The River Road: A Novel - Hardcover

Osborn, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688158994 ISBN 13: 9780688158996

Publisher: William Morrow, 2002

Synopsis

Karen Osborn, New York Times notable author of Patchwork, returns with a heartrending drama of love, family, friendship, and the long aftermath of tragedy.

Searing and unforgettable, The River Road explores the rippling effects of tragedy on the lives of two families. David and Michael Sanderson are brothers, inseparable since childhood from each other and from their neighbor, Kay Richards, who has become a complicated young woman involved in a passionate and obsessive love affair with David. One spring night, while at home on a break from college, the threesome embark on a night of adventure and experimentation, driving recklessly through the forested roads of the Connecticut Valley. Stopping at the French King Bridge, David -- full of youthful hubris and hallucinogens -- dares to jump off, mistakenly believing that he'll be able to swim ashore. With this senseless plunge into the frigid, swollen river he sets into motion an inexorable chain of events that indelibly alters the lives of everyone involved: Michael, who watched from the car; Kay, who stood next to him and helped him climb onto the rail; and both sets of stunned parents who receive phone calls on that March night.

Told through the alternating voices of Kay, Michael, and David’s father, Kevin, The River Road is a suspenseful narrative of the accusations, murder investigation, and tense courtroom battle that follows. Closely observed and psychologically penetrating, it brilliantly captures the individual anguish that is suffered in the wake of a life-shattering event, while also giving testament to the ways of survival and the endurance of love.

About this title

About the Author:

Award-winning poet Karen Osborn grew up on Grand Island, New York, where she lived in a rural area along the banks of the Niagara River. She graduated from Hollins College, an all-women's college in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and went to graduate school in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Since then she has lived in both the southeast and New England and has taught literature and creative writing at several colleges and universities. She is the author of two previous novels, Patchwork, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Between Earth and Sky. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her husband and two daughters.

From School Library Journal:

Adult/High School-David was the golden one. Kay and Michael were his satellites. Growing up in Western Massachusetts, where the boys' father and Kay's mother taught at the local university, the three friends, isolated by space and inclination, were inseparable. David, slightly older than the other two, was a high achiever, scholastically and athletically, and the focus of his father's dreams. When David and then Kay went to the university, they became more than friends and Michael was left behind. The novel opens on one night in the early spring, when David, on an LSD trip, jumps from the French King bridge over the snow-swollen river and drowns. In that instant, everyone's life changes forever. Michael, resentful of Kay's connection to his brother and everyone's distress over David's death, indicates that Kay might have pushed David. His distraught father seizes upon the possibility as an explanation for this seemingly inexplicable event and pursues the idea with the police. Kay, already mistrusted by them for not having been truthful about her relationship with David or their taking acid, is arrested and tried for manslaughter. The trial and its aftermath dissolves one marriage, causes Kay's mother to move away, results in Kay's leaving school and listlessly moving on with her life, and Michael's continuing resentment and lack of direction. Told from three points of view, shifting in time from the event to its aftermath, the story sweeps readers along. The reactions are in keeping with character, and the characters are easily understood. A thought-provoking read.
Susan H. Woodcock, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0688158994
• ISBN 13: 9780688158996
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288