I Cheerfully Refuse
By Leif Enger
Grove Press, 9780802162939, April 2024. 336 pp.

The Short of It:

Some books just stop you in your tracks. This is one of them.

The Rest of It:

Rainy and Lark live just off of Lake Superior. Their marriage is pretty wholesome. She is a lover of books and runs a small bookshop. Rainy is a little rough and tumble in appearance but a musician and a romantic at heart. The two are happy, and live a simple existence.

Their lives take a nasty turn after taking in a boarder. Kellen is a strange one. Young, but existing on what is essentially laughing gas. He keeps strange hours and is on the secretive side. The world is slowly changing and Lark and Rainy continue to ponder where this young man fits in.

Then, the unspeakable happens. Their lives are turned completely upside down, Kellen the boarder is gone, and a horrible tragedy is left behind. Did Kellen do this? Did someone else?

Completely bereft, Rainy prepares his small boat and hits the open water to find that elusive thing. Happiness? Peace? But the world is not the same. Towns are overrun by thugs and bullies. Abandoned towns are left with these odd statues taking up residence. What is going on? Some people are fending for themselves, weapons in hand. Others use the downward spiral of the world as an opportunity to take advantage of the weak.

Rainy is at a complete loss until he accidentally runs into a young girl by the name of Sol who needs his help. Sol is like Pippi from Pippi Longstocking! Full of spunk and with a natural tendency to survive. She is the breath of air that Rainy needed and the two form an unbreakable bond.

This story is full of adventure on the high water. Enger puts the reader right on the boat. The sailing terminology, the cold spray when the weather takes a turn, their hunger as they figure out how two can eat with supplies that were hardly enough for one. There are bad guys, a form of “treasure” that makes Rainy and Sol a target, and then there is beautiful music and lovely words from the one book that Lark cherished, a book titled I Cheerfully Refuse.

What a wonderful book!! I cannot sing its praises enough. I laughed and cried. Literally. You will be choked up. It’s slightly dystopian but mostly adventure with plenty of hijinks. Rainy and Sol will forever live in my mind.

Source: Borrowed
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