Review: GO AS A RIVER

Title: Go As a River by Shelley Read

Book Beginnings quote: 

I imagine what lingers on the black bottom of a lake.

Friday56 quote:

I startled when she reached out, two snow-white palms with splayed twisted fingers thrusting toward me as if to push me to the ground. I recoiled and sped away as best I could. As I did, I noticed her ramshackle black bicycle flung among the dead daisies in the roadside ditch.

Summary:

On a cool autumn day in 1948, Victoria Nash delivers late-season peaches from her family's farm set amid the wild beauty of Colorado. As she heads into her village, a disheveled stranger stops to ask her the way. How she chooses to answer will unknowingly alter the course of both their young lives.

So begins the mesmerizing story of split-second choices and courageous acts that propel Victoria away from the only home she has ever known and towards a reckoning with loss, hope and her own untapped strength.

Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life forever. (Publisher)

Review: Go As a River by Shelley Read is a selection for an upcoming book club meeting. When the members were choosing books for future meetings Go As a River came up several times as an option and got rave comments by many. I mistakenly thought these members had read the book based on their comments so I ran out and read the book even before it was an official choice. As I read it I kept wondering what I was missing that the others found so compelling. Not until the next meeting did I learn that none of the book club members had read the book yet, they were basing their remarks on what they had read about the book. Oh, so maybe I won't be the only one to think the book is fine, just fine, but not extraordinary? We'll see. Then, before I had a chance to write my review, I went on a two week trip to Europe with my sisters. After my return I sat down to write this review and I realized another problem with the book -- I could barely remember it. You know all those important things that make up a good story -- plot, characters, setting -- were poof, gone! I had to review the book in order to write a review! Ha! Now I understand that probably any book would have come in at a lower volume in the wake of the wonderful trip I had, but gone? (Ha-ha. I just noticed the quote on the book cover, "Completely unforgettable." I guess I beg to differ.)

So let me just say this -- Go As a River is a fine story. It is set in Colorado. It involves family drama, trials, loneliness and racism, yes, racism. It is a sad story, but also a redeeming one. My advise, if you read it, don't leave the review to simmer for long, especially with a wonderful trip in between. And if you do select it, will you circle back and let me know what you think of it? I am terribly curious.

-Anne