If you read one book by an author and love it, then you love that book. If you read another book by the same author and also love it, then chances are you now love that author. This is what happened to me with Peter Heller. I read Celine when it came out and it became one of my favorite books of all time. When I found out Heller was coming out with a new book, I knew I was going to have to read it and I was not disappointed.
The River is basically my worst nightmare that comes alive in its pages. I hate camping–I mean it–I really, really hate it. I took a road trip with a group of friends to the Grand Canyon and they wanted to spend at least one night camping. I reluctantly agreed and, for some reason, they put me in charge of finding a campground. So, of course I found one that had a pool, a coffee bar, and reasonable showers and toilets. It stands to reason that the goings on in The River are my absolute worst nightmares.
Two college students, Jack and Wynn, decide to furlough school for a semester and take a canoe trip of indefinite length on the Maskwa River in Canada. They have dreams of picking blueberries and fishing during the day and sleeping under the stars at night for as long as they wish. This dream is threatened when they catch a whiff of a forest fire that is rapidly heading their way. The nightmare is made worse when they hear a couple arguing loudly and only the man from the couple shows up paddling down the river the next day. The action in this book left me white-knuckled and sitting on the edge of my seat.
Peter Heller is a master at putting his readers right into the situation at hand. When I think back on reading The River, I don’t so much remember the pages I was looking at, but rather I have memories of being on the river shore listening to Jack and Wynn making decisions about what they need to do to stay a step ahead of survival. I can smell the wildfire as I feel the wind blow through my hair. I feel nervous when Jack and Wynn are worried and I feel anxious for them even when they’ve put together a plan of action they feel good about. It’s hard to know how I would react in the situations they have been put in; I probably would have had a meltdown of some sort. So, I am strangely comforted by reading about people who are confident in scenarios in which I wouldn’t have a clue what to do.
Anything that can go wrong does go wrong for Jack and Wynn. Their friendship is strained when they disagree over what could potentially be life threatening situations. It just goes to show that Peter Heller’s talent is unmatched for my taste, in that he can not only make me read about a situation where I would normally stop after reading the back of the book, but also love the same book.
Peter Heller will be at Lemuria on Friday, March 8, at 5:00 to sign copies of and discuss The River.
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