Something Wilder

“She’d asked him ‘Are you sure?’ a hundred times. Wilder Ranch was her dream; she knew better than to expect running a guest ranch year-round to be anyone else’s. It certainly hadn’t been her father’s, though at least he’d put in the bare minimum to keep it solvent. For Lily’s mother, the ranch was just another thing she gladly left behind. Sometimes Lily felt like she’d spent every day of her life waiting for the moment when she could make this ranch her forever. And now it was here, with Leo to boot.”

The narrator delves into Lily’s past to offer insight into her character’s identity. The passage is also expositional in that it backgrounds Lily’s family and home life and explains why she feels so attached to Wilder Ranch. The passage is divided into a description of the past and one of the present, which establishes a contrast between where Lily comes from and how she’s imagining her life now that she and Leo are together. This formal choice introduces the novel’s explorations of Reconciling the Past and Present.

“It didn’t matter how good a deal he was offering her. There wasn’t a single thing she could do to get her family’s ranch back. Once something was gone, it was gone. Lily thought she’d dealt with her sorrow, her longing for that place, but she felt bruised all over again.”

When Lily opens Nicole’s envelope from Jonathan Cross, the narrative shifts into Lily’s interiority. Lily becomes introspective in this scene because Jonathan’s letter is unleashing memories of the life she once imagined for herself. Furthermore, the narrator’s use of words like “gone,” “sorrow,” “longing,” and “bruised” underscores Lily’s emotional discomfort upon seeing Jonathan’s offer.

“Leo laughed at Bradley’s winning grin. ‘Cora’s moving to Boston. You know it was my job to get her through school.’ Get her through school, yes, but also be her brother, father, mother, and benefactor, and make up for every tiny bit of adoration that had been robbed from his baby sister ten years ago.”

The third-person narrator inhabits Leo’s consciousness in order to provide insight into how he sees himself. The narration toggles between dialogue and interiority, too, which reveals how Leo’s thoughts contrast with his modes of expression. The passage offers expositional insight into Leo’s character and underscores the complexities of his relationship with the past.