Did Jess Walter Write this Yesterday?

Jess Walter, an acclaimed writer maybe best known for 2012’s Beautiful Ruins, is back with his June 2025 novel, So Far Gone. Briefly, we follow Rhys Kinnick, who has attempted to live “off the grid” in the Pacific Northwest after having a big fight with his daughter’s Christian Nationalist militia-man husband at Thanksgiving following the 2016 election. When Bethany, his daughter, goes missing and her two kids are dropped off at his cabin, a new life is launched. There will be rock ’n’ roll, weirdo churches, renegade cops, ex-girlfriends, Native American best friends, and . . . two kids (Leah and Asher) who are dealing with a lot. 

Jennifer: So, we begin with the basics. Did you like it or not? Why? You go first. 

Lara: I did! I’ll start by saying I LOVED Beautiful Ruins. I own two others, but this is only the second book of his that I have read. And, in total transparency, I had the pleasure of meeting him on his Beautiful Ruins book tour and we had a brief but lovely chat and he signed my book by writing that we are best friends. Delightful, right? That in no way influenced my comments about this book.

So, I really liked it. And I do feel like he wrote it yesterday. It’s spot-on delivery about the divisive time our country is in and how differing beliefs can create a deep chasm between people, families, and our world. I will say that the “bad guys” of the story are extreme in their beliefs and resort to violence to get their way. I don’t believe that’s the go-to for MOST people. The media would love for us to believe that. 

What did you think of it? Have you read any of his other books?

Jennifer: I loved Beautiful Ruins too! (We’ve never met, though.) And I have read We Live in Water–which was good. 

I liked this book a lot; I’m not sure I loved it. It was a book I looked forward to reading. I think Walter is a reliable writer-guy. One reads knowing it’s going to be solid. I guess I did find the book timely for sure, but maybe a bit stereotypical? I kinda crave an “insider’s” point of view. I’m undoubtedly sensitive to the portrayal of, um, religious folk–and this felt a bit disingenuous. At the same time, as an outspoken Never-Trumper myself, I fully understand the head-spinning turmoil people find themselves in post-2016. Like, I get it. 

Nonetheless, I read the book with complete engagement. 

I guess that one big question I have is this: Who is this novel for?

Lara: Before I answer your question, I want to comment on your remarks. While I don’t share Bethany’s and Shane’s religious beliefs, I think it’s Shane’s growing involvement in a far-right Christian nationalist militia called the Army of the Lord that was problematic—and Bethany even struggles with it. I share that to say that I don’t think your beliefs or those of most Christians are as violently motivated as this group’s. You know, everything is on a continuum. Most things fall in the center, with a percentage drifting to the left and right of that center line. It’s a very small percentage that sit at the far ends of either side. And, yet, the choices, beliefs, and actions occurring at the very far ends are what Shane is moving toward, not what most people identifying as Christian or Conservative are aligning with. I think Walter is shining a light on the danger of anti-establishment, everyone for themselves, the solve-problems-violently-if-that’s-what-it-takes lifestyle.

So back to your question… It’s a good one. I think it’s for readers who like contemporary novels that balance humor, empathy, and social relevancy. I also think if you like really sharp dialog and flawed characters, you’d enjoy this book. He also does a really good job balancing seriousness and humor. I can also see how more conservative individuals may think this is a jab at them, and I think it’s a case against anti-extremism.

What did you think?

Jennifer: Well, first, I agree with what you said. Also, I don’t want to be naive about this. There is a very real sense that Christian Nationalism is on the rise (we are literally writing this days after Charlie Kirk’s all-star memorial in our very hometown). I’m actually about to read a book on it on my own soon. And you might guess what my gut-instinct on the topic is.

I wonder–do we feel empathy for the weirdo-Christians? Aren’t we really looking down on them? We empathize with Bethany and Rhys, I think. I actually believe that this is a book for those who really get Rhys’s desire to go off the grid. We wouldn’t do it, mind you–but we empathize there. 

One of my favorite lines is this:

“But I’m starting to think Thoreau might have been full of shit. If we aren’t living for others, maybe we aren’t really living.”

(We visited Thoreau’s Walden Pond in recent years. Interesting, but no way.)

Lara: That was a line I noted too. 

Jennifer: How do you feel about life off the grid?

Lara: I could never do it. However, I think we could all benefit from more time outside and off of our devices.

Jennifer: Oh yeah. So we might actually categorize this book as a mild-mannered political satire!

Lara: We could, if we acknowledge there are people like Brother Dean in the world. That’s not an exaggeration. But making some kind of blanket statement that all conservatives are like Brother Dean is dangerous and wrong.

Jennifer: I’m also thinking of a different novel that we reviewed that was rather Waco-like: Bret Anthony Johnston’s We Burn Daylight. I liked it a ton!

Lara: That’s a great example! And, also, it’s extremism. That’s the difference.

Back to the book… Walter really does capture a lot of what’s going on right now:

“Technology, as he saw it, had finally succeeded in shrinking the globe, so much so that every news story felt dangerous and personal, every war a threat to his family, every firestorm, hurricane, and melting ice cap a local disaster, the seas boiling up around them, every cynical political and legal maneuver part of the same rotten fabric – and half the country somehow seeing it exactly the opposite way.”

Or this one:

“How these insane things kept happening, these eruptions of senseless violence, of anger and ignorance and greed and mendacity, like ancient fissures bubbling up under the surface, and what—we were just supposed to go on with our lives? Wake up the next day like nothing happened, like we hadn’t lost our minds? Just turn the page, to the baseball scores or the horoscopes or celebrity birthdays? (Nothing to see here, just America.)”

I also think he portrayed Kinnick and his daughter Bethany’s relational strain realistically. 

“No, this social distancing was nothing new; she and her father had been at least six feet apart for twenty years.”

Jennifer: Those are great quotes. I still want you to read Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation. We are in strange times. I do think good writers are trying to make sense of it. Can you think of other books that deal with this kind of stuff? We did discuss Hum by Helen Phillips here. 

Lara: In that review, we also discussed The Dream Hotel by Laila Lailami. I would add Culpability by Bruce Holsinger, and The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. I’m sure there are more, but it’s part of my selfcare plan to limit how much I read this stuff with all that’s going on in the world.  

Jennifer: I get it. I do feel mildly compelled to mention that I just read The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (also 2025). They aren’t really comparable–except for one strange similarity: an elderly guy with a unique personality finds himself taking care of two kids–a girl and a boy. The kids are kinda similar. I subtly made mental comparisons. I’m afraid that one resonated a bit more with me . . . 

Lara: So road trips have been a big part of fiction in recent years! There’s also Kevin Wilson’s Run for the Hills (LOVED), Amor Towles The Lincoln Highway (LOVED), Miranda July’s All Fours (did not love, but appreciated), EA Hanks’ (daughter of Tom Hanks) The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road (Note yet read but want to). 

I thought Walter did a really good job capturing the voices of the different characters and all read as really genuine. I can’t speak to Annie Hartnett’s book, but that is one thing that stood out to me and part of why I enjoyed it. 

Jennifer: I do love road trip books!

And what else have you been reading?

Lara: I have still been reading with a vengeance. Call it a coping strategy for all that life is right now. Heartwood by Amity Gage, Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, These Heathens by Mia McKenzie, The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden, Isaac’s Song by Daniel Black; Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez, Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin, The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson, A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern, Come and Get It by Kiley Reid, The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark, Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson, Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and Everything’s Tuberculosis by John Green. I am also still reading Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry as a group read along across the entire year. 

That’s crazy, right?

Jennifer: Lara, that is crazy. 

I am still reading War and Peace by Tolstoy (I bet I’ll be done by the next time we meet)! I’m reading Elizabeth Strout’s Olive, Again, the sequel to Olive Kitteridge–all because I was so utterly blown away by Frances McDormand’s performance in the 2014 mini-series, which I just saw. I had to immediately get the sequel (having read the first one, but not especially holding it close to my reading heart). I’m also reading Muppets in Moscow by Natasha Lance Rogoff–about getting Sesame Street on the air in Russia and My Friends by Fredrik Backman. Good books on the plate! I also finally read John Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent. 

Next Up!

Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye is EVERYWHERE, so we are taking the bait and diving in!
Until then, happy reading!