The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
Part I: The Ballad of Beatrice
- Beatrice has a miscarriage and names the baby Madeline; misses her own mother (p 4)
- “Agnes was in some kind of mimicry stage…or was it possible she believed she was a wolf?” (p 8)
- “They handed down their bedding rolls, the pouches of smoked meat…the Book Bag, the Cast Iron, the Manual, and the bags of their garbage they carried with them to be weight and disposed of by the Rangers at Post” (13).
- “…listening for the calls of the Wilderness–friend or foe, friend or foe” (14)
- Caroline is swept away in the river acting as river scout; Bea cuts their “best rope” to save Juan and Carl; everyone is mad at Bea for cutting the rope (p 14-16)
- “And she loved Agnes fiercely, though motherhood felt like a heavy coat she was compelled to put on each day no matter the weather” (18)
- “What this child needs…is different air” (19)… Agnes was sick from the air in the City; Glen was able to get them into a study where they could live in the Wilderness State to save Agnes’s life
- “It had seemed like such a game, even on that first evening when the sun set on them before they had a fire…Then the first person perished, from hypothermia. Another after mididentifying a muchroom. And another from wounds sustained from a cougar. And then a climbing accident.”
- Rangers are displeased with how the Community is leaving their campsites; they send them off to Lower Post to get their mail; they receive new Manual pages; the Rangers drive around in trucks (26 – 27)
- they’ve been rerouted by Rangers twice
- Rangers and the Community do not have a good relationship except for Bea and Ranger Bob
- Ranger Bob interviews Beatrice about the group’s additions and deaths; 11 in group total (34 – 35)
- “Dying was as common as living…Bea thought living in the Wilderness wasn’t all that different than living in the City in that respect” (35 – 36)
- comparing the Wilderness and the City… which is really worse? Less of a life? More dangerous?
- the dangers are different but apparent for both
Part II: In The Beginning
- 20 community members originally, trying to flee the city mostly, some just adventurous (51)
- started out with clothing and supplies
- Media attention started out positive, fans sent them gifts and supplies (including the Cast Iron) at post; later media attention became negative and they received hate mail (52 – 55)
- study required them giving blood and filling out questionnaires; these became less frequent over the years
- “Eventually their numbers would dwindle to eleven. It’s not that those losses weren’t difficult. It’s just that loss was now a part of their daily life, as so many new things were” (56)
- The Wilderness… “Of course, now it’s gone. But let’s not talk about that yet” (57).
Part III: The Big Walk
- “Ask the animals” (67)
- Agnes has mostly lived in the Wilderness, and is more wild than the adults because of this
- observes and tries to emulate the animals around her
- p 72 – 73 Bea and Glen deciding whether to come “This is motherhood?“
- p 79 “The cities of greenhouses, the rolling landfills, the sea of windmills, the Woodlots, the Server Farms…The Heat Belt, the Fallow Lands, the New Coast”
- “Mothers ought to be with their children” (80) Bea misses her mother
- p 95 Val and Carl have sex in the sleeping circle
- “She wasn’t that young girl anymore, though, in sickness or in health” (97)
- Bea is starting to see how her daughter is growing up, and trying to determine how much of it is natural and how much of these changes are the Wilderness’s affect on her
- they sometimes still see civilization (structures, cars, Rangers, the occasional truck driver, etc.) (99)
- “Glen had told her once that the Rangers had it best. Freedom to roam, he’d said, and still a bed to sleep in ,a warm house with electronic lights to ward off the darkest darkness…” (100)
- Bea contemplates going back to the City but thinks Glen and Agnes wouldn’t leave (104)
- “…and ever narrowing interpretations of wildness and wilderness” (109)
- with all the rules and restrictions they live under, are they really wild?
- manufactured area, not actually wild (borders, fences, Ranger escorts)
- p 112 – 113 Nothing for Agnes in the City (only ten trees left)
- p 120 The Community breaks into Lower Post while no Rangers are there; they sort through their mail
- p 122 “In those moments genetic lines seemed like the only thing that mattered in all of life. That proved anything. She thought of the way children were viewed in the City. There were simply too many people already. Making more wasn’t encouraged. No one became an ob-gyn anymore. She’d been lucky to get in with a doctor at on of the last birthing hospitals with Agnes. Home births now. Hidden behind doors. With no help if something went wrong. No one specialized in new life.”
- anti-natalist culture due to overpopulation and immense struggle
- p 129 – 130 Bea’s mother had not wanted them to go to the Wilderness and they fought right before Bea and Agnes left; Bea’s mother sent letter begging them to come home
- p 131 – 132 Bea finds out her mother had cancer and had asked her to come home to say goodbye. Bea hadn’t gotten the letter in time and now her mother is dead, and she has been sent a letter asking her to handle her mothers estate
- 132 – 133 “Bea heard a whimper and looked down. Agnes had tears in her eyes, but her whimper had been purposeful, performed. She was imitating her mother. Trying to access the feelings she saw there…quivering her lip dramatically. And this enraged Bea…’My mother is dead. Mine.”
- Bea struggles with difficult emotions… she feels resentful that to save her daughter she had to leaver her own mother; she feels regretful and is grieving
- p 133 – 135 Bea runs away and hops into a truck; she leaves Agnes and Glen behind
Part IV: The Ballad of Agnes
- “They were a blanket to keep away thoughts of her mean mother who had run away” (139)
- “Having no mother meant she was an adult now” (143)
- p 145 Pinecone only likes to play Shopkeeper and pretend to sell things, even though he doesn’t know what that is or even means
- “She’s dead” (147) … Agnes says (or believes?) that her mother is dead
- in the Wilderness gone = dead
- Agnes knew they felt bad for her. Motherless in the way she’d been made motherless…Agnes had noticed that a mother would only be a mother for so long before she wanted to be something else. No mother she’d even watched here remained a mother forever…She hadn’t cried once and that had to mean she was ready for it…” (149 – 150)
- Agnes has complicated feelings about her mother leaving…
- angry at her mother for leaving, sees her as mean, feels abandoned
- somewhat excited for an opportunity to show that she is independent and capable (normal growing up feelings in reaction to a not so normal event)
- “Who cared about why or how…That’s all that mattered. Is and do. Being and doing…” (155)
- p 157 – 159 The Community realizes the Rangers sent them to pick up new members
- one of them is the guy who sent them the Cast Iron
- they become a group of 20 again
- they had been chosen off of a waitlist (of potentially hundreds of thousands of people)
- Meeting the Newcomers (p 159 – 183)
- two more of them in the beginning who died
- not dressed properly (sandals, skirts, jeans, sneakers)
- haven’t read the Manual, and broke many rules while they were waiting to be picked up (permanent structures, not setting up proper pit toilets, trash)
- Carl quickly steps up as leader and Newcomers are eager to follow
- The Originalists ask how bad the City is (very bad)
- they discuss the possibility of the Private Lands; Newcomers think Bea fled there
- Agnes tells the teens she thinks she’s 20 (169), but she’s only about 11
- “Almost no doctors worked on emergencies anymore because there were no emergencies anymore. Because of overpopulation, emergencies were thought of more or less as fate” (173)
- “Agnes felt an aching absence. She remembered being that young, that easily safe. Agnes was happy to be an adult now. But she missed feeling safe like that. It was gone from her life for good” (176)
- Celeste paints Agnes’s pinky nail with contraband nail polish (180)
- Life with the Newcomers ( p 185 – 198)
- “Can’t we just order more?” (185)
- Carl becomes official leader (189)
- Newcomers don’t want consensus (190 – 191)
- Shifting how they handle chores; specialization (192)
- “The Originalists” (193), Glen is scared by the changes (Agnes can tell)
- Agnes and Jake, scouting deer (p 198 – 203)
- “legal” what does this mean to Agnes? nothing
- “evolutionary” is settling, building houses, civilizing evolution? In real life, probably, in the study, no
- p 203 Bea = Deserter
- p 205 Asking the Rangers about the dead body they found, Rangers act shifty
- p 207 – 208 Ranger Bob and Agnes talk about Bea
- Bob has had contact with Bea, is surprised Bea and Agnes haven’t spoken via phone
- Agnes thinks Ranger Bob might be trustworthy (210)
- Bea returns: “She laughed from behind a scowling smile, a kind of laugh they’d never heard from her. Her breath turned to smoke in the cold morning air” (234).
- returning to the City has changed Bea
Part V: Friend or Foe
- “Our storyteller has arrived” (251). Bea is the best storyteller, she tells the group about her time in the City
- 4 trucks and a cargo plane
- more smog than ever before
- many different vegetables of vibrant colors, but sold out quickly (perfect looking but not much taste)
- long lines and fights in stores
- more people squeezing into high rises (no room to build new buildings and no sand to make concrete)
- many homeless people
- curfew at night
- camps outside the City limits and checkpoints to enter
- 10 remaining trees were bombed (Frank thinks it’s gangs)
- “violence everywhere”
- Everyone, especially the Newcomers are disappointed by her stories
- While Bea was gone the Community had told “Ballads” about her not making it to the City and doing other things instead (ex having a family in the Private Lands)
- “I would have come. Agnes had spent all her time wondering why her mother had left, but she hadn’t thought to wonder why her mother hand’t grabbed her by the hand as she’d run. Said, Come on, come on, and fled, not from Agnes but with her. Agnes hadn’t thought to include herself in the possibilities of that life because her mother hadn’t thought to” (260)
- Bea assumed Agnes wouldn’t have left but Agnes seems to think she would have gone with her
- would Agnes have really gone in the moment?
- “Her mother’s face was on fire…’Of course you hate me,’ she barked. ‘I’m your mother'” (266 – 267)
- Agnes says “I hate you” to Bea for the first time
- “She didn’t really hate her mother. Yet her mother had laughed it off. She seemed to expect it” (267)
- Bea has sex with Carl in front of everyone (268)
- Agnes tells Glen it’s her fault; Glen doesn’t react very much but seems hurt, protects Agnes; assures her it’s not her fault
- Agnes wonders if she’d been happier in the City, even though she was sick
Part VI: To the Caldera
- “Things had changed since Bea and Carl began leading” (275)
- hadn’t seen Rangers for years, spending longer in camps
- making buildings
- lost a newborn (Linda)
- Val is pregnant
- “big changes with the new Administration” (278)
- p 281 – 284 Agnes and Jake discuss having children (young, as Agnes calls them) and when they will let their kids go off on their own; Agnes thinks 6 is appropriate, Jake thinks 16 or 17 or whatever is “legal”
- “Legal? What’s that?” (283) Agnes doesn’t care about “legal”
- Jake doesn’t want to have sex because he doesn’t want a kid yet (walking too hard, weather unpredictable, embarrassed to tell Glen, scared of Bea, burden on Community)
- Agnes considers tricking him into it
- p 292 Agnes freaks (“Agnes’s face burned. She stomped her foot…She felt tears rising”) out about Bea calling her a child, but Bea is referring to the other children and makes it clear she does not consider Agnes a child
- p 294 being sent to Caldera even though it was off limits before
- p 315 The man who has been sneaking into their camp is named Adam, he is a “Maverick” but the Rangers call them “Trespassers”
- the City is so bad that people are illegally fleeing to the Wilderness
- p 321 Adam thinks it is stupid that they still follow the Manual or listen to the Rangers
- p 337 Glen dies after falling and breaking his leg. Bea likely had to kill him to end his suffering.
- p 344 – 346 Agnes tries to repair things with her mother with an underwater tea party at the lake near the Caldera
- Agnes reaches out for Bea, who dodges like it’s a game, but Agnes desperately wants to grab on to her, she coughs on water and Bea drags her to shore
- “She knew her mother was still caring for her all the time. But it was behind the scenes. It was secret. I was strategic. It wasn’t the same” (346)
- Agnes is feeling the complex feelings of becoming independent, having a mother, but not having her care for you as a child anymore
- p 347 – 348 Agnes had been pregnant and had an early miscarriage
- “Rationalizing and worrying and preparing. It felt unlike herself. As though she’d already been changed by the child, even though they would never meet”
- p 349 Bea tells Agnes that she has a plan to escape to the Private Lands, Agnes doesn’t buy it and doesn’t even believe the Private Lands are real
- p 355 “‘How can you have a Wilderness without people?’…’The study has clearly shown that you can’t have a wilderness with people'”
- Is the Wilderness State a Wilderness even without people?
- Are humans not natural?
- p 368 Bea chases Agnes after everyone ran away form the Rangers, denying their request to track down Trespassers in exchange for lives in the Private Lands
- Bea begs Agnes to go with her and Ranger Bob will take them to the Private Lands, as he’s promised Bea
- Agnes refuses, punches her mother and runs away
- “Agnes felt both relief and anger. She felt respected, free. And alone alone alone” (269)
Part VII: The Roundup
- “the Wilderness now teemed with people” (375)
- Agnes finds a 4 year old girl named Fern (Fernanda, which means adventurer), her mother and baby sister are dead
- the remaining Community members have each found an abandoned Maverick child. Eventually, they have to all split up in pairs (one adult, one child)
- p 381 – 385 Agnes and Fern runs into some Mavericks for the first time in a while. They tell her they ran into Bea who told them the Ballad of Beatrice. They knew her as a great leader of one of the original communities
- “And even though Agnes knew it was impossible, she pictured her mother crouching in a tree above her, ready to pounce and carry her away. Agnes felt her cheeks become wet and knew she would go with her mother this time” (382)
- Agnes leaves notes and hints in trees (like Bea had used to communicate with Ranger Bob) to try to find Bea
- Ranger Bob finds Agnes and Fern “playtime is over” (383)
- Bob admits there are no Private Lands and he lied to Bea “Your mother and I…We said a lot of things to each other” (285).
Epilogue
- p 390 – 395
- nearly 2,000 unauthorized people found and extracted from the Wilderness State
- officially lasted 3 months but actually took 3 years to find Agnes and Fern
- the Wilderness is being turned into Hidden Valley, suburban like town for “important people”
- Agnes and Fern are moved to a Resettlement complex, told there is only one, but suspects there are more
- can’t find anyway she knows
- Fern is about 7 years old now
- they sneak out through a hole in the fence into the marsh at night to look at the animals; Agnes want’s to buy wire cutters to ensure they can keep doing this to stay connected to the Wild in some way
- Agnes steals paint swatches from the hardware stores and tapes them to the wall like a landscape
CHARACTERS
Originalists:
- Beatrice (Bea)
- Agnes’s mom, Glen’s wife
- interior decorator, was in architectural magazines (p 9)
- Met Glen in the City, was hired to decorate his University apartment that he was moving into after his first marriage
- has complicated feelings about being a mother; had sacrificed a lot for her daughter, but is not exactly a warm mother
- Best storyteller (156)
- “She was the Newcomer now” (255) upon returning from the City
- Agnes
- almost 8 years old (p 9)
- her biological father is from “the Manufacturing Zone outside the City” (18)
- was extremely sick, close to death in the City; they are in the Wilderness because of her
- sees herself as a mature adult
- described as “strange” by her mother
- “burgeoning tracker” (149)
- Glen
- Bea’s wife and Agnes’s step father
- “Glen was a terrible hunter. He knew it. She knew it disappointed him” (17)
- “Despite his shortcomings, he was having the time of his life here. All he read as a boy were tales of primitive life…Now he was a professor, expert in how people evolved from the first upright steps to the first wheel…But when it came to living primitively, he was surprisingly hapless” (17-18)
- Important at the University
- Caroline (deceased)
- River crossing scout; swept away by river
- arrived with a much older husband, who died
- Carl
- “Carl was the true hunter of the Community and provided much of their meat” (17)
- hates the rules (31)
- Tried to be a Ranger once, but didn’t want to enforce their rules (101)
- Hits on Bea (102 – 103) talks about how he and Bea are the leaders
- Juan
- Dr. Harold
- Debra
- came with a younger wife, who died
- Val
- Bea and Val don’t like each other (22)
- sleeps with Carl (95)
- thinks she is pregnant often, wants a baby, but hasn’t had one (96)
- Thomas (deceased)
- slipped and dropped and broke the ceremonial teacup and then fell to his death
- Sister and Brother
- Pinecone
- born in the Wilderness, parents deceased (Becky and Dan)
- Becky (deceased – cougar mauling)
- Dan (deceased – rock slide, pelvis crushed, left behind)
- Ali (a child who died quickly)
- Flor (child) and Maria who chose to leave the Wilderness early on
The Newcomers
- Frank
- sent the Cast Iron
- Patty’s dad
- Patty & Patricia (Patty’s mom)
- Patty and Celeste = “The Twins” only just met on the bus there, teenagers
- Patty is 14, her name is also Celeste but she now goes by Patty
- Celeste
- blue hair streak, combat boots, 14 years old
- Helen
- Celeste’s mother
- sparkly toenails and strappy sandals (161)
- Linda and her children Joven and Dolores (younger than Agnes)
- Jake
- 14 years old
- Celeste’s cousin
- Agnes’s lifemate
Rangers
- Ranger Gabe
- Ranger Bob (Middle Post)
- Him and Bea are “peer[s]. She would go so far as to call him a friend” (28)
- gives Bea lollipops to give to Agnes (39)
- Ranger Corey
- gives Carl the clicker to count paces when they first arrived
Others
- Adam
- first Maverick/Trespasser they come into contact with
- Fern (Fernanda)
- abandoned Maverick girl who’s mother died in the Wilderness, adopted and taken to the city with Agnes
- becomes Agnes’s daughter
CAPITALS
- “their Valley”
- “The Caldera”
- “The Wilderness” “The Wilderness State”
- “which was the last wilderness” (57)
- doesn’t exist anymore (narrator)
- “The Community” “Community members”
- “The City”
- “The Manual”
- Supposed to live nomadically, only stopping to hunt, gather, and process (limited to 7 days in one place)
- Collect and carry their trash
- No permanent structures or buildings
- breaking the rules can get you fined or sent home
- “the Rangers”
- “Middle Post” “Post” “Lower Post” “Upper Post”
- “River 9”
- “the Book Bag”
- “the Cast Iron”
- “Manufacturing Zone”
- “the Administration”
- “Orientation”
- “the Screen” (TV)
- “the Private Lands” (46)
- possibly fake place
- “the Big Walk”
- “the Refineries”
- “Boundary Road” seen in Part III walking to Lower Post
- “Shipping Districts”
- “The Invisible River” “Poisoned River” where they found the Newcomers
- “The Newcomers”
- “The Originalists”
- “Ballads”
- “Mavericks”
- “Trespassers”
Closing Thoughts…
- Mother / Daughter / coming of age themes
- motherhood as compulsory, it is necessary
- doing anything to protect your child
- children love their parents so strongly but need space to grow
- can a mother be a good mother if she leaves her child? What causes a mother to leave her child behind, in the novel or in nature
- adolescence and independence, becoming an adult
- understanding your own mother by becoming a mother
- forgiveness, regret
- Bea and Agnes both hurt their mothers to do what they think is necessary to survive
- Pregnancy, miscarriage
- conceiving and having a child change you
- genetic lines, continuing life
- Val and Agnes desperately wanted children, Linda and Bea hadn’t wanted their babies but were devastated by the losses regardless
- Childrearing
- What is the best way to raise a child? Does it matter when survival comes first?
- It’s impossible to tell if Agnes is “normal for her age” because her upbringing is so unique
- Agnes seems very old for her age in some ways but extremely immature in other ways
- Wilderness and City
- What is the Wild? Are humans ever wild? Do humans inherently ruin any wilderness?
- Is the City or Wilderness more dangerous? Each poses risks
- Dystopia
- how does this world reflect our current situation?
- climate change, overpopulation/crowding
- wealth imbalance
- struggling medical system
- Plot hole…
- why was Bea allowed to come back when the Rangers referred to her as a deserter and there is now a waitlist to come to the Wilderness AND they were struggling with Trespassers?
- how does this world reflect our current situation?
- Dislikes / Wishes:
- I wish she has turned this book into a trilogy so the characters could have been more filled out
- if she’d written more books she could have reveled more about the history of the world and how it came to be like it was
- there were too many “useless” characters; I wish we had gotten to know the other Community members better, and known more about their lives before the Wilderness
- I also wanted to know more about Glen and Bea’s relationship early on
- I wanted to learn more about Agnes’s biological father
- not enough physical descriptions of characters which feels unrealistic because if you were living in nature, a huge part of your daily life/entertainment would be observing everything around you, which includes the people
- Overall, I enjoyed this novel. It wasn’t perfectly satisfying because I just wanted to know so much more. Like I said above, I think she should have turned this into at least three novels and taken a longer time to write them
- So far, this is my ranking:
- Shuggie Bain
- This Mournable Body
- The New Wilderness
- Real Life
- The New Wilderness and This Mournable Body are really close for me, because I really enjoyed the historical and political elements of TMB, but it didn’t end up having a solid plotline (IMO). TNW was not as well written, but it was creative and had a stronger plotline. I think TMB is more literary, and therefore more deserving of the Booker Prize than TNW, but TNW is much more likely to make money cuz it’s more commercial.
