River Song - Hardcover

Lesley, Craig

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395430836 ISBN 13: 9780395430835

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1989

Synopsis

As he grows older and reevaluates his life, Danny Kachiah is sure he wants to teach his son the traditional Nez Perce ways and convince him to give up the rodeo, while also being unsure of how to handle his marriage-minded ex-sister-in-law

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Reviews

Heavy with exposition in its early sections, Lesley's second novel waits too long to achieve its potential, but it displays the same knowledge of Native American culture and rich evocation of the Oregon's Columbia River valley that distinguished his well-received Winterkill . In this sequel, Nez Perce Danny Kachiah has grown older and more conscious of the vanishing culture to which he belongs. Sobered by the recent death of his former wife Loxie in a car accident, Danny welcomes the arrival of his 17-year-old son Jack, whom he barely knows. Danny sees their belated reunion as an opportunity to educate Jack in the tribal traditions. He also hopes to discourage the boy from taking up the career of rodeo riding that Danny himself once pursued. When a friend's grandson drowns and mourning custom forces the man to stay off the river for a year, Danny and Jack take over his fishing boat. They battle nature, the ghost of Loxie, who haunts them both, and sport fishermen who want to drive the Indians off the river. While the prose is crisp and clean and the dialogue gritty and natural, the novel does not engage the reader until its halfway mark. From this point however, as the narrative tension mounts, Lesley also begins to convey the magic of Indian ways. Readers who persist will be rewarded with a story that is, in the end, quietly but resonantly memorable.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lesley's first novel, Winterkill (LJ 5/1/84), was a Hemingwayesque tale of fathers and sons and of the ritual of the hunt. This new novel continues both the story of former rodeo rider Danny Kachiah and his son, Jack, and also author Lesley's exploration of how the past interweaves with the present. Danny and Jack help fight a gigantic forest fire, are drawn into a violent struggle for Indian fishing rights on the Columbia River, learn how to placate the ghosts that haunt them, and find love. The Native American characters, the Pacific Northwest settings, and the Nez Perce tribal lore all combine to provide a new way of looking at the old themes of the rites of passage and of the community of all living things. Though Winterkill was more self-contained, thisis still recommended.
- Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395430836
• ISBN 13: 9780395430835
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 307