Nevada Barr's Borderline
National Park is Setting for Tale of Guilt, Redemption and Politics
May 6, 2009
“If Henry Thoreau, Ian Fleming and Agatha Christie managed to produce a literary child, the result of that weird union would be ‘Borderline,’" Dorman T. Shindler points out In his review of this 2009 addition to Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery series. In Borderline, as in other works in this series, Barr effectively blends a deep appreciation of nature with a perplexing crime. In Borderline, though, Barr adds a further Ian Fleming flourish by involving Anna with Homeland Security's border control efforts.
Synopsis of Borderline
Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the killings described in Winter Study (2008), Anna Pigeon has been placed on administrative leave from her job as a National Park Service ranger. To distract her from painful memories, Anna's new husband, Paul Davidson, takes her to Texas' Big Bend National Park for a rafting trip on the Rio Grande,
During a turbulent journey down the river, Anna discovers a pregnant woman dying in a strainer. Anna performs an emergency Caesarean section that saves the baby’s life. Minutes later, a sniper opens fire on Anna's rafting group, killing two of its members.
Darden White, former Secret Service agent and current chief of security for Houston mayor Judith Pierson, breaks into Anna’s narration with his own revelations. Judith, whom he has known since she was a child, wants to run for governor of Texas. She also suspects her husband, Charles, of infidelity. As the novel reaches a climax, Darden and Anna’s separate stories merge.
Political Context of Borderline
Borderline takes its title from the U.S. border closings caused by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Anna opposes the immigration effects of closed borders. “America no longer wanted anybody to give her their tired, their poor, and their huddled masses made people’s blood run cold,” she reflects.
Barr reinforces this political framework by contrasting Judith Pierson’s gubernatorial platform that supports border closures with that of present governor. Unlike Judith, Governor Bloward favors developing Big Bend as an international park and allowing more open access across the Mexican border.
Psychological Context of Borderline
Even stronger than this political theme is Borderline’s concern with the psychological issue of guilt and redemption. Early in the novel, Anna collapses emotionally during a session with her psychiatrist after telling him that she felt the man she killed on Isle Royale deserved to die. Anna suffers extreme remorse for her act even while she attempts to justify it.
Anna connects Helena, the infant she saves, with her own guilt when she wonders at the baby’s apparent affection for her: “Maybe she loved her because Anna seemed able to keep her alive. Not something she’d managed for a lot of people. Keeping people alive was difficult. Making them dead was a piece of cake.”
By saving Helena's life, Anna redeems her own. She realizes that Helena "was, in some incomprehensible way, able to penetrate the darkness that had bored the hole in her soul.” Anna's Texas excursion provides the solace she has long been seeking.
Anna Pigeon’s Next Adventure
In an interview reported on her publisher’s author page, Barr reveals that Anna’s next exploit will take her to New Orleans’ historic French Quarter. There she will meet another ranger who is a blues singer at the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park.
About Nevada Barr
Named after the state in which she was born, Nevada Barr had an 18 year career in the theater before becoming a writer. Like her character, Anna Pigeon, Barr was a National Park Service ranger. Barr continues to use national parks as the setting of each of the 15 novels that currently comprise her Anna Pigeon series.
Barr, Nevada. Borderline. New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009. ISBN: 9780399155697
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