Undiscovered Country

I picked up Lin Enger’s Undiscoverd Country because I loved his first book, Peace Like A River.  Only that wasn’t him.  That was his brother Leif.  Once it was in my hand though, the jacket’s pitch talked me into cracking the cover.  Undiscovered Country is a loose retelling of Hamlet set in the Scandinavia of the US, Minnesota. Coming from a Minnesota guy with a brother named Leif, it seemed like a good bet that evoking the gloom of wintry Denmark might be within his grasp.

Enger’s novel takes its name from Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy:

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Death enters the novel very early on.  A teenager, Jesse, on a hunting trip with his father hears a shot in the woods and instinctively knows that something has gone horribly wrong.  He finds his father dead in a deer stand apparently by his own hand.  Jesse knows in his heart that his father would never kill himself, and when his dad shows up to tell him so after the fact – it only cements his conviction. The traveler returns!

Since we know that the novel is based on Hamlet, we know that the death of father can not be an accident, and we know who to suspect.  You might also understand why Jesse doesn’t want to stay at home and keep an eye on his mom, who has become listless and distant.  Drama!

I kid.  Despite knowing the basic plot upfront, Enger tells an engaging story that is beautifully written.  The landscape of rural Minnesota is an additional character in the story.  I recommend picking this one up and having it on hand for the cold nights ahead.  And pick up his brother’s book, too.