Go As A River
Go As A River ~ Shelley Read
After Victoria “Torie” Nash’s mother, aunt, and cousin are killed in a car accident, she is left behind as the ‘woman of the house’ at her family peach orchard in Colorado with her father, her brother, and her uncle. Her father has changed since losing his wife, he is despondent and angry. Her brother, Seth, has always been a cruel bully, and without their mother’s stern discipline, he becomes more so. Her uncle is an angry man who came home from WWII in a wheel chair, and depends upon his family to care for him.
Go As A River begins when Torie is a young woman of 17, who never attended high school and instead works in the house and in the garden. One day she goes into town to fetch Seth, who is drunk as per usual, and she meets a young man who captivates her immediately, Wilson Moon. The feeling is mutual, but Wilson is indigenous, and Seth is among the people in town who would like nothing more than to see him dead, or at least gone.
Torie and Wilson fall in love, and as one would expect in a novel, things go awry, and soon she is striking out on her own, trying to figure out how to survive in the mountainous woods alone.
I liked this book quite a bit, I enjoyed the writing and was captivated by the story. It reminded me a bit of a book I read years ago, Plainsong, which also takes place in Colorado, and has some similar themes. (If you haven’t read Plainsong, you really should, it’s absolutely lovely.)
There were a couple of things that struck me in Go As A River. One was Torie’s neighbor, Ruby-Alice Akers, who she describes as having blue skin, but she never delves into that at all (or I missed that point somehow). If you’ve read The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, you will be familiar with the Blue Fugates, a group of people in Appalachia who had an inherited blood disorder that caused their skin to have a blue tinge. Could Ruby-Alice be such a person? I have no idea. Maybe I misheard or misunderstood.
I have a thought about money too, but can’t really discuss it without giving plot points away, which I don’t want to do. But if we were talking about this book, I would mention that I understood the situation, but think it warranted discussion once in a while, but there was none.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. Highly recommended.
14 Comments
Ally Bean
Thanks for the review. I’m beginning to think the Universe really wants me to read this novel. I’m seeing the title everywhere I turn!
J
It’s not new, so probably you’re seeing it on all of the same blogs that I am, which is why I picked it up.
Lisa's Yarns
I loved this book! It made my best books of the year list when I read it several years ago. I also love that this was the debut book of an author that was in her late 50s, I believe. It’s never too late to pursue your dreams!
J
I love that she was in her late 50s when she wrote it as well!
Jacquie
I just got a notification from the library last night that this book is available for me. It has been mentioned on a few blogs and sounds like something I would enjoy. I read The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek and really enjoyed it. I hadn’t heard of the “Blue Fugates” before and devlved deaper into the topic – quite fascinating!
J
Jacquie, let me know whether it sounds to you like that is what the author is describing, I was a bit confused.
Margaret
I enjoyed the book a lot and we had a great book club discussion!
J
I’ll bet it led to a great discussion, lots to talk about.
Nicole MacPherson
I had this book and I didn’t start it. I don’t know why. Something about it just put me off AND I DIDN’T START IT. Maybe it was the comparison to Where The Crawdads Sing? Idk. I probably won’t read it. Why am I commenting then? Also idk!
J
I haven’t heard that comparison, and I’m not sure I agree, though it’s been a long time since I read Crawdads. Well, now that I’m thinking about it, maybe….you likely did the right thing!
Ernie
I really liked this book. I liked the first half better than the second half though. I felt like there were some things that were a tad forced towards the end but overall I really liked it. I do t remember thinking ruby was blue. I may have missed that bit. I read and loved the troublesome creek book too.
J
I agree, some of the resolutions felt forced to me as well. But like you, I enjoyed it anyway!
PocoBrat
Sold! I loved Plainsong as well. And Lisa’s comment about the author being 50 years old was the clincher.
J
Yay! Someone who read Plainsong! Such a lovely book. I didn’t like this one quite as much, but still very good and worth your time.