I Cheerfully Refuse

By: Leif Enger

Narrated by: David Aaron Baker

Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

A storyteller “of great humanity and huge heart” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Like a River, which sold more than a million copies and captured audiences’ hearts around the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author’s body of work.

Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. Amid the Gulliver-like challenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physical beauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in a young girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake.

I Cheerfully Refuse epitomizes the “musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling” (Los Angeles Times) for which Leif Enger is cherished. A rollicking narrative in the most evocative of settings, this latest novel is a symphony against despair and a rallying cry for the future.

“A heart-racing ballad of escape, shot-through with villainy and dignity, humor and music. Like Mark Twain, Enger gives us a full accounting of the human soul, scene by scene, wave by wave.”—Josh Ritter, singer and author of The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All

©2024 Reuben Land Corporation (P)2024 Recorded Books

Dystopia rust belt odyssey

This story felt like a take on The Odyssey with all the strange characters along the way of a sea journey. It is grim and dark for sure- as some readers have noted, but this is dystopic fiction, although in this case it was more dystopian literature which made it a winner to me.

Hope amidst despair. Loved it.

I was drawn in by the characters and story line. Despair and chaos but still love, hope and staying true to oneself prevail. It gave me a sense of hope as well. Loved it.

On the Sea and Through the Straits

Enger plies the storied waters of open seas and narrow straits, from the sad realities of Lenin and Mao to the dystopias of Huxley and Orwell—just fictional enough to be entertaining and just real enough to be frightening. Though his production, in numbers, is sparse, his dealings in all his novels are vast. Leif Enger is easily my favorite author.

Story grows jarringly dark and aimless

Aside from a meandering plot, there are too many profanities of all things religious or Christian. References to church, God, the Bible, crosses, etc, are darkly negative and joined to horrifically evil characters. A shock after cherishing Enger’s Peace Like a River for decades.

I Cheerfully Refuse this book.

No bueno …the book may not meet the expectations of readers seeking a compelling literary experience.

Boring!

I’m halfway through and can’t make myself finish it. He just wanders from one depressing place to another. I wish him well but I won’t go with him.