53 pages • 1 hour read
Noelle W. IhliGray After Dark
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: The Abduction of Kari Swenson
Gray After Dark was inspired by the real-life abduction of 23-year-old biathlete Kari Swenson. In the book’s Author’s Notes, Ihli reveals that her novel is a tribute to Kari Swenson’s “athleticism, ability to remain calm in an unthinkably traumatic situation, and her grit” (343).
Kari Swenson was a trailblazer of the biathlon, excelling in the emerging, male-dominated sport. In 1984, she trained for the US Olympic team while working at a Montana guest ranch. During a routine run in the mountains near Big Sky, she was assaulted and kidnapped by 58-year-old Don Nichols and his 18-year-old son, Dan. The father and son had been living in the Montana wilderness, adhering to a survivalist ideology. They believed that abducting a woman and making her Dan’s “wife” would allow them to recreate a pre-modern society based on self-sufficiency.
Less than 24 hours after the abduction, two members of a search party found the Nicholses’ camp, where Kari was chained to a tree. During the confrontation, Don Nichols fatally shot Kari Swenson’s friend and co-worker, Alan Goldstein. Before escaping the scene, Dan Nichols shot Kari Swenson in the chest, collapsing her lung. For the next four hours, Kari practiced the controlled breathing she had learned as a biathlete, and this allowed her to survive until she was found. She went on to compete in the 1986 Oslo Olympics, taking fourth place in the biathlon. Don and Dan Nichols evaded capture for several months before being apprehended and jailed for their crimes. Kari Swenson’s resilience during and after the ordeal earned her national recognition.
Gray After Dark echoes many of the facts of Kari Swenson’s story. Ihli’s protagonist, Miley, is portrayed as a trailblazing biathlete like Swenson, and she is also abducted by a pair of father and son survivalists. Her resilience and will to survive are emphasized throughout the narrative. The fatal shooting of Kari’s friend, Alan Goldstein, while he attempted to rescue her, is mirrored in Wes’s death.
At the same time, Ihli uses creative license to elaborate on or reinterpret certain events. For example, Miley remains captive for months rather than hours, allowing the author to explore the physical and psychological impacts of trauma more deeply. Meanwhile, the existence of a further captive, Mary, provides an opportunity to interrogate the power dynamics of abuse. Ihli also transposes Kari Swenson’s experience of surviving a collapsed lung by using controlled breathing to Brent’s character. These narrative changes underscore Ihli’s assertion that “Kari’s real-life story, with all its complexity and distinctness, is hers alone” (343). The author emphasizes her intent to honor Swenson’s experiences rather than appropriate them.
Cultural Context: The Survivalist Ideal in American Culture
In the aftermath of Kari Swenson’s abduction, Don and Dan Nichols were portrayed as folk heroes by sectors of the media. Their abduction of a woman was depicted as a misguided attempt to live a more authentic life rather than an abhorrent crime. As journalist Ann Japenga asserts, newspaper headlines transformed Kari Swenson’s “ordeal into a ribald frontier adventure” while “the Nicholses’ ability to survive in the wilderness and make their own rules became a quality to be admired” (Japenga, Ann. “Kidnap Victim Decries Myth of Mountain Men.” Los Angeles Times, 1989). Swenson and her family found this trivialization of her trauma and the death of Alan Goldstein deeply offensive.
The media’s depiction of Don and Dan Nichols as rugged individualists illustrates a broader tendency in American culture to glorify the outlaw or survivalist. The romanticization of survivalists in American culture is deeply intertwined with the nation’s history of frontier mythology. The fascination with self-reliant figures stems from early American settlers and pioneers, such as Daniel Boone, whose survival depended on their ability to navigate and tame the wilderness. Over time, historical figures like Boone were elevated into legends, symbolizing independence, resilience, and freedom from the constraints of society. This narrative became integral to the American identity, linking survivalism with liberty and personal autonomy.
In Gray After Dark, Ihli challenges this glorification of survivalism, contrasting Miley’s genuine heroism and will to survive with her captors’ deluded perception of themselves as “real men […]. [The] [l]ast of a dying breed” (103). The narrative underscores the callous brutality of Miley’s abductors, undermining the media’s later representation of them as resourceful individuals who captured an “Olympic belle.” The novel reminds readers that behind the cultural idealization of “mountain men,” there often lies a darker undercurrent of violence and misogyny.
