It was just by chance that I read this novel while studying the book of Acts. Rainy, the main character in I Cheerfully Refuse, endures a sea voyage much like that of the apostle Paul. His experience tells us much about the kind of faith it takes to risk one’s life for a worthy goal.
Civilization is crumbling around Rainy and his wife Lark, who live in a Lake Superior shore community. Rainy is a house painter and part-time musician. Lark runs a bookstore stocked with treasures from estate sales. The couple live happily, if not affluently, until a fugitive named Kellan shows up seeking shelter in their home. In return he gives them an unpublished manuscript by the elusive Molly Thorn.
Kellan is a “squelette” who suffers spells of terror involving someone named Werryck and a program called Compliance Therapeutics. He’s not the only paranoic in Rainy’s life. A tavern owner named Labrino is obsessed with the pending arrival of a comet which he fears will bring disaster, as if this decaying society didn’t have enough problems already. Rainy’s narrative is full of vague references to “astronauts,” droughts, hunger, library defundings, university shutdowns, and hired thugs. There are also frequent environmental catastrophes which Rainy calls “blows”. One of them turns Rainy’s life upside down and forces him to become a fugitive.
Rainy embarks on a hazardous sailboat voyage in hopes of recapturing a precious moment in his life. Along the way he meets a variety of interesting characters on the shores of Lake Superior. Most are helpful. Some are dangerous, even murderous, as society seems to be sliding backward into savagery.
For the most part Enger keeps the details of this society enticingly vague, preferring to give prominence to the characters. His narration is replete with encounters in which Rainy’s good-hearted nature and bass-playing skills enable him to escape one danger after another. Molly Thorn’s book is itself a character, instrumental in Rainy’s attempts to rehabilitate a troubled young girl.
I Cheerfully Refuse is my first Leif Enger novel. I found it spell-binding and richly rewarding. Though it contains a sprinkling of offensive words, I’m happy to award it a five-star review and will make a point of investigating his other works.
Featured by Chevron Ross
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Weapons of Remorse The Seven-Day Resurrection The Samaritan’s Patient
