I Cheerfully Refuse

Content Warning: This guide includes moments of and references to suicide, addiction, abuse, and domestic violence.

Molly Thorn’s book I Cheerfully Refuse is a motif in the novel that supports the theme of Processing Grief to Heal. The novel carries significant emotional meaning for Rainy since Molly Thorn is Lark’s favorite author and the novel is the last she ever read and the reason leading to her murder. As Rainy journeys across Lake Superior, he takes the novel with him, trying to read it but burdened by the sadness it evokes through memories of Lark. However, Sol’s arrival and her love of the book change how Rainy eventually sees it: “It was different reading aloud to a tiny rapt human. Molly told her life as if she were that moment dreaming it into existence” (208). I Cheerfully Refuse reflects Rainy’s journey through grief to healing by showing how his relationship to the novel changes between the death of his wife and his new relationship with Sol. When Sol shows how interested she is in the novel, I Cheerfully Refuse transforms from a book of sadness to one of hope, in which the passages carry more meaning and excitement as Rainy watches Sol fall in love with it.