So Far Gone

If you haven’t read a novel by Jess Walter, I’d suggest you hurry up and get started.

Cause he’s a great writer—so much fun to read—and he’s already written ten. And once you start, it’s like eating M&Ms. You won’t want to stop.

I just finished So Far Gone, his latest. And though it’s not his best, it’s pretty damn good. For what it’s worth, here are my top  three.

Beautiful Ruins, his most romantic. Cold Millions, his most political. And Angel of Rome, a short story that’s probably his funniest. And sweetest. But not too sweet. Just right.

If you have to read though you don’t really have to read any. So I’ll put it this way…

If you’re really busy and easily distracted and who isn’t these days, read Angel of Rome. It’s the shortest.

Walter has this way of making you laugh accentuating the absurd in a funny way on one page. And then turning right around and making you cry on the next. And he’s invented this literary device where he fast forwards in the life of his characters. So you see what’s around the bend. I love when he fast forwards.

And he’s basically a lefty at heart and he’s not afraid to say it. Even if his lefties are so helpless at times. Unable to effectuate the change they want so much to achieve.

And so they have to confront the painful realization that the world is no better and maybe worse despite a lifetime of trying.

Rhys Kinnock, protagonist of his latest nove, is a 60-something-year-old, burnt-out journalist who, unable to deal with the world of humans, takes off to the woods to live a life of contemplative isolation, like he’s a 21st century Thoreau.

Until his daughter’s family pulls him back and drags him into a showdown with some whacked out MAGA militia men. Though  it winds up being a story about fathers and their daughters. And how hard they have to try to put aside their resentments and grudges and move on. Cause life is short.

It’s also sad statement about the sad state of newspapers in the age of cell phones and social media and includes this on target observation about the limitations of journalism even in the best of times.

tk

So yeah journalism had its limitations even in the best of times. Not unlike a character in a novel by Jess Walter.