So Far Gone

Walter, Jess So Far Gone. New York : HarperCollins 2025. Print.

 

First Sentences:

A prim girl stood still as a fencepost of Rhys Kinnick's front porch. Next to her, a cowlicked boy shifted his weight from snow boot to snow book. Both kids wore backpacks. On the stairs below them, a woman held an umbrella against the pattering rain...."We aren't selling anything," said the boy. He appeared to be about six. "We're your grandchildren."


Description:

Rhys Kinnick chose to become a recluse. One day, simply fed up with his work as a newspaper columnist on environmental issues, the world in general, and his own life in particular, he walked off his job. He left his home and drove to an almost-abandoned deep woods cabin built by his grandfather, unoccupied and rarely visited now. There he lived off the grid for seven years -- no phone, no internet, no television, no outside communication -- peacefully, collecting books to be read for pleasure or research for a possible future book he was writing. He slowly erased himself from everything.

I felt like the world was drifting in one direction and I was going the other way. 

But the appearance of his grandchildren, Asher and Leah, on his porch, and a note from his daughter held by the kids' neighbor who brought them, changed his life. 

Dear Anna. If you're reading this, I had to leave in a hurry. I know this is a lot to ask but can you take the kids to my father, Rhys Kinnick. He is a recluse who cut off contact with our family and now lives in squalor in a cabin north of Spokane....

Rhys' daughter, Bethany, had to flee from her husband Shane who recently had become an extreme religious fanatic and planned to forcibly move their family into The Rampart, an armed religious community of similar ultra far-right souls. He had frequently argued with Bethany that she was an unfit mother for not bowing to his demands and his position as husband and father, finally threatening to take sole custody of their young children and make this move with or without her consent.

Rhys awkwardly takes in the young children. But the next day at Asher's chess tournament, they are confronted by two armed thugs from The Rampart. Acting on the orders of the children's father, the roughnecks beat up Rhys, violently grab the children, and take off with them. 

It is now up to Rhys, along with the help of a retired detective, a Native American neighbor, and his ex-girlfriend to try to locate and take back his grandchildren from the religious fortress. But even if he does find and reclaim his grandchildren, what then?

This may sound like a fairly common, straightforward tale, but in the hands of a skilled author like Jess Walter, all the elements found in a quality book -- great plot, writing, characters, and setting -- play important, unpredictable roles in the unspooling of this tale. Relationships are created, challenged, destroyed, and renewed throughout the book, with characters both rising to the challenges facing them and alternatively failing to reach their own desired goals. 

The story and people grow closer to readers until you simply have to keep reading to peek at what will occur next, find out how a person could possibly escape a situation, or watch from between fingers over your eyes whether impending violence will take place and what the outcome will be.

It's a compelling read full of conflicting emotions, bravery, hiding, and throughout it all, an underlying love for family and friends. Well-written, wonderfully paced, and chock full of interesting people and situations, So Far Gone is a highly worthwhile read for just the pleasure of good writing and all the other elements that make a great read.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Haruf, Kent. Plainsong

Two elderly bachelor farmer brothers take in a pregnant teenage girl, protect her from an abusive boyfriend and help her adjust to a life on an isolated farm in a small town. Wonderfully touching and honest. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

 

Fred

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