Josie is a dentist, who has had to sell her practice to pay off a lawsuit. At the same time, her deadbeat boyfriend, Carl, with whom she has 2 kids, finally leaves after 8 years of never working and never spending time with the kids. In the beginning, I didn't feel like Josie was a person who made smart decisions.....
And she's off to Alaska with her children! In a rented, run-down RV! And no cell phone! With no idea where is she going or why she's doing it! In the midst of horrible wildfires happening in Alaska! All to avoid what she thinks is Carl's ploy to take the kids to show his future in-laws that he's an awesome dad. All of Josie's "decisions" seem like horrible leaps of thoughts that just don't connect.
The RV apparently is not a fun place to live so they end up breaking into B&B's and empty cabins along the way. When Josie contemplates, "Am I a bad mother?" I always answered her with "Yeah, you kinda suck".
I think Josie and her kids were meant to be whimsical and adventure loving people. That I was supposed to look past all the trials they endured and see what free spirits they ended up being. I couldn't, though, because all of Josie's reasons for running were not really based in reality. The trials they endured were brought on by Josie, not chance or fate.
Eggers is a great writer, however, so you can easily ride the story line. For me, though, I didn't like Josie enough, or respect her enough, to cheer her on.
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