BookBrowse Reviews Go as a River by Shelley Read

BookBrowse:

An exceptional coming-of-age novel from debut author Shelley Read, set in a Colorado peach orchard.

Shelley Read's debut novel, Go as a River, follows the life of Victoria Nash from her teenage years through early adulthood. When readers first meet Victoria – "Torie," to most – she's the matriarch of her family at the tender age of 17. We learn almost immediately that her mother, aunt and cousin died in a car crash five years prior to the book's start, and she was left to keep house for her father, brother and disabled uncle while also working in their peach orchard. Ripe for love and adventure, she meets Wil Moon – an encounter that will change both their lives forever.

The story unfolds in Victoria's voice as she navigates a world of love and loss over the ensuing 26 years, from the aftermath of World War II in 1948 through 1971, touching on the Vietnam War. Although the conflicts bracket her story and each has a huge impact on her life, the book is about much more than the effects of war. The author also touches on important themes such as racism, mental health and spirituality. These issues are mostly in the background, though, as the author stays laser-focused on Victoria's determination to thrive despite the obstacles she faces.

Read's prose is gorgeous from start to finish; Victoria's observations are especially superb:

"The old house smelled like only old houses do, like stories, like decades of buttery skillet breakfasts and black coffee and dripping faucets, like family and life and aging wood."

Writing this descriptive can in some cases slow down a book's action, but the author includes just enough of it to draw us into her heroine's world without allowing the elegant language to overwhelm the narrative. It's a difficult balancing act that Read achieves masterfully.

The best part of the novel, though, is Victoria herself. Read creates such a lifelike, three-dimensional character that I woke up one morning wondering how my friend was doing, only realizing after a second that the person I was worried about wasn't flesh and blood. While her life is filled with tragedy, Victoria herself is not a tragic figure. She reminded me a bit of Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind, a naïve young woman confronted with hardship. At first she's overwhelmed but then she rallies, revealing a hidden strength – and it's that strength that readers both admire and love her for.

My only quibble is with the book's ending, which was more abrupt than I would have liked. In some regards it was perfect; adding a few words or paragraphs as an epilogue may have satisfied my need for closure but it would have lessened the impact. I'm certain that one of the reasons the novel's characters remained in my thoughts long after I finished it is because their stories are left unfinished; I'm not sure that would have been the case had all the narrative threads been neatly tied up. Still, I found myself wanting more, and I was shocked upon turning the last page to find the book had ended.

In short, Go as a River is a truly stellar work, so nearly perfect that it's hard to believe it's Shelley Read's first book. It earns my highest rating and is one of my favorites of the year. I recommend it to most audiences, particularly those who enjoy brilliantly written coming-of-age works. Book groups, too, will want to put this one on their reading lists, as many great discussion topics can be found within its pages.

This review first ran in the December 6, 2023 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.