Book Review: "The River" by Peter Heller
Publisher Synopsis:
From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars, the story of two college students on a wilderness canoe trip–a gripping tale of a friendship tested by fire, white water, and violence.
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman? From this charged beginning, master storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding story of desperate wilderness survival. - Penguin Random House
Rating (out of 5): 4.5
Review: The above text excerpt really details my feelings about “The River” — I knew from page one that this book was going to wreck me, and I was not wrong. It was beautifully written, with prose that was both sparse and illuminatingly descriptive, and I loved Jack and Wynn from page two. That’s when I started to dread what was foreshadowed on the book jacket: “desperate wilderness survival.”
I have never read anything by Peter Heller, and I first heard of this book from the Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide this year; I know that reviewing books is so subjective (I’ve definitely realized that now that I’m attempting to do it), but Anne Bogel is pretty spot-on usually. Her description of “The River” was that it was both “gorgeous and terrifying,” and wow, was she right.
The boys, best college friends, are anticipating a peaceful summer trip, canoeing and camping and fishing, when they catch a whiff of smoke in the air. They quickly realize that there’s a massive wildfire headed their way, and they are days away from the canoe pullout. However, the biggest danger isn’t from Mother Nature, but rather from their fellow river residents: Pierre and his injured wife Maia, and The “Texans,” two unruly men with bourbon, guns, and an outboard motor.
As they are trying to outrun the fire, Pierre appears out of nowhere, in shock, telling the story of his wife who has gone missing in the woods. The boys, heedless of their own safety and ruled by their better angels, go back to find her — and set off a chain of events that end in the tragedy I was afraid of the entire book. They find Maia (Pierre’s wife) in shock and grievously injured, and they save her life, bringing her along in their canoe and nursing her back to health. Again, we’re spoiler free, so I really can’t say anything else plot-wise, but my palms were sweating the majority of the book, and I almost had to bribe myself with a cookie to get through the last 50 pages because I knew it would be heartbreaking.
Beyond the amazing story, I have to say something about Heller’s prose - it was spare but efficient, gorgeous but not overly effusive. Just like the boys themselves. It’s not normally a style that I gravitate towards (you may have noticed by this point, but I’m fairly verbose), but it was just right for this story. An absolutely brilliant narrative choice.
Trigger warnings: fire, domestic violence, murder
TL;DR: An amazing story but hard to stomach in parts — equal parts beautiful, spare, and terrifying, with an amazing friendship at its core. Reads like an old-fashioned adventure story.
If you liked this, try these:
“Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer (author’s note: This book is a personal favorite, and I reread it immediately after finishing “The River". I don’t recommend that course of action unless you want to be an emotional wreck and/or go down a YouTube rabbit hole of “Disasters on Everest.”)
