Hardcover, 272 pages
Published March 5, 2019 by Knopf.
I was sorely disappointed by this book. The whole premise of the book interests me greatly so I figured I would enjoy it. I didn't.
Even with very few characters in the novel, the author didn't do a good job developing some of them.
The author included too many "flashbacks" in the book and some didn't seem necessary.
I rated it a 3 star but I'm being generous with that rating.
Not quite literary, not quite genre.
The book is very readable. The genre elements sustain the reader in lizard brain agony: what happens next? Who dunnit? Is there a twist? These aspects held me to the book and I really couldn't put it down. If compulsively readable is what you are looking for you'll find it here. Unfortunately, after I put the book down I wasn't left with very much at all. There were no genre innovations. No shocking reveals. No gateways to a larger epic. There wasn't much of anything in the way of plot. So the book is meant to be propped up by literary mechanisms. There's a poem quoted here. We get some tragic backstory... we get... uh... no interesting questions to ponder about these characters. Actually, I could hardly tell the two main ones apart. Perhaps there is something here about fear and faith in the …
Not quite literary, not quite genre.
The book is very readable. The genre elements sustain the reader in lizard brain agony: what happens next? Who dunnit? Is there a twist? These aspects held me to the book and I really couldn't put it down. If compulsively readable is what you are looking for you'll find it here. Unfortunately, after I put the book down I wasn't left with very much at all. There were no genre innovations. No shocking reveals. No gateways to a larger epic. There wasn't much of anything in the way of plot. So the book is meant to be propped up by literary mechanisms. There's a poem quoted here. We get some tragic backstory... we get... uh... no interesting questions to ponder about these characters. Actually, I could hardly tell the two main ones apart. Perhaps there is something here about fear and faith in the state of nature but doing the critical work necessary to unearth that would be doing Heller more service than I think he earned.
All in all this was a fun (light) way to spend a few days and I'd recommend this book for anyone on summer break.
Best friends Jack and Wynn are canoeing down the Maskwa River, a big adventure into the Canadian wilderness, when a wildfire starts licking at their heels. They go back to warn others, only to find the fire isn't their greatest threat.
The River was one of those books where I liked the sound of it before realising I'd read the author before. The Dog Stars made my top ten list in 2012 and I wasn't disappointed with Peter Heller's latest. I thought the fire might be a bigger part, but it's always in the background, herding them into the human danger ahead.
Jack lost his mother in a riding accident, but he never turned his back on the wilderness that took her. He recollects his loss and grief throughout the journey. Wynn is much simpler, kind and gentle, never wanting to assume the worst of people.
If you've not got …
Best friends Jack and Wynn are canoeing down the Maskwa River, a big adventure into the Canadian wilderness, when a wildfire starts licking at their heels. They go back to warn others, only to find the fire isn't their greatest threat.
The River was one of those books where I liked the sound of it before realising I'd read the author before. The Dog Stars made my top ten list in 2012 and I wasn't disappointed with Peter Heller's latest. I thought the fire might be a bigger part, but it's always in the background, herding them into the human danger ahead.
Jack lost his mother in a riding accident, but he never turned his back on the wilderness that took her. He recollects his loss and grief throughout the journey. Wynn is much simpler, kind and gentle, never wanting to assume the worst of people.
If you've not got much interest in the minutiae of wild camping and long-distance canoeing, this might not be the book for you. It reminded me of a YouTuber my partner's recently started watching and I think there's something in that desire to escape to the wild and live a simpler life for a few weeks.
The fire and the potential killer adds tension to the story, but it still takes time to take in the landscape. It isn't a fast-paced book, they go at the pace of the river, but that's fine. It spends time describing the landscape, and the experience of being in it.
Be prepared to cry at the end. I was not expecting to be moved by this, expecting more of an adventure story. Whilst the woman in the story is a victim, the two men are kind to her, treat her with the compassion one would want if your husband had just tried to kill you. They have zero patience with anyone wanting to harm her, not something you can take for granted in fictional survival scenarios.
