Heroes of the Frontier

With her dental practice in ruins and the father of her children in Florida with another woman, Josie heads to Alaska with her two children, Paul and Ana. She has a step-sister in Alaska, but otherwise knows no one and has no plan, only a desire to escape her life in Ohio. In a rented RV that Josie is occasionally too drunk to drive, they drive across the state, fleeing not just the mistakes that haunt Josie but a raging forest fire engulfing the state. Although the reader learns about the trauma in Josie’s past, none of it is as compelling as her relationship with her children. She loves them unconditionally, but curses them for “giving her everything and robbing her of everything else.” She would do anything for them but ignores their need for stability and routine. For Josie, stability is stagnation; routines are either short-lived or suffocating. So they continue to settle in for the night, only to pick up and move out the next morning, destination unknown. For a while, they can run from everything but each other. But running becomes its own routine, and it’s not until they stop that Josie realizes how far they’ve come.