Follow the River

Bennett, Paul L.

ISBN 10: 0531083144 ISBN 13: 9780531083147

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1987

Synopsis

"Lighthorse" Harry Lee, son of a railroad track worker, and Nancy Sutton, daughter of the town banker, fall in love despite the inequalities in their backgrounds and wealth and Nancy's mother's alcoholism

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 8 Up A realistic (yet, at times, poetic) account of Lighthorse Lee, a boy growing up in a small town in Ohio during the 1930s. Lighthorse and his family face dishonesty, poverty, death, class snobbery, feuds over a girl, family tensions, drunkenness, mental illness, and adultery, as well as the joys of family loyalty and love. Born in a family of seven children, Lighthorse feels his way tentatively as he deals with the fact that his mother does the laundry for a banker's family, the Suttons, whose daughter, Nancy, he loves. Tragedy descends on both the Lees and the Suttons when mentally ill Mrs. Sutton has an affair with one of Lighthorse's older brothers and then kills another brother and herself. The ensuing and gradual reconciliation of the two families, and of Lighthorse and Nancy, is shown as complex and difficult, but is done skillfully in several dramatic episodes. Bennett's writing has a characteristic common to the best poetry: although at times elusive and ambivalent in meaning, it catches a profundity often missing in straightforward statements. Follow the River may appear spare and simple, but it has hidden depths worth examining, and its elliptical, episodic nature contains symbols and truths not always found in more detailed, full-fledged narratives. A local Indian legend is used to symbolize the novel's theme: integrity demands sacrifice and strength; and the river is used as a symbol of life's continuing, inevitable flow, despite human tragedies and joys. Candid and profane at times, the novel's overall texture is one of vibrant moral revelations of the human condition during adolescence. Hope Bridgewater, Halifax City Regional Library, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Although it contains some beautiful imagery, this first young adult novel by the poet fails to form a coherent whole. The book is arbitrarily divided into four segments taking place in 1930, 1934, 1936 and 1937. Its central theme is the love between blond, poor Harry "Lightfoot" Lee and rich, gypsy-dark Nancy Lee Sutton, which is supposed to tie in with a myth about a strong Indian maiden who dove into a river to await her lover. The plot is episodic, and characters aren't developed, so the melodramatic events that crop up come as thunderbolts out of a clear sky. Several key developments, including brother Ed's liaison with the desperate Mrs. Sutton, occur off stage and are hastily related after the fact; as a result, the reader is more bewildered than moved. Those in the target age group may have a rough time keeping up with the elliptical dialogue of what are supposed to be the unsophisticated residents of a small Depression-era Ohio town (What 17-year-old muses, "How blind we are, even in moments of prescience"?). The poetry that Bennett inserts in ever-increasing doses as the book winds on is far more compelling than the surrounding prose. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0531083144
• ISBN 13: 9780531083147
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 190