Heroes of the Frontier, by Dave Eggers
Alaska: land of glaciers, mountains, wild beasts, and fire. It's the perfect place to disappear, if you're looking to, though perhaps not so perfect once you get there. Josie has left small-town Ohio after separating from her long-time partner and losing her dental business to an angry and litigious client. Her son is eight, her daughter five, and Alaska seems like a great idea, especially since her foster-sister lives there with her own family. What can possibly be better than packing into an RV and hitting the road with no timeline or destination in mind?
Seeing as this is a Dave Eggers novel, you know things won't go according to plan. Josie is conflicted. Will the children's father come looking for them or call the authorities to find her? She longs to see her sister but once there is simultaneously jealous of and disgusted by her lifestyle. She knows she shouldn't be drinking that third Chardonnay so early in the afternoon, but dammit, she's on vacation, what does it matter? Did she do the right thing, taking her children on an adventure that is by turns invigorating and terrifying? Her children take it all in stride, as children do, maturing under the necessity of looking out for each other in a state that seems entirely engulfed by wild fires, with possible danger around every bend in the road.
Things get a little bogged down in Josie's mind, rather like in Eggers' famous A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Sometimes the crazy shows through, and at one point I wondered if we were watching a woman's descent into clinical paranoia. I'm still not sure we weren't. But the boggy parts are outweighed by the wondrous parts, as we ride along with and eventually come to feel a part of this woman's small clan. There is, of course, some social commentary. Josie's rage at the soccer moms who have taken over her town and her world is very clearly Eggers' rage at a society whose values are shifting dramatically. Working parents aren't able to be there for their kids the way stay-at-home parents are, and are made to feel guilty about it. Bicyclists rule the road and no one bats an eye when one beats a driver nearly to death. I wouldn't be surprised if this particular event is inspired by an incident in San Francisco, where Eggers currently lives with his family. Isn't it better, Josie and Eggers wonder, to raise your children away from all of that? And maybe, sometimes, they're right.
I promise it has a great cover!
Seeing as this is a Dave Eggers novel, you know things won't go according to plan. Josie is conflicted. Will the children's father come looking for them or call the authorities to find her? She longs to see her sister but once there is simultaneously jealous of and disgusted by her lifestyle. She knows she shouldn't be drinking that third Chardonnay so early in the afternoon, but dammit, she's on vacation, what does it matter? Did she do the right thing, taking her children on an adventure that is by turns invigorating and terrifying? Her children take it all in stride, as children do, maturing under the necessity of looking out for each other in a state that seems entirely engulfed by wild fires, with possible danger around every bend in the road.
Things get a little bogged down in Josie's mind, rather like in Eggers' famous A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Sometimes the crazy shows through, and at one point I wondered if we were watching a woman's descent into clinical paranoia. I'm still not sure we weren't. But the boggy parts are outweighed by the wondrous parts, as we ride along with and eventually come to feel a part of this woman's small clan. There is, of course, some social commentary. Josie's rage at the soccer moms who have taken over her town and her world is very clearly Eggers' rage at a society whose values are shifting dramatically. Working parents aren't able to be there for their kids the way stay-at-home parents are, and are made to feel guilty about it. Bicyclists rule the road and no one bats an eye when one beats a driver nearly to death. I wouldn't be surprised if this particular event is inspired by an incident in San Francisco, where Eggers currently lives with his family. Isn't it better, Josie and Eggers wonder, to raise your children away from all of that? And maybe, sometimes, they're right.
I promise it has a great cover!
Comments
Post a Comment