Peter Heller’s 2019 novel, The riverwas a fast-paced story of hidden depths and dark currents. Wynn and Jack, two best friends at Dartmouth who share a passion for the outdoors, leave college for the summer to canoe down the Maskwa River in northern Canada. On their trip, they discover a forest fire: “The silence and the way it seemed to breathe terrified them.” They also encounter a quarreling married couple – and learn the next day from the man that his wife has disappeared. What should have been a fun expedition quickly turns into a delicate mission that involves escaping a killer, searching for a missing woman, and staying one step ahead of the oncoming flames – all while navigating a dangerous waterway.
On the surface, Heller’s latest novel Burnhas a lot in common with The river. Once again, it features two male protagonists who are best friends, in this case 37-year-olds who formed a close bond during their childhood. They too venture to the far corner of the world, off the beaten track and away from civilization, where they discover a hostile environment. And as before, both men put their best laid plans on hold and embark on a desperate quest to stay alive.
This time, however, Heller has taken more creative risks and written a speculative work. It is not completely new territory for him: his first novel, The Dog Stars (2012) offers a post-apocalyptic vision of a survivor of a devastating flu pandemic who is lured out of the hangar he calls home by a glimmer of hope. Burn is another dystopian drama, but here Heller focuses not on the aftermath of a disaster, but on the disaster as it unfolds. Combining the ingenuity of his debut with the high-concept heroics of his other books, the novel is a gripping story of a friendship tested in a country under siege.
Heller’s two old friends are Storey and Jess. They met in September for Jess’ favorite “annual ritual” – camping, hiking and elk hunting in northern Maine. Storey has a wife and two daughters in Vermont. Jess has no one waiting for him back home in Colorado: his wife left him a year ago after his brief affair and constant travel made her question “what the point of marriage is”; the dog he inherited from her died two months later. This trip will give Jess the opportunity to forget his worries and reunite with his friend in a vast, secluded area, miles from the coast and the crowds.
But this year, the pair discover that their surroundings are different. They drive along deserted roads and come across bridges that have been deliberately destroyed. Long detours cost them petrol, and when they run out of petrol, they have no choice but to abandon their 4×4 and continue on foot. As they enter towns and hamlets, they find burned-out buildings and, in the “sooty alleys” of narrow streets, charred corpses and the remains of bombed-out cars. They pull the body of a pregnant woman out of a lake with a stone in her shirt. On the road, they follow “the garbage of the forcibly displaced” – single shoes, overturned strollers, smashed picture frames – until it dries up. No phone reception and no living soul anywhere means no messages and no answers.
Jess, however, has an idea what sparked the violence. All summer, Maine was “rocked by secessionist mania.” Some local unrest eventually escalated into “full-blown civil wars.” Desperate to avoid being caught in the crossfire, Jess and Storey weigh their options and consider the safest route home. Driving is out of the question, as there are no working vehicles and sailing would make them easy targets. Instead, they walk, stopping only to rest and forage for food at marinas. But as they survey the scorched earth, Storey is plagued by doubts about whether they are running from danger or toward it.
They don’t have to wait long to find out. The hunters become the hunted. A father and son shoot at them, and when Jess shoots back and kills them, he crosses a line. “Now we’re in the thick of it,” he tells his friend. Indeed they are, because shortly afterward helicopters attack from above, forcing them to take cover and swim for their lives. But who wants them dead – the US Army, the Maine militias, or some other organization with different agendas?
Just when the novel seems to be turning into a routine cat-and-mouse adventure of chases and grand escapes, Heller throws in a welcome surprise that complicates his heroes’ plot and thereby increases the narrative tension. The men find a young girl named Collie hiding in a boat and promise to take her to her parents. With this new goal comes great responsibility, and soon Jess and Storey are moving cautiously through landscapes they don’t know, searching for people they don’t trust.
Burn seems to be cut from the same cloth as Cormac McCarthy’s The street: two characters traversing devastated terrain, fighting to survive and trying to make sense of a catastrophic disaster and the collapse of civilization. But that’s where the comparisons end. McCarthy’s bleak new world was all the more terrifying because it was populated by “faithless human husks” such as cloaked beggars and marauding cannibals. In contrast, Heller’s alternate reality is almost deserted, conveying not impending horror so much as prevailing eeriness. Also, unlike McCarthy, Heller is a compassionate writer who is reluctant to inflict too much suffering or brutality on his characters. This often works against him. There’s a scene where Jess notices Collie’s dead dog. Heller tells us that “the poor dog had been shot in the stomach and almost torn in half.” “Poor” introduces a false note of sentimentality. Heller’s writing would have more impact here and elsewhere if he could kill his favorites without softening the blow.
But that doesn’t detract from the satisfying reading experience. Heller impresses throughout with his portrait of an enduring friendship. Occasional flashbacks provide insight into the duo’s growing up in Vermont. Jess, who is given more screen time, has two experiences that shape his development: first, this only child of serious, reserved parents is taken under the wing of Storey’s livelier, kinder parents; and second, at age 17, he plunges headlong into an intoxicating, potent forbidden romance. “It was a Long Island Iced Tea of love that three sips could knock you out,” Heller explains, “and so he was shaken and intoxicated and euphoric.”
It’s full of pathos, as Jess, childless and wifeless, reflects on his many missteps and recounts conversations with his deceased ex. There’s tension, especially in the book’s final act. And as always, there’s Heller’s engaging prose – sometimes harsh and stony, sometimes lightened by lyrical flourishes: “You’re alone in the turbulent season, and the best memories are erased by loss.” Burn is perhaps not the exciting white water ride that The river was, but it has more than enough bold ideas and clever details to lure us in and keep us hooked.
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Malcolm Forbes wrote for the economistThe Wall Street Journaland the WashingtonPostHe lives in Edinburgh.
