WALKING INTO THE RIVER

Depicts a woman's tragic surrender into the family cycle of alcoholism and her courage to prevail

First novelist Hemingway (granddaughter of you-know-who) tells a familiar and sometimes compelling tale of a girl coming of age in a violently alcoholic home. How autobiographical Eva's life story is may be moot, but the sad, hard-drinking extended family in the novel has some definite Hemingway parallels. Eva's half-crazy father is long gone but for occasional visits, and her stepfather abuses her mother, who is so far lost to alcohol that she can barely function. Eva escapes from a dismal stay at a psychiatric hospital to her strong Aunt Freda, but a loveless marriage and the birth of her daughter are followed by Eva's own decline into depression and alcoholism. Walking into the River is self-absorbed and whiny, but the subject, and the dash of star appeal, may interest some.
- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.