Book Review: Ogallala

Reviewed by Grace Okubo

A darkly funny road trip into the quiet collapse of a man who should have stayed home

What trouble we’d save ourselves if we just enjoyed the moments we have without seeking answers to every little question—especially from the distant past.

In Ogallala, Bennett does not leave the past alone. When his college sweetheart, Jenn, calls him out of the blue, he packs up an “adventure box,” convinced he can relive some of the passion of his youth and finally get closure on what went wrong between them.

Without asking questions, he drives from New York to Michigan. Jenn then asks him to drive her daughter Zoe—a spirited but struggling MMA fighter—and her trainer Hector all the way to Utah for an important match. Bennett, again, does not ask questions. Along the way, Hector’s friend Hank and his nephew Alvin join the trip, leading them to a detour in Ogallala, Nebraska, where everything begins to unravel.

Zoe, who has a tense relationship with her mother and misses her estranged father, doubts her own abilities as a fighter. Jenn, surrounded by questionable company, seems blind, or perhaps indifferent to the danger around her daughter. As the journey unfolds, Bennett’s desire to relive his youth clashes with the unsettling realities he encounters on the road. His choices—what he sees, what he ignores, and what he does not report—mark the start of his moral unraveling.

Ogallala succeeds in quietly numbing you to its descent. At first, Bennett’s behavior is amusing. I kept wondering how far this 51-year-old man would go, and to what depths of silliness he’d sink, to win back a night with his long-lost lover. Then the tone shifts, and I watch a man who knows the right thing to do but chooses convenience instead. Bennett’s transformation—from a nostalgic fool to a reluctant participant in crime—is both believable and disquieting. Zoe is another standout: witty, insecure, and aching for attention in ways she can’t articulate. Even Jenn, frustratingly passive, adds to the realism of the story, her contradictions mirroring the quiet moral failures that ripple through the book.

If there’s one lingering gap, it’s Jenn’s involvement. Her awareness of the dangers surrounding Hector and Hank never quite translates into meaningful action, leaving her character somewhat suspended between ignorance and complicity. Yet, paradoxically, this absence of agency works. It sharpens the focus on Bennett’s transformation. Her inaction throws his moral descent into sharper relief. There’s real nuance here.

Ogallala is funny, perplexing, and peppered with sad surprises. It begins with nostalgia and heads toward somewhere far darker, exploring how small compromises can turn the ordinary into the criminal. It’s a story that asks how much we’re willing to ignore for comfort or love. Readers who enjoy character-driven fiction with a psychological edge will find this novel riveting.

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