Short story: Review: "The Scenic Route" by Christina Baker Kline

The Scenic Route by Christina Baker Kline
Published September 2023 via Amazon Original Stories

It wasn't exactly pleasant. But I felt safe in the van. Boundaried. My life was small, and nobody I encountered knew anything about me. (loc. 203*)

Jess hadn't planned for #vanlife, but #vanlife is where she ended up—no more husband, no more job, no more house, no more son. In "The Scenic Route", Christina Baker Kline lets us peer through the window into Jess's life: how she got here and where, maybe, she's going.

It's interesting to read this from Kline because, although she's written contemporary novels, the only two books I've read by her have been historical. "The Scenic Route" is distinctly contemporary, touching on a few things specific to time and place: Instagramming #vanlife, wilderness programmes for teens, et cetera. (Jess does have an Instagram account, by the way, and you'd better believe I looked it up—an account by the name mentioned in the book exists, but alas, it does not seem to have anything to do with this short story. I'd have found it very funny, and impressive, if Kline had been secretly building an IG account to go with the story.) More than anything, though, I wondered whether this either started as an idea for something longer; it doesn't feel like a snippet of a novel, but (while everything is tied up within the story) there's certainly enough, thematically, for something much longer if she chose.

I don't dream of #vanlife (or even of van life), but it is something that intrigues me in reading—a different world, so many different reasons for living in it.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy of this short story through NetGalley.

*Quotations are from an ARC and may not be final.