I will admit, I almost quit this one. I am not in the mental space for too complex dystopian societies and i worried that where this was headed. But actually it just happened to be a dystopian setting but was more an adventure story, family drama, etc. I really did get hooked by these characters. I flew through it towards the end and will be recommending to friends.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and #NetGalley for the digital ARC of #ICheerfullyRefuse. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I'm finding it hard to describe this book. It's a character study set in a not to distant dystopian America about the human spirit and it's drive to survive and find connection. The story is more internal and introspective and while I liked the characters and writing, I really wanted more plot/detail - about Lark & Rainy's relationship and how/why society was collapsing.

Not entirely my kind of book, but an interesting read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC of this book.

I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book by the end. The first forty percent of I Cheerfully Refuse was paced very slowly and was just too much. I think most of it could have been condensed to produce the same understanding and emotions.

When Rainy leaves his home, the story picks up. It becomes high stakes and exciting. The synopsis of the book is misleading, and I was completely caught off guard by the catalyst for his exit from his life. He meets some very interesting people along his journey, and it very much becomes a matter of survival. In a world that seems to have very little to care about, Rainy manages to find meaning and hope. His ability to carry on and move forward with his life could be considered inspiring. At some points, I found it a bit infuriating that he didn't seem to be angry enough.

I do have to say, the ending was a tad bit disappointing. I was happy about the outcome, but the chain of events that led to it was anti-climactic. I was expecting more of a crescendo at the end, and it fell a bit flat for me. Overall though, this was a solid science fiction/dystopian story that I was happy to have read.

In a near future dystopia where reading is frowned up and resources are scarce, Rainy heads out into Lake Superior after experiencing horrific personal life.

I was drawn to this novel because of Lake Superior, a lake that has my soul.

Sometimes, literary fiction sinks, but this time it just coasts right in. This book is immersive, contemplative, poignant, emotional, funny, and makes you want to set sail.

The book definitely hits the nail on the head in terms of boating and the lake. While the first part of the story takes place on land, a great deal of the last two-thirds is on or near the water. As someone who loves being on the water, I enjoyed these parts immensely.

The language the book uses to describe the lake, in particular, is lovely and evocative. These moments of lofty prose are well-balanced - it doesn’t feel stuffy or pretentious. This could also be because the book is quite funny at times, at least the first part. After the first 20% or so it gets very serious for awhile, but there were a few parts in the earlier pages that had me laughing. I never knew where the book was going plot-wise and small details mentioned earlier in the story are woven into the ending in a way that feels organic and natural.

The tone is entrancing because it’s much like the sea - it ebbs and flows. We have moments of lightness, of calm, of reflection, and moments of despair, high tension, and sorrow.

The characterization of Rainy is so well done. He’s immensely likable because he’s just a normal dude who wants a quiet, normal life. He’s had his issues in the past, but he’s not some Mel Gibson rage-fuelled alpha man out for vengeance. He’s tough and resilient, but he’s also clever and sweet and caring. The supporting characters - Lark, Sol, a few others - are also well-developed. This is a story where a wife dies but it’s not fridging. While it’s told in Rainy’s perspective, Lark is a fully developed character. When she dies - it’s in the blurb, I’m not spoiling anything - it’s heartbreaking for the reader as much as for Rainy, as she seemed like such a cool, nice woman. It’s not a revenge plot but a grief plot.

The world-building is fascinating because we aren’t really told what the state of the world is, but we’re left to infer that the world has grown steadily more dystopian and run-down, with the mega-rich living in safety and security while everyone else ekes out a living. Yet, Rainy and Lark are happy in their small town with their simple life. The novel shows how humans, despite what social media and the news makes you think, really just want to live their lives and enjoy their food and company and, well, nature. The lake, despite its roughness, is a thing of beauty as well, a place of freedom and adventure.

If you love the water and beautiful language, you should check this out.

As always with Leif Enger, this is an immersive and compelling story. The characters have depth and are believable, and the likable and the not-so-likable are nuanced, which I appreciate about his writing. Post-apocalyptic stories have always fascinated me, and this one was no exception. Also, the descriptions of Superior and the surrounding area were almost like an ode to the lake, and having grown up in Minnesota, I especially appreciated that part of the book.

Leif Enger’s novel Peace Like a River is one of the most memorable reading experiences I’ve ever had. I Cheerfully Refuse was no different. It will stick with me for a long time. The writing read like a song, the story, the characters, and the setting of ‘somewhere in the near future’ all blended together beautifully for a singular reading experience. I have never been sailing but feel like I have now since reading this book. I loved the unexpected twists and turns, the exploration of what it means to live and what it means to grieve. I truly loved it and will be recommending it to everyone I know.

A beautiful, dystopian novel.. by the author of Peace Like A River!
The world has changed, evil people are in charge including police.. fresh food very limited, a comet is coming that brings illness, books and booksellers are treasonous, climate change has brought dead bodies up to float on Lake Superior. Things are so bad that many of the population have acquired access to “Willow” a pill they can take to peacefully kill themselves.
Rainy, a musician…takes to Lake Superior in an old boat of his to escape the predators that killed his wife Lark in their home. This then becomes quite an adventure with huge challenges and hardships.
He comes across a nine year old girl, Sol at one of his stops on land who was being abused by an evil man and she comes along on the rest of his journey.
Loved the characters… even Lake Superior seemed like a character!
A novel with s huge heart!

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic/Morgan Entrekin for the Arc!

DNF, loved Enger's Virgil Wander, but I am not the reader for this book. Giving it a middle-of-the-road rating because I couldn't read past 10%, so not fair to pan it.

This was both depressing and hopeful. It's the world we know and the world we don't, having teetered into disrepair. There's harsh words for people who scorn science and books and education and what happens when we fall to far into nationalism and fundamentalism. Rainy is who we go on this wild and sad and beautiful and devastating adventure with and I couldn't have asked for a better guide. I hope that this future remains a fiction though.

In this beautiful, haunting novel, set in a near future dystopian America, society has collapsed. Catastrophic climate change, crumbling infrastructure and economic collapse has led to a country run by a handful of malevolent billionaires, where many people are proudly illiterate, including the President. Many work now for the billionaire class in indentured servitude, where they are underfed and only fall further into debt. Those who try to escape are hunted down and punished severely.

Rainy, a house painter and part time musician has nevertheless made a good life for himself in a small town on the shore of Lake Superior. His wife, Lark is a rescuer and seller of books and so is delighted when a man called Kellan walks into her store with an unpublished copy of ‘I Cheerfully Refuse’, the last book written by her favourite author. Young and scrawny with a damaged hand, Kellan is also looking for somewhere to stay and accepts Lark’s offer to rent their attic, even though Rainy suspects he is an escaped labourer.

Not long after Kellan’s arrival, Rainy’s pleasant life is shattered and he is forced to flee in his old sailing boat, taking on Lake Superior and her violent and unpredictable storms, hoping to see Lark again at the Slate islands they once visited. His journey becomes a quixotic odyssey as he flees from one place to the next, battling storms, finding hidden bays, encountering violence and lawlessness and helping downtrodden victims along the way.

Enger’s beautiful flowing language is richly lyrical, even at the darkest of times, and I could go on reading it forever. Although frequently pushed by men and nature to the brink of despair, Rainy is a man who can still see the good in people and the beauty in his world, never losing his sense of hope in finding a better future. Highly recommended!

A very well crafted story with beautiful prose. In the not too distant future Rainy and his wife live along Lake Superior and are thrust into a new but normal dystopian life. I loved the characters, the travels, the love for books, the connection of now to dystopia. But the writing! This book begs to be annotated and highlighted! I loved writing and connection of the heart to physical things and thoughts. A book that meanders, but speaks to the reader along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the gifted eARC of this book.

“I Cheerfully Refuse” is a beautifully crafted dystopian story taking us on protagonist Rainy’s journey as he sails the Great Lakes when life as he knows it doesn't fit an ever changing world any longer.

The story begins with a picturesque romance between Lark and Rainy who live a happy married life in Icebridge and have lots of love to give to one another. But the idyll is short lived.

“We’d got past our early days together and no common warnings had flashed. Not that I’d have noticed—I was lost already and wanted to spend it all on her, the days and nights, the whole foresee-able.”

Lark runs a bookstore and comes across a rare edition never seen before. Kellan, the person who brings it in, is on the run from a drug kingpin dealing suicide pills and stays with Lark and Rainy temporarily.

And so it goes that the darkness reaches their home. Grief and threat ensues, and Rainy sets sail in search of Lark, of lost love, of the world as it once was.

The story is a beautiful mix of dystopian novel, mystery, and even a bit of a thriller. It held my suspense throughout.

But more than just those well executed tropes, I enjoyed the lyrical writing, the beautiful descriptions of nature, the stunning way the emotional journey was told. While the dystopian aspect of the book gives the impression that people aren't really all that alive, that humanity is drawing to a close, it's that inner world in Rainy, Lark, and a girl named Sol that's full of magic and wonder.

The book also weaves literature into the narrative as a forgotten and even mistrusted art, making this novel a multifaceted work of literary fiction with many beautiful layers.

“By this time of course reading itself was slipping into shadow. There was a sinuous mistrust of text and its defenders. The country had recently elected its first proudly illiterate president, A MAN UNSPOILT as he constantly bellowed, and this chimp was wildly popular everywhere he went.”

I loved this gem. It's quiet. It's powerful. Beautiful, lyrical, special.

I'm so grateful to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for the Advance Reader's Copy. I quoted a few beautiful passages of the text - these are subject to change in the final publication.

Not my cup of tea. Struggled to turn the pages & wasn’t interested in this fictional introspective story. Thank you, NetGalley, for this advanced copy.

I Cheerfully Refuse is by far the most charming, optimistic dystopian novel I've encountered. Enger capably writes a story that is both heart-rending and heartwarming, a tale that confronts the darkness of the world without losing hope in the solaces of found families and friendships. Full of adventure and exciting twists, I Cheerfully Refuse is a novel that invites us to appreciate the power of imagination and storytelling in helping us to create lives worth living, even in the most dire of circumstances.

Not a fan of dystopian books, but a fan of Leif Enger. This book--very hard to categorize [for me]. Highly imaginative and creative. Original, different, and sometimes magical. And because of the writing--very readable!

The setting: not-too-distant America. Rainy, an aspiring musician sets sail on Lake Superior in search of his late, beloved wife, Lark, a bookseller. He encounters storms, strange people, and strange circumstances.

A story of love, loss. chaos, hardships, cruelty, darkness, greed, and perseverance. And a little bit of humanity and light. Most everyone damaged goods. Some vividly drawn characters--especially [but not limited to] Rainy, Werryck, Kellan, Sol, Griff, and Skint.

What [in part] sets to story in motion--Willow, a pharmaceutical--"a rising star in the market of despair"--a suicide pill.

The biggest plus--the prose:
"lonely and kind and occasionally rude by accident, but above all things he was a worried man."
"He moved as if encountering resistance"
"a blunt benevolent face and the most defined forearms I had ever seen"
"remained in stale florescence"
"straigthened my knees which audibly complained [been there, done that!]

Words I had to look up: luchador, giardia and lazerette and corcale--the two latter relating to boats.

So--read if you want to go along for a ride and appreciate the language and the originality.

First of all, thanks to Grove and Netgalley for an eARC of Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse. This was a wonderful dystopian story that held my interest for the entirety of the novel. I believe my investment in the story is solely due to Enger's ability to write deeply human and sympathetic characters. I was completely enraptured by the character Rainy and his journey on Lake Superior. The world built around Rainy is intriguing and unique, and it only aids an already great story. I highly recommend reading this for fans of dystopian and fantasy novels.

About 20 years ago, one of my best friends, Alli, gifted me a copy of her favorite book, Peace Like a River. I read it and agreed, the book is beautiful. So when I saw Enger’s newest book, I CHEERFULLY REFUSE, on NetGalley, I immediately requested an ARC. I was so pleased when I was approved!

This one reminded me of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven or Michelle Min Sterling’s Camp Zero in that it’s set in a (not-too-distant) future world that has gone awry. Literacy is declining (in fact, the United States has just elected its first proudly illiterate president) and most towns and cities have fallen into disrepair. The supply chain is often interrupted - people are growing their own food and making due with what they have - the weather is unpredictable, and most of the world’s wealth is held by a small percentage of the population. Things are so dreary and hopeless that many people are going “in search of better” by taking a life-ending drug called Willow.

Despite all this, main character Rainy lives a happy, satisfying life alongside his beloved wife, Lark. But when they take in a boarder, life takes a turn. Rainy’s forced to flee from his home in his boat, braving Lake Superior. Like Odysseus, he meets a variety of colorful characters and has various adventures, some touching and some frightening.

I really enjoyed this book, especially Enger’s beautiful prose. There are a lot of underlying themes and things to think about. I CHEERFULLY REFUSE will stick with me for a long time.

Thank you to publisher Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an eARC of I CHEERFULLY REFUSE prior to its publication in exchange for my honest feedback.

’HERE AT THE BEGINNING it must be said the End was on everyone’s mind.’

Set in the near future, this is a dystopian novel that revolves around climate change, which then leads to the collapse of society in many ways including the government, laws, and simple niceties. It’s a free-for-all in many ways, but there is also more to this story than that. A story of love, and loss. A story of family, the ones we choose, and who choose us in return.

A beautifully written story, at times poetic in the way that it flows even when the story begins to get darker in nature. As this begins, the story revolves around Rainy and Lark, a beat up and ancient advance copy of a book that arrives with the title of ’I Cheerfully Refuse’, and a man who is seeking shelter, and Lark offers him a room, with fatal results.

Meanwhile, outside their relatively isolated home, there is chaos virtually everywhere, which leads to Rainy setting sail, hoping to avoid those who would wish to harm him. When he stops at one of the towns on the coast for supplies, he soon finds himself with a girl who hides in his boat.

’The lake was dark and flat. It was a blackboard to the end of sight, and any story might be written upon the surface.’

At times this has tense moments, as well as moments of worry, sorrow and heartbreak, but there are also moments of generosity, caring, affection and perhaps above all, hope.


Pub Date: 02 Apr 2024

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic, Grove Press

Enger’s Virgil Wander got me out of a very huge reading slump. I was very excited to get to read his new book and it did not disappoint. Enger writes his characters just so incredibly well. What seems like a simple book is never simple in his mastery of his character development and layers. I appreciated in this new book how he took a look to how present conditions and trends can land us in the future. I have hit a lot of books lately who are trying to do this same thing without Enger’s success. His are not soap box or disjointed from his story but a simple extension and development of set and story. I never want his books to end even though the context of this future he built triggered my anxiety in a big way. Thank you Net Galley for this chance to read this great book!