Mary’s Pick of the Week: Bad Nature by Ariel Courage

Early reviews of Ariel Courage’s debut Bad Nature painted a portrait of a deeply flawed character, who, shortly after a terminal cancer diagnosis, embarks on a cross-country drive to kill her estranged father.

The picture I had in my head of this story was much funnier than the book turned out to be.  There are laughs, to be sure, but the story of 40-year-old Hester’s road trip is gripping and dark.  It swerves into a weird buddy-film comedy when she picks up a young hitchhiker and environmental activist named John.  He too, is on a quest – to document environmental depredations created by big energy companies. The two connect in a way that Hester has never really been able to do before.  They are an odd couple; a younger, disheveled environmental activist and an uber-wealthy, polished New York attorney who has defended some of the very businesses that are scarring the land. 

Along the way Hester also confronts a few other people she attempted to connect with in her younger years, including an ex and her best friend.  Hester’s wry observances made me wince upon occasion, but even when some of her behaviors were so troubling I had to put the book down, you can bet I picked it right back up.

Little details resound; when she first receives the diagnosis from her oncologist, she is understandably unmoored.  When most would call a loved one for support, Hester has no deep connections and instead goes on an aimless drive through Manhattan (which is a small foreshadowing of her cross-country trip).  Here, she’s stuck at a traffic light (“all gone to glittery refractory gems”) and unable to continue through the intersection, though the light has gone through several cycles:

“A car drove in front of me across the grid, a sedan with a family inside, mother and father and girl about seven.  I had a brief disorienting moment of imagining the family reconfigured and jumbled like some impossible puzzle, the girl in the driver’s seat and the mother in the back and the father strapped to the roof like a Christmas tree.” 

Although not really likeable, Hester is compelling in her honesty and her desperation.  Perhaps the most cynical character I’ve read in a long time, her moments of vulnerability and optimism are lovely, and Courage manages to make this rather unlikeable person so compelling, it’s a feat.  The description of the ravages on our earth are like the emotional wounds that Hester carries and metes out wherever she goes.  Readers who enjoyed Rental House by Weike Wang will find themselves in good company with Hester.