Personal Update:
I’m back after an unexpected blogging/reading/reviewing break! I thought maybe I had cataracts but the suddenness of the symptoms and the online description of cataracts didn’t exactly match my symptoms, so I made an emergency appointment with the ophthalmologist on Wednesday October 18 to get checked out. The doctor determined I had a detached retina and indicated treatment was urgent and called a retina specialist to see me the next day at 8:00 a.m. (by the way, don’t eat breakfast in the morning) The retina specialist had me in outpatient surgery by 5:30 that afternoon. With strict orders not to lie on my back (sleep on left side only with cheek flat on mattress) and maintain a head-down position when sitting and walking, I was suddenly extremely limited in my activities. Today I had my second post-op visit and I’m making great progress and am more free in my head positions and to resume more usual activities. I had quite a large retinal tear (70%), and I’m soooo very grateful that my sight has been saved! Grateful also for the miracles of modern science and skilled surgeons! The big lesson: Don’t delay or procrastinate seeking medical attention! Thank you dear followers for your words of encouragement and prayers! Now, back to the business of reading and reviewing!

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Go as a River is a compelling, memorable, and thought-provoking work of literary historical fiction.

Go as a River by Shelley Read

Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Literary Fiction, Complicated Family, Coming of Age, Mid-century Rural Colorado

***This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

My Summary of Go as a River

Victoria Nash’s family grows famous Nash peaches on their Colorado farm and orchard. One day, seventeen-year-old Victoria meets a young stranger that will change her life. This is a story of impossible choices, desperation, prejudice, heartache, and survival.

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My Thoughts:

Yummy Peaches

I think one perfect juicy peach is a most delightful treat! What is your favorite way to eat fresh peaches?

Maybe a warm peach cobbler with ice cream is my favorite. But on another day, it might be fresh peach pie. Then there are addictive peach shakes at Chick-fil-A during the summer months!

You might want to plan ahead and have your favorite peach dessert within reach while reading Go as a River!

Historical Event

You will enjoy the time period and vivid descriptions of beautiful rural Colorado in Go as a River. I expected more about the event that flooded the town of Iola, Colorado. The mid-century man-made flooding simply receives a few mentions. The propulsive story is focused around the personal lives of one family in the valley and the politics of damming the river are the backdrop.

Water

Go as a River is rich in symbolism. We know that the presence of water in a story can often be symbolic of rebirth, renewal, cleansing, new beginnings, redemption, etc. The river is mentioned many times as it physically connects locations, changes the landscape, and symbolically connects and changes lives.

A girl of seventeen can be foolish, especially one who knows nothing of love’s extraordinary power until it overtakes her like a flash flood.

“I’ll go as a river,” said Wil. “My Grandfather always told me that it’s the only way.”

Just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a single circumstance of a girl’s life erase who she was before.

I wondered at the sense of it all–this journey I have called my life, so like this drowned river that keeps being a river even as it is forced to be a lake, moving forward against obstacle and dam, continuing to flow with all it has gathered because it knows no other way.

Themes

Go as a River is rich in themes. Coming of age is a powerful recurring theme in the story, as well as loss, grief, emotional abuse, neglect, sacrificial love, resilience, reconciliation, second chances, unpredictability of life, racism, intolerance, facing and overcoming obstacles, survival, difficult decisions, burying (covering in flood water) our past, and hope for a better future.

There is a kind of sadness that transcends sadness, that runs like hot syrup into every crevice of your being, beginning in the heart then oozing into your very cells and bloodstream, so that nothing–not earth or sky or even your own palm– ever looks the same. This is the sadness that changes everything.

That length of the great river told my story. I felt equal parts love and anguish for its winding path, and awe that it had followed me here.

Strength, I had learned, was like this littered forest floor, built of small triumphs and infinite blunders, sunny hours followed by sudden storms that tore it all down. We are one and all alike if for no other reason than the excruciating and beautiful way we grow piece by unpredictable piece, falling, pushing from the debris, rising again, and hoping for the best. Flowing forward against obstacle was not my whole story. For like the river, I had also gathered along the way all the tiny pieces connecting me to everything else, and doing this had delivered me here, with two fists of forest soil in my palms and a heart still learning to be unafraid of itself.

Recommended

Fans of compelling literary historical fiction, a memorable character, and complicated family drama will appreciate this well written and thought provoking coming-of-age story. Sensitive readers might find some content troubling. However, I found the ending infused with hope and reconciliation. Book clubs will enjoy many discussion topics.

Imagine a town silent, forgotten, decomposing at the bottom a a lake that once was a river. If this makes you wonder whether the joys and pain of a place wash away as the floodwaters rise and swallow, I can tell you they do not. The landscapes of our youths create us, and we carry them within us, storied by all they gave and stole, in who we become.

Content Consideration: emotional abuse, neglect, survival, adoption

Rating: 5 Stars

Meet the Author of Go As a River, Shelley Read

Shelley Read is a fifth generation Coloradoan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honors, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Shelley holds degrees in writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal, and has written for the Denver Post and a variety of publications.

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QOTD:

Have I enticed you to read this story?

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