Why Candor Beats Cheerfulness | by Rosalind Ware | Ledger Notes | March, 2024 | Pressfold

Though some of the choices in The Quiet Ascent frustrated longtime readers — and Bellweather herself said as much — Ives eventually rejoins the effort against the Concord and gives up his own standing for the wider good. The character is plainly brave, but he has also let go of some of his unchecked optimism and spends his last chapters teaching the protagonist about “keeping the ledger balanced.” My own reading of a balanced ledger is that it holds our best and worst tendencies at once, so we can be whole people, honest with ourselves, and not living inside a comfortable story.