Review: THE RIVER WE REMEMBER

Title: The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

Beginning quote:

Friday56 quote:

“Even after the sun had set and the sky had gone from bruised purple to an indigo full of stars, they talked. There beside the silent flow of the Alabaster River, they split open the darkness inside both of them in which too many secrets had lain hidden”

My thoughts from Feb. 9th: I am finishing up my Cybils judging responsibilities this week and I can't publish any reviews for those books until after the winners are announced. So this week you get the benefit of quotes without a review of the book I am listening to now, since I haven't finished an adult books all week.

I really love this author, but I'm not sure what I feel about this one, his most recent book. It is a mystery with a whole town's worth of characters. Set in the 1950s. Relationships are sloppy and the specter of war haunts many folks. What do you think of the quotes? I think the first quote, though a bit boring, is a good way to introduce the setting, a small farming town in the Midwest. The Alabaster River witnesses all kinds of events as it flows through the community and the people's lives. 

Review on March 6th (Circling back after finishing the book): As I said above I really like this author but of the three books I've read by him I like this one the least. It was a good mystery with plenty of red herrings along the way to keep readers guessing but there were few moments of sheer surprise or delight.

I'll be very curious how the book club discussion will go. Mysteries are hard to discuss because by the end one knows the end of the mystery. (How's that for a circular sentence?) So I imagine we'll talk mostly about the characters and about the writing. Here are some discussion questions which seem pretty good. I do hope we focus part of our meeting on the book's themes, especially the theme and the role of the river in the plot. I usually try to locate the title of the book in the book and this one wasn't hard to find since the river is a central character really.

I finished this book on Feb. 13th, less than a month ago and already much of the plot and most of the characters have faded in my mind. I rated the book with 4 stars at the time but would likely rate it lower today knowing it is not a very memorable story. Sigh.

-Anne