So Far Gone

Rhys’s search for redemption unfolds against the backdrop of a fractured body politic. Americans have always argued about political values, but in the post-truth world ushered in by the 2016 election and, later, the COVID-19 crisis, Rhys notices that people increasingly cannot even agree on basic facts. Walter demonstrates this in an early flashback where Rhys, despite his best efforts to keep things peaceful, cannot help but indulge Shane’s provocations to debate over politics. By the end of their argument, Rhys hits Shane and decides that his family is better off without him. While Shane’s racist conspiracy theories are clearly depicted as both factually and morally wrong, the novel doesn’t entirely frame Rhys as a paragon of reason. His retreat from his family paves the way for greater harm to come. This suggests that Walter is less concerned with proving that either side is right than he is with examining how the family unit might survive an age where disagreement can easily lead to violence.

Few, if any, of Shane’s family members agree with his Christian nationalist views. Bethany is compelled to escape when she sees Shane become increasingly committed to the Church of the Blessed Fire and its militant wing, the Army of the Lord. Leah and Asher similarly express doubt about what the church teaches them, though they do this in private for fear of being rebuked. At the same time, neither do they express any strong beliefs that align with Rhys’s moral code. This is partly a matter of environment. Especially for Leah and Asher, there is little in their world to expose them to the liberal ideas that Rhys believes in. It is only at the end of the novel, when Leah starts going to public school, that she starts to push back on her Christian upbringing.

Bethany and her family’s relative neutrality in the culture war does not spare them from the dangers that this conflict brings to their doorstep. In her time of urgent need, Bethany chooses to rely on neither Shane nor Doug to safeguard her children, but on her father. She later wonders about her reasons for sending her children to Rhys in Chapter 5, signaling that she did not make this choice with full awareness of what she was doing. Rhys, for his part, accepts his daughter’s call. His constant guilt signals his desire to step back into his role as a father and set his pettiest thoughts aside. This is key to understanding what Walter wants to say about family in the post-truth era. While disagreement may tear families apart, the time it takes to bring a family together also causes them to invest deep emotional stakes in one another. The same instinctive trust in family drives Shane to act against Dean when Dean starts to harm Bethany. Chapter 7 sees Shane reaching deep into the fundamental aspects of his character to propel himself into action. He isn’t thinking anymore about what his church wants from him, but about what he can do to defend his family. Lucy acts similarly in Chapter 2 when Chuck suggests that Kel is a “lost cause,” prompting her to end their relationship at once.

The novel ends with the acknowledgment that family will not always guarantee protection from violence: “[N]o matter how strong you were, or how much money you had, you could never totally shield the people you loved from the sorrows of life” (248). This does not mean that family is a lost cause in the age of post-truth. As the ending goes on to show, the characters find strength in each other’s presence and willingness to support one another. While Bethany grieves for Shane, she also tells the spirit of Celia that things are okay because Rhys is home again.