Sunday Books & Culture - Nonfiction
Penny Parrish reviews Jess Walter’s topical novel about a man who lives off the grid to escape society but returns to save his grandchildren in “So Far Gone.”
SO FAR GONE
by Jess Walter
Published by Harper (June 10, 2025)
Hardcover $15.00
Audiobook $14.95
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
Frustration with technology — computer glitches, thumbs making typos on my phone — drive me batty. I often say I was born in the wrong century. When the main character in this book gets fed up, he literally does what I sometimes want to do: go completely off the grid.
At a Thanksgiving dinner several years ago, Rhys Kinnick got so fed-up with Shane, a religious fanatic and conspiracy theory spouting son-in-law, that he punched him in the face. Ashamed that he lost his temper, Rhys fled to an old family cabin in the woods of Washington State. On the drive there, he threw away his cell phone and has lived for years with an outhouse, some solar panels to generate electricity, no internet, and lots of wood to make fires in the stove. Every surface in the “rustic” place is covered with books. The former journalist cannot let go of those.
One day, two youngsters appear on his front porch. He does not recognize them at first, but they are his grandchildren from his estranged daughter Bethany. Leah’s father is “Sluggish Doug” (Kinnick’s nickname for her first husband). Asher’s father is “S____ Shane” (lots of words in this book that I can’t write in the review). A neighbor has brought the kids to Rhys, asking him to take care of them until Bethany returns. But where is she? Is she safe?
Kinnick is instructed to take the children to Shane at the Church of the Holy Fire for Asher’s chess tournament. But it turns out that Shane has other plans. Accompanied by his armed friends (thugs), they beat Rhys and take the kids away. The rest of the book details the grandfather’s journey to get his grandchildren back, to find his daughter, and to remake his family with the help of an ex-lover, a bipolar retired cop, and an old friend and his wife.
Although this is a novel, it reflects what is going on around us and in our country today. For example, when Rhys was laid off from his newspaper job “the newspaper’s footprint had shrunk from a couple hundred people on seven floors and a production company across the street to a couple dozen people on cubicle islands on two floors.” (Sound familiar?) I loved the description of Chuck Littlefield, the retired cop. He “was the man about Major Crimes, a muscly fidgety homicide detective who also happened to be every reporter’s best source — the only good quote in an otherwise tight-lipped, tight-assed cop shop.” (When I was the public information officer for Minneapolis PD, I had to deal with a detective like this).
Walter surrounds us with characters we care about, and those who make life miserable. He includes religion, politics, family breakdowns, drugs, guns, Native Americans, law enforcement and ties this novel together with twine rather than a bow. He sees where we’re headed, and it’s not pretty. But he also holds out hope that the lightbulbs above our heads will turn on, and we’ll find a way forward that will save our country and our soul. A great read and available at our local library.
Penny A Parrish is a local writer and photographer. You can see her pictures at her website — PennyAParrishPhotography.com
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