Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers - review

The title is partly ironic — but mostly sincere about fulfilling its promise, says Johanna Thomas-Corr
Author: Dave Eggers
Getty Images

Dave Eggers is one of our era’s most sensitive chroniclers of American unease, and with his seventh novel he draws on one of his nation’s grandest literary traditions: the man-vs-wilderness adventure. Only here it’s recast as woman-vs-wilderness.

It’s less Leonardo DiCaprio mauling wildlife in The Revenant and more single mother trying to stop the motorhome loo overflowing as she flees with her two children to Alaska, which “was at once the same country but another country, was almost Russia, was almost oblivion”. As with his Pulitzer Prize-nominated memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the title is partly ironic — but mostly sincere about fulfilling its promise.

Our heroine, Josie, is a burnt-out dentist from Ohio, birthplace of most of the Union’s presidents, “now the home to most of its a*******”. She is spirited, soulful, naturally exuberant but jaded by the “useless drama of life” — the litigation culture that closed her practice, her guilt over the death of a young Marine, the over-programmed parenting routines she can’t quite bring herself to inflict upon her wise eight-year-old son Paul (“His ability to read had greatly complicated their family”) and punkish five-year-old daughter Ana.

Ostensibly, Josie’s on the lam from her ex-partner, the “shape shifting”, “quick-s*******” Carl, who is so reliably unreliable that “his name necessitated punctuation: Carl?” Really, though, she’s trying to escape the absurdities of modern America and “this cowardly century”, wondering if it’s possible to live outside of society.

Leaving her mobile phone at home, she rents a clapped-out motorhome (“The Château”), hoping that a road-trip, the simple act of constant motion, will uncoil “some strangling DNA thread that told her, daily, that she was not where she should be”. She’s frustrated not only at her own sense of disappointment in the world but other people’s in her, and wonders whether, at 40, she could be “reborn in a land of mountains and light”.

What the trio encounter in the wild north is gun enthusiasts, nature at its most destructive (soon after they arrive, an eagle dive-bombs a mountain sheep), emotionally cauterised war veterans, racist slogans, folk musicians with bad teeth and some extreme weather.

Sick of suburban cowards, Josie hopes to find Alaskan heroes — people with “courage and purity” — but everywhere there are reminders of where she’s come from. One episode sees pensioners on a cruise ship go wild for a cabaret performer who can recognise any zip code they shout out.

More book reviews

1/18

But more than anything this is a novel about what it is to be a parent in an age of anxiety, written by someone who has spent a lot of time with children and knows how joyful and enraging they are (Eggers bought up his eight-year-old brother after their parents both died of cancer when he was 21).

Josie wonders if interesting people should have children: “The propagation of the species is up to the drones.” And her haphazardly improvised (occasionally illegal) adventures will chime with many single parents and their kids — the “crushing tragedy of their aloneness” as they loiter at the edge of weddings or find shelter in other people’s properties like a trio of Goldilockses.

The conclusion, where we see the effect that these adventures have had on Josie’s children, is sentimental but well earned. “Better than searching for a person of courage – she’d been on this search for years, dear God — better and possibly easier than searching for such people in the extant world was to create them. She didn’t need to find humans of integrity and courage. She needed to make them.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in