Base Tones of Hope
A Review of
I Cheerfully Refuse: A Novel
Leif Enger
Hardback: Grove Press, 2024
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Reviewed by Maggie Wills
*** This novel was our 2024 novel of the year! ***
When the apocalypse comes, what will we need to survive? Last Thanksgiving, after the popularity of a zombie streaming show, my family fixated on the “Go Bag” during our dinner table conversations. This included arguments over the most needed items for the looming, imagined apocalypse. A compass, a solar-powered lantern, cookware, or weapons for defense—what mattered most? Leif Enger’s dystopia reminds readers of necessities beyond survival skills. In the novelist’s latest, I Cheerfully Refuse, hope hums underneath despair in a decaying world.
The novel begins with narrator Rainy, a gentle giant of a man, and his wife Lark. The two live what Lark deems “quixotic” lives, meaning they are “not quite sensible.” They sell books while most celebrate illiteracy and harbor strangers where others would be suspicious. The dystopian future-America suffers from climate change, pandemics, and an economic disparity so dire that 16 families possess all of America’s wealth. Despite this, Lark and Rainy press on in the town of Icebridge on the shore of Lake Superior. Lark sells books, Rainy plays bass in a local band, and they board Kellen, a young man who seems to have escaped a recent, unknown hardship. Rainy’s humble life is interrupted when violent strangers come seeking Kellen and separate Rainy from Lark. We follow Rainy as he ventures on tumultuous Lake Superior in hopes of reconnecting with Lark.
The novel takes the form of old stories. Enger ties Rainy’s story to literary travels. Lark alludes to the travels of Don Quixote, and Rainy sees his journey as like the musician Orpheus’s decent into the underworld in Greek myth. Readers familiar with Robert Louis Stevenson will doubtless feel his influence in the sense of adventure of this lake-faring story. These allusions layer the novel with nostalgia and richness.
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Rainy’s journey on the unrelenting waters takes him to dark depths, but the story moves with an undercurrent of hope. At Rainy’s darkest moment, as he struggles to learn how to sail and feels the loss of Lark, reflects, “As far as enemies go, despair has every ounce of my respect.” Even when overwhelmed with grief and chaos, Rainy recognizes despair as an enemy and maintains the wherewithal to respect his foe. Rainy’s journey starts introspective and zooms out to the surrounding landscape. He comes across swindlers who try to cheat him out of money and jailers who capture him. Rainy consistently questions himself, but he rarely doubts that a future exists beyond current difficulties. When he faces the suffering of others in a prison cell, he wonders if a better future free is “so much to ask? A three-cord song, a common life? Could we all have that, someday? Could I?” He might not know what to do moment-by-moment, but this future remains in Rainy’s imagination and carries him through sorrow and trial. He tries to see beyond a savage world to something gentler.
In addition to Rainy’s hope for his future, the novel gives readers countless reassurances that can be carried beyond its pages. When Rainy feels like he failed a friend, Lark reassures him with this definition of friendship: “You stopped and listened. You’re a man who stops and listens.” When Rainy reflects on those who disconnect from life completely, he urges, “Better is here. Stay and make it better.” In these and many other sentiments, the reader can feel Enger’s desire to impart hope to a world that often feels hopeless. Rainy’s hope and the hope runs through the novel goes beyond trusting that suffering will end. Hope runs deep in the soul as an outlook that treasures future and present goodness in any circumstance.
What helps us survive? I recently found myself in real need of a “Go Bag” for a hospital visit. Because of this “Go Bag” I knew a change of clothes, toothbrush, and phone charger were packed and ready. But this did not quiet my worries about the visit. I Cheerfully Refuse argues for preparing for the worst with hope. Practical? Maybe not. But the novel reminds readers that hope impacts survival. It is one of life’s sustainers. A base tone carrying us through the song.
Maggie Wills
Maggie Wills grew up in the Alpharetta, Georgia trying to keep track of all six of her brothers. She graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with her Master of Arts in Media Art and Worship, where she studied the connections between art and spirituality. She currently serves as Coordinator for Women’s Ministry at Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas.
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