The River We Remember
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Synopsis
In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling standalone novel.
On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.
Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.
Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of midcentury American life, The River We Remember is an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.
Synopsis source: Goodreads
Review
Genre(s): Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction
HB&W Rating: 5 stars
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Wow, what an incredibly moving story. I kept getting We Begin at the End x To Kill a Mockingbird vibes with this one. The author does such a wonderful job of weaving together the many threads and layers of this story set in the small town of Jewel, MN in 1958, painting the scene with rich brushstrokes and the characters with nuance and depth.
“Our lives and the lives of those we love merge to create a river whose current carries us forward from our beginning to our end. Because we are only one part of the whole, the river each of us remembers is different, and there are many versions of the stories we tell about the past. In all of them there is truth, and in all of them a good deal of innocent misremembering.”
Jewel is filled with people doing their best to get by from one day to the next. Some are haunted by things they did or saw in war, carrying around the scars of that time sometimes physically and sometimes in ways unseen. Still, others carry similar scars caused not by war but by traumatic events in their past. The characters are carefully drawn to illustrate the ways we humans cope and how our past influences everything from our perceptions of self and of others to our interpersonal relationships. He did a great job of making me empathize with the characters regardless of whether I was disappointed with their choices or encouraged by them.
It did take me a little bit to get into this as the first half of the book was a bit challenging. It was very procedural, which was fine but not riveting, and there were so many different characters to keep track of. Ultimately, these things helped make the impact of the second half that much more profound. While it took effort to keep track of all those characters, they all contributed so much of what made this story what it was. I can’t imagine the story without them or without the effort the author made to allow us to get to know them.
He thought he understood now his father’s feelings about those butterflies long ago, that once their wings were pinned to cardboard they lost their spirit and ceased to be what had so captured your eye and heart and became something instead that you might study forever but never really know.
The story ended up being an insightful look at how all the ways we are broken can make us choose to do what we do and the lasting impact that has not just on us, but on those around us. The ending was heart wrenching but poignant and achingly beautiful. It just goes to show that you should treat people with kindness because you just never know what demons they are battling or what baggage they are carrying. If you enjoy books in the style of Chris Whitaker, Greg Iles, Kristin Hannah, or Delia Owens, I think you’ll enjoy this one.
TW: war trauma, domestic abuse, sexual assault and rape (off page), racism, prejudice, alcoholism.
Until next time,
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