With the Booker dozen under my belt, I decided to swing for the National Book Award . (I’d already read two, so I figured why not.) First up is Angela Flournoy’s longlisted The Wilderness (Mariner 2025). An ambitious novel, it felt at times much longer than its 290 pages. It’s weighty, with so much heart and heartbreak, as we time hop – flitting from 2008 to 2027 with alternating POVS, primarily those of a core group of friends – Desiree, January, Monique, and Nakia. Desiree’s sister, Danielle, does eventually get her own POV – I wish it had happened earlier, and we saw more of her throughout the years as opposed to just word dump, but it worked well at the point of the novel it appears. (A love/lust interest also gets his POV early on, which seems bit off putting but is needed to propel the plot.)
This female friend group is everything. The novel opens when they’re in their early 20s and takes them through middle age. Whereas Desiree and Danielle are estranged, the group of four has a bond tighter than blood. The individual relationships within the group change over time, but the core remains solid. They disagree with each other, they talk about each other, they hurt each other, but they love each other, and when the rubber hits the road, they are there. Unflinchingly honest, but there. They are all trying to figure life out, while throwing out the lifelines for each other. Their lives are ugly and gritty and beautiful.
Desiree’s sections are my favorites – her relationship with her grandfather and her sister held my interest more than the other three. But the most beautiful part of the novel is a description of a grown-over and abandoned garden after tragedy strikes. The writing takes on that grief and loss in a powerful way.
How Flournoy does character development is an art. She’s not working with a lot of space, but she’s covering a lot of detail and time. Her writing is crisp and certain; each word placed with precision while at the same time following the unpredictable nature of life. The structure of this novel and how it was a roaring success in telling this story of friends, is likely what prompted the nomination.
I don’t want to spoil the plot, but there is something to be said for adult friends who stay, who make space and time through all stages of life.
Read this book.
A Girl Named Tommi 