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A quick note to our readers: For some of you, especially those who are or have loved ones who are in areas that experience widespread fires, this may not be the book for you, especially now.  Our post doesn’t dwell on it, but there is a wildfire experienced by the characters in this book as they canoe in remote areas of the Hudson Bay area.  We read this book back in December, but wanted to wait until it felt like fall to share it, because the events happen in the fall and it felt like a great book to read with a blanket and a warm beverage.  Please take care of yourselves, always, especially you friends of the blog who are prepared to evacuate as needed.  DM us if you need an alternative title for this week and we’ll find something special for you (in addition to Serpent & Dove and The Last Train to Key West, which is on sale)!

The River by Peter Heller isn’t a book I’d normally pick up.  My idea of camping includes electricity and running water, and I don’t mean in the creek, I mean in pipes, hot showers and all.  I don’t mind getting dirty, but I do mind staying dirty, so tent camping, or, say taking weeks to canoe down a river, just doesn’t appeal to me (a day trip I could be talked into though, rather easily after months of being stuck at home).  This is another round of #BlameAnne at Modern Mrs. Darcy.  I say Blame Anne, but I will also note, Anne is responsible for so, SO many great titles being on my radar, including a handful of my most recent favorites.  

I had heard Anne talk about this book on her podcast, What Should I Read Next, then it came out in the 2019 Summer Reading Guide (yes, I’m that slow) and was even featured on the minimalist list. I wasn’t committed to stepping out of my comfort zone until last year’s Summer Reading Guide, and I am SO glad I did!  This book is just fantastic!  Jumping ahead, I give it a solid four stars.  I’m not likely to reread it, but I am likely to pick up some of Heller’s other titles (Dog Star comes highly recommended from Anne Bogel and an IRL reading buddy).  

The River is about two dudes who take a semester off college to canoe up the tributaries into Hudson Bay.  They do things like this on a smaller scale and even lead groups on breaks from school, but they’re doing this by themselves with no schedule…and drama ensues in the form of nature and other people.  Ok, so now that you know what we’re talking about.  Oh, and I should also mention that every time I looked at the original cover (which was a lot because I read this on dead tree since the Overdrive holds was a complete situation by the time I decided I needed to read this), I heard the chorus from Jordan Feliz’s song “The River” in my head.  Other than flowing water, there isn’t really a connection.  And yes, I listen to Christian music and I read open door romances, both very much on purpose.  Welcome to my world folks!

Two things that I just absolutely adored about this book – we get to dig into two males and their close-knit friendship – and the pacing, y’all, it’s like a river, and I don’t say that lightly!  I kept expecting to hit a point where the action was going to ramp up so high, but it didn’t.  I’d find a “rapid” and then it would be smooth sailing for a while, then another rapid.  That pacing with simply gorgeous writing was fantastic!  

The thing I didn’t like about the book – there is the tiniest hint of a knot, but nothing near the pretty bow I like.  There is an epilogue which does provide some closure, but I still have questions about what exactly happened during and after the couple’s argument (that much is on the flap copy, so not really a spoiler) and then my general – but how do they move on after all this?!  What happens next?!  This is my general struggle, so I’m not torn up over, but I do have QTNA (questions that need answers) about that argument and I am miffed about that!  

But I can’t be miffed for long because our reading about witches has begun and you’re invited to join in the fun! Join us for Virtual Book Club as we dig into Shelby Mahurin’s debut Serpent & Dove on 18 September at 7:30 p.m. CST.  Also please register here so we can send you the calendar invite / link to Virtual Book Club the day or so before!  YA + magic + francophone + sass – HOW DID I FORGET THERE WAS SO MUCH SASS IN THIS (paraphrase of a message I sent recently to a friend of the blog who’s already finished the book).  If this does not appeal to you, then let us know what does! 

~Nikki

“What he loved about poetry: it could do in a few seconds what a novel did in days. A painting could be like that, too, and a sculpture. But sometimes you wanted something to take days and days.” So says Jack to himself near the end of chapter 1, and I really wasn’t ready for how The River was literally (literarily…) poetry and painting and sculpture all wrapped up in a novel that you wanted to take the time to savor. But how can you savor a meal that hits you like lead in your gut – all you can do is digest the sustenance in pain and confusion about whether it was worth it and if you really deserved the aftermath of something that was oh so delicious going down.

Alright, I’ll move away from the food metaphor, but I want to go back to the quotation. The novel follows two Dartmouth college friends taking an extended August break to portage to Canada’s Hudson Bay. [Canadian Adam used to go canoe portaging all the time after high school with his friends, but never for what could have been weeks at a time like Jack and Wynn. And never in such a remote place that they would be without access to emergency services for the duration of the trip.] On this trip there is a wildfire in the distance that threatens their leisurely plan, and when they come into contact with other canoe-ers their problems escalate. Heller creates poetry with his words, forcing the reader to feel the intimacy of Jack’s or Wynn’s emotions and thought patterns. Then, on the same page at times, evokes the harrowing beauty of nature and the danger that fire creates in the wilderness for animals and humans alike. What really struck me from the first chapter is how Heller has structured the pacing of the book to flow like the boys’ canoe trip. You feel the slow and steady pull of the current on the canoe in his descriptions of the scenery. The stops to rest are the flashback scenes where the reader learns the background of Wynn, Jack, and how they became best friends. [They became best friends because they talked books during a Freshman orientation trip before starting Dartmouth!] The river rapids are paralleled in the action scenes where the boys come into contact with the dangers of the wilderness, both natural and human. Strikingly, the ending of the novel has the reader speeding towards the end, and being cast out by the author just as the river delta would cast out a canoe. Definitely be prepared to read the last 50 or so pages in one sitting. 

There is another quotation that Wynn says to Jack as they discuss what one of their professors had said about alliteration: “Paulson said there was a principle in aesthetics; the more you prettify something, the more you risk undermining its value…Its essential value.” I greatly appreciate how Heller does not once undermine the value of his story with his beautiful poetic language.  You can tell that he deserves his MFA in both poetry and fiction from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and that he has spent numerous trips out to the wilds of the entire world. His website bio page reads like an adventure travelogue, and I love it. Whoa buddy did The River pack a punch in its quick 258 Kindle book pages. I am definitely interested in Heller’s backlist, and won’t hesitate to pick up any new titles that he releases.

INEXPENSIVE KINDLE BOOK ALERT! We told you on Monday that we would be reviewing Chanel Cleeton’s newest release, The Last Train to Key West, and as of this writing (9/9/2020) Amazon has the kindle version on sale for $1.99! One-click and read along with us (and DM us or comment so we can tell you when we start, which will be soon)!

~Ashley