I’m walking away from this book not knowing exactly what just happened or how I feel about it. It’s gorgeously written, as I knew it would be, lyrical and emotional. Everything in it feels both small and concrete but also large and allegorical at the same time.

The characters are strong. Rainy is our Orphean narrator, feeling inadequate to his storytelling task. Lark personifies purity of heart and generosity of spirit. You have standout supporting cast members, Kellan, Sol, and Werrick (and Flower if you count the sailboat as a character), but the third-tier folks kind of blended together for me into a tapestry.

Because I listened on audio, and it was SLOW going (not sure exactly why), I think I lost a lot. I may have been more attentive if I’d read this in print, and therefore come to a more cohesive understanding of the story. 

Enger takes his time getting started, laying several pieces on the table, and then he does a nice job of smashing everything so that Rainy is forced to leave his normal world behind and venture on a sailboat onto unpredictable Lake Superior. 

The book’s middle could’ve meandered if not for Werrick’s pursuit, which kept things moving along. Rainy’s unpredictable journey had that familiar episodic feel to it, the way Greek myth structures itself (and TV series). The setting is a near-future U.S. that has fallen into a soft yet terrifyingly believable dystopia, where citizens have been stripped of the safety and plenty that we are taking for granted at this very moment. I thought Enger did a fantastic job of upping the stakes with each of Rainy’s encounters. The plot was like a fist closing on the poor man. And I did like the ending. 

Here’s where I’m not sure I’m smart enough for this book: The message. What is this book saying? I’m honestly not quite sure. The rich get richer and start doing immoral experiments on the poor to create compliance drugs in order to quell rebellion…is this a critique of capitalism or socialism or both? Or is it concerned with neither and none?

In the story world, the Christian church has been weaponized against the good-hearted, and those who possess Bibles are usually villains. There are allusions to the scribes and Pharisees vs. the disciples, but it was all rather muddled, I wasn’t quite sure what Enger was saying about the actual gospel, except that his heroes are the poor, meek, mourning, and persecuted.

It was a good book, very beautiful, but I found myself walking away with more confusion than I thought I would. In a way, it’s good because I will think about this book more than I would’ve if it weren’t so difficult to pin down. And that, in many respects, is what makes a worthy read.