of an illegal drug that people were using to euthanize themselves after 90 minutes of pleasure (think "Soylent Green") was another key plot point. I was not disappointed that I didn't quit reading, and I hope Mr. Enger will write a prequel that will reveal more about the collapse of the previous government. I would definitely read it.

I’ve read all of Leif Enger’s novels, starting with PEACE LIKE A RIVER. He seldom lets me down.

I CHEERFULLY REFUSE is set in the Lake Superior area. It’s protagonist is a bear of a man, named Rainy. Rainy owns a boat he calls “Flower”, and he sails the lake avoiding a villain named Werryck.

At the beginning of the novel we are introduced to Rainy and his partner Lark. Rainy rescues a young man named Kellan. That’s when Werryck shows up. Apparently Kellan has absconded with some drugs referred to as “Willow”. They belong to Werryck. Lark winds up dead in the ensuing tussle, and Rainy has a reason to hunt him down.

Enger is very good at characterization, especially little kids as in PEACE LIKE A RIVER. There’s another one in this one. She’s another Rainy rescue, and she has the unusual name of Sol. She’s a feisty kid, only nine years old; yet she sets fire to a bridge after the owner extorts money from Rainy. Rainy is trying to take Sol to a man she refers to as her Gramps.

Werryck is a different sort of villain. At one point Rainy and Sol are captured and imprisoned aboard Werryck’s ship. There are other prisoners there, probably being held for some sort of drug charge. Werryck summons Rainy often to hear him play his bass guitar; he also periodically serves Rainy a delectable meal. It’s like he doesn’t really want to be who he is.

Kellan appears to be a rather wimpy character, but Enger has a penchant for turning a profligate character into a hero. You’ll see.

Sol is probably the best character in the book, but she disappears for long segments in the second half, and the ending is rather disappointing is respect to what happens to her.

Rainy and his boat visit lots of small towns on the border of Lake Superior, non of which I’ve heard of; this gives Enger a chance to explore minor characters, something he’s really good at. We meet a doctor and his wife who are especially memorable.

I’ll be looking forward to Enger’s next effort.