When the history of the United States in 2025 is written, perhaps one of the best things that will be said is: 鈥淲ell, it made for some great art.鈥�
Consider 鈥淪o Far Gone,鈥� the new novel by Jess Walter. Set in present day America, it opens with two kids wearing backpacks knocking on a cabin door. 鈥淲hat are you fine young capitalists selling?鈥� asks Rhys Kinnick, before realizing the kids are his grandchildren. They carry with them a note from Kinnick鈥檚 daughter, describing dad as a 鈥渞ecluse who cut off contact with our family and now lives in squalor in a cabin north of Spokane.鈥�
It鈥檚 a great hook that draws you in and doesn鈥檛 really let up for the next 256 pages. We learn why Kinnick pulled a Thoreau and went to the woods seven years ago (Hint: It has a lot to do with the intolerance exhibited by no small percentage of Americans and embodied by a certain occupant of the White House), as well as the whereabouts of Kinnick鈥檚 daughter, Bethany, and why her messy marriage to a guy named Shane led to Kinnick鈥檚 grandchildren being dropped off at his cabin.
In a neat narrative gimmick, the chapters are entitled 鈥淲hat Happened to ___鈥� and fill in the main strokes of each character鈥檚 backstory, as well as what happens to them in the present timeline. Told with an omniscient third-person sense of humor, the book鈥檚 themes are nonetheless serious. On the demise of journalism in the chapter 鈥淲hat Happened to Lucy,鈥� one of Kinnick鈥檚 old flames and colleagues at the Spokesman-Review: She 鈥渉ated that reporters were expected to constantly post on social media鈥� before knowing what their stories even meant.鈥� Or Kinnick鈥檚 thoughts as he holds a .22 Glock given to him just in case by a retired police officer who is helping him get his grandkids back from the local militia: 鈥淭he shiver that went through his arm! The power!鈥� The weight of this gun was the exact weight of his anger and his fear and his sense of displacement鈥� That鈥檚 where its incredible balance lay.鈥�
As Kinnick links up with various characters and drives across the Northwest in search of his daughter and grandchildren, the plot unfolds quickly. Most readers won鈥檛 need more than a day or two to reach the final page, which satisfies the Thoreau quote Walter uses in the story鈥檚 preface: 鈥淣ot till we are lost鈥� 'till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves.鈥�
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AP book reviews:
Rob Merrill, The Associated Press
