Go As A River

Go As A River (2023) by Shelley Read was a book group selection I probably wouldn’t have chosen myself. I did quite enjoy it, though, despite some unnecessary anti-fat bias in at least one character description.

Victoria Nash is a 17-year old living on a Colorado peach farm in 1948, tending house for her father, disabled uncle, and brother, because her mother was killed years ago in a car accident. She is stoic and obedient until she meets a boy in town. Things happen as they do between teenagers who fall in love, except this boy is Wilson Moon and he is Native American, caught in the prejudices and hatreds so prevalent and deadly at the time.

I so wish there had been other options for Victoria, but there weren’t, really, then. But the writing is beautiful, and Read puts us there with her while she struggles to survive in her isolation, and with her when she returns to the orchard.

It was also fascinating how Read integrated the story of Iola, a place destroyed by “progress” when the river is dammed. I loved Victoria’s determination to save her trees and make sure she was able to continue the family tradition and make a life for herself on her own terms. And she used science and asked for help!

All in all, I recommend it with the caveat of some unnecessary anti-fat bias in a character description. I noted many quotes–here is an example of some of the beautiful writing:

Try as we might to convince ourselves otherwise, the moments of our becoming cannot be carefully plucked like the ripest and most satisfying peach from the bough. In the endless stumble towards ourselves, we harvest the crop we are given.