Friday, September 11, 2020

Review: Inland

Lurie is a man on the run--he's running from his past, he's running from the law, and he's running from the ghosts that won't leave him alone. Nora, on the other hand, is waiting. She is waiting for her husband to bring water to their remote home on the frontier of Arizona, waiting for her older sons to return after a fight, and waiting for the terrible beast that her youngest son saw to make a move.

I was captivated by Obreht's debut novel The Tiger's Wife and I have been anxiously waiting for her to publish another book. I enjoyed Inland too, but the two stories are very different. A western gives a writer a unique vantage to examine how much people need each other, and how we are often very alone. Nora finds herself holding the household together by herself and even when neighbors and friends stop by, she knows that she alone is responsible for the safety and well-being of her family. Lurie recounts his backstory to someone who is unknown for a good portion of the story. He recalls coming to the United States, his loneliness after his father's death, and his experiences joining outlaws, pickpockets, and a group transporting livestock across the Southern states. It is only then that readers learn he has been talking to a camel this whole time.

While Inland is inarguably a Western, it is also a ghost story. We love the creepy feeling of a dark house, but there is something nerve-wracking about the great expanse, when the only thing between you and your closest neighbor is the danger of the desert. The ghosts who haunt the characters in this story aren't malevolent, but there is a feeling of unease throughout--things are not as they should be, and Lurie and Nora aren't sure what they should do next.

The characters and setting of Inland are instantly familiar--we all know the vicious outlaw, the strong woman on the frontier, and the kindly town doctor. But Obreht turns every piece just a bit. It is just enough to throw the reader off-balance and make them desperate to find out what happens next. The United States lacks the mythology of older nations (at least if we are uninformed about the history and folklore of Native Americans). Tea Obreht suggests we can find a communal American story (and American ghosts) on the frontiers of the Wild West. I can't wait to read what she writes next. 

Inland
By Tea Obreht
Random House August 2019
384 pages
Read via Netgalley

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