Go As a River

A Novel

No cover

Shelley Read: Go As a River (2024, Spiegel & Grau LLC)

English language

Published 2024 by Spiegel & Grau LLC.

ISBN:
978-1-954118-63-8
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solid 1950s western novel

Chance, sense of place in the mountain west, love, home front, racism, what can be washed away and what can be transplanted. Women-focused, twists around an expected plot, hard scenes of loss and violence, I'm not sure they add up to a great whole but has a fitting firmness and solidity.

Details made this a stronger book

Plot-wise, in some ways was predictable, but the details (e.g. knowledge of the soil, the delivery of placenta which is so often overlooked in fiction, the excellent writing skills of a character being explained) lifted the story from being maudlin. I particularly appreciate that rape wasn’t used as a plot point, and the willingness to make space for a not happy ending.

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