Exploring relationships
T wo questions sit at the heart of The Wanderers, the third novel from American writer Meg Howrey: how far are you willing to travel in order to find yourself and what exactly do you leave behind in the process? Howrey is far from the first person to explore these ideas in fiction, yet by attaching them to a simulated mission to Mars, she has found new angles and depths in this familiar genre.
The characters are a half- dozen titular wanderers, who contend with being removed from their loved ones for 17 months. We spend most of our time with Helen, Sergei and Yoshi, the astronauts shoved together as part of the simulated mission, becoming increasingly detached and disoriented as the journey progresses.
Yet the chapters focussing on the aimless, adrift family members are where the novel really shines. Helen’s daughter, Mireille, Sergei’s son, Dmitri, and Yoshi’s wife, Madoka, are trying to define themselves as individuals as well as the relatives of world- renowned astronauts, and their flaws and struggles make for the more intriguing character studies.
Inspired by a real experiment, The Wanderers never strays far from reality. It may boast some futuristic elements, but the story is a grounded and nuanced entry in the space mission genre — fitting, given that the astronauts never actually go to space.
Howrey’s writing is relaxed and digestible even when tackling the more scientific matters, making for a light but filling read. Even when the characters are pretending to hurtle through space or are getting drunk with robots, the story never feels outlandish as the emotional and personal issues of each character remain front and centre. Think less sci- fi, more slice of life.
It is baffling then, after succeeding in crafting such layered, contradictory, brilliant characters for nearly 300 pages, that Howrey feels the need to write such forced conclusions for each storyline. Since she seeks to explore such broad ideas around family and relationships, it is not unexpected she tries to answer them, yet the drama and peculiarities of each character are lost in a slap- dash rush to the final page.
Those last few chapters cause The Wanderers to resemble the central simulation; looks good, has depth, but the further you get, the further from reality you go.