Something Wilder

Leo Grady is another of the novel’s protagonists. Whereas Lily is the female main character, Leo is the male lead. He is 32 in the narrative present and living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Ten years prior, Leo fell in love with Lily when he spent a summer on her family’s ranch in Laramie, Wyoming. Their relationship abruptly ended, however, when Leo had to fly back home to take care of his mother after she was in an accident. She died shortly thereafter, forcing Leo to assume the role of his younger sister Cora Wilder’s caretaker. He and Lily lost touch because of miscommunication issues and Leo has buried his heartbreak in vocational and familial responsibilities ever since. In the novel’s opening, he feels ready for a change but isn’t sure how to exact this transformation when he leaves New York for Utah with his friends.

Leo is a kind-hearted, good-natured character who gets along with everyone. He doesn’t “do actual conflict” and prefers to act as “the calm center of [his friend] group” (24). When he and Lily reunite in the narrative present after a decade of silence, Lily quickly realizes that Leo is the same person she fell in love with. Time has indeed changed him, but she understands that “present-day Leo [is]n’t cold” and is rather “still the paradoxical brew of hot-blooded and restrained she’d fallen for years before” (85). When they met in Laramie, Lily was attracted to Leo’s simultaneous persistence and patience. She got to know Leo and discovered that his interest in her was sincere and that she could in fact be herself with him in a way she’d never been with anyone before. Leo’s openness, gentleness, and honesty inspired Lily to be authentic and unguarded. When they reunite in Utah, Lily rediscovers the safety and acceptance she felt with Leo 10 years prior.

Leo is an intelligent, calculated character. He works in IT, loves numbers, and is good at solving puzzles and riddles. Despite these more “type A” qualities, Leo also has a thrill for adventure. He enjoys being in the Canyonlands because this environment helps him to reconnect with a more easy-going, curious version of himself. The natural world inspires him to be more engaged in his surroundings and relationships, and gives him perspective on his lonely life in the city. Leo’s character changes in subtle ways over the course of the novel, in that his time in the desert helps him to let go of the past and reimagine his future.

Nicole is a secondary character. She is Lily’s best friend and business partner. She and Lily met when Nicole moved “to Utah from Montana, in search of a job and a life away from a mean family and a meaner boyfriend” (43). The women got to know each other better when they were both working at Archie’s Bar. Both “broke and totally alone,” they bonded easily “in a way only two women can when they’ve had enough of their lives being turned upside down by the impulses and bad decisions of men” (44). Their quick connection in turn fostered trust and camaraderie between Lily and Nicole.

Like Lily, Nicole is spirited, determined, and adventurous. She supports Lily throughout the novel and devotes herself to Lily’s needs and desires. Lily feels comfortable around and protective of Nicole too because they both have difficult pasts and big dreams for the future. The women therefore support one another and help each other overcome life’s challenges and conceptualize new futures for themselves.

Duke Wilder is a secondary character. He also functions as an archetypal guide, particularly for his daughter Lily. In the narrative present, Duke is dead. Ten years prior, Duke suffered a stroke. Lily spent the next three years before his death caring for him, as Duke was incapacitated and unable to speak or walk. He passed away when he was in his early fifties.

Duke was an adventurous, thrill-seeking character who thrived on travel and newness. When he was a child, he became interested in treasure hunting. Over the years, he banded together with other explorers and archeologists so he could venture throughout the American West. From a young age, Lily learned that her dad “was always happiest when he was on the cusp of leaving” (4). His adventures and jobs often “took him as far as Greenland” (4), so Lily grew accustomed to Duke’s absence. His habitual comings and goings also pushed his wife away and she left Duke to raise Lily alone. As an adult, Lily continues to resent her father for failing to prioritize her. She also feels bitter because Duke sold their family ranch and robbed her of the future she’d always imagined for herself.

In the narrative present, Duke guides Lily through her treasure-hunting and self-discovery journeys by way of his old journal. Obsessed with puzzles, riddles, and ciphers, Duke made the hunt expressly for Lily. He assumed they’d be doing it together and hoped it would teach Lily about him and herself. When Lily finishes the hunt, she finds the money Duke left her and a note he wrote her before he got sick. These discoveries grant Lily insight into her familial past and help her to make peace with her late father.

Terrence “Terry” Trottel is one of the novel’s antagonists. He is one of Leo’s friends from college and is on the trip with Leo, Bradley Daniels, and Walter Gibb. Whereas Leo is the peacemaker of the friend group, Terry is the troublemaker. He is a notorious “hothead, finding insult whether or not one [is] intended” (24). In Chapter 2, the narrator describes him as “a man who once showed up uninvited for beers wearing a shirt that had a picture of a woman with a piece of tape over her mouth and the words Enjoy the silence” (24). The narrator frequently underscores Terry’s misogynistic and sexist tendencies—qualities which create tension between the characters and intensify the narrative atmosphere. Indeed, Terry’s presence on the Canyonlands adventure expedition incites turmoil, fear, and danger.

Terry is an unpredictable character who puts his interests above others’. He is defensive, entitled, and egotistical and frequently challenges Lily’s and Nicole’s instructions and advice on the treasure hunt. The characters soon discover that Terry is in fact on the trip in hopes of stealing Duke’s journal and locating Duke’s allegedly buried treasure for himself. He ultimately dies when he and Bradley start wrestling over a gun on the edge of a cliff. Bradley shoves him and Terry falls to his death. Even after his character passes away, he continues to create narrative conflict, as the characters are worried about how to explain his fate to the authorities and about who he was colluding with to find the treasure.