"The turning of a card that sent a life in one direction or another. The slip of a single hoof on stone, the sound of two voices in the midst. He believed in it as much as he believed in any other thing, like loyalty or hard work. And sometimes the places that happenstance sent you weren't as vague as a direction, sometimes they were as steel-cast and unforgiving as a set of rails."



Life is like that. It nudges you down unexpected corridors and sets your feet upon the rocky surfaces of shifting c

"The turning of a card that sent a life in one direction or another. The slip of a single hoof on stone, the sound of two voices in the midst. He believed in it as much as he believed in any other thing, like loyalty or hard work. And sometimes the places that happenstance sent you weren't as vague as a direction, sometimes they were as steel-cast and unforgiving as a set of rails."



Life is like that. It nudges you down unexpected corridors and sets your feet upon the rocky surfaces of shifting circumstances. Wynn and Jack felt the calling that day as they readied their gear for an adventure down rivers and past lakes in northern Canada. Best friends since their freshman days at Dartmouth, they built an unshakeable bond even as polar opposites. Wynn held fast to family as a Vermonter and saw goodness in spite of it all. Jack, the son of a Colorado rancher, knew first hand the cruelty of Nature and focused on the reality of an unfair world.



Peter Heller creates this wilderness journey with broad strokes of the lay of the land. He surrounds us with full, lush views of the dense trees and wildlife along the Maskwa River. His finite descriptors have us, as readers, crouched low within the canoe ourselves. We listen to the waves lapping the shore. There is a peacefulness about this as we are lulled by the beauty of it all.



But then Heller redefines his approach. From a widened scope of a panoramic view, he brings the storyline inward and we are privy to the inner workings of both of these young men. Their experiential backgrounds will give us pause. What visited upon us in the long ago still lurks in the crevices of our soul no matter how we fight to dismiss it. It has a pulse and it takes shelter in the dark recesses. We'll all nod with the sudden realization of this.



The River is not a mystery/thriller. It is a deepened study of human nature under trying circumstances. Wynn and Jack will come upon an intense situation in those woods that will force them to engage completely or turn and run. It will give way to "the dark night of the soul". Does life ever prepare you fully for the split-second decisions that hijack your inner peace?



I will leave you with one thought. There is a paragraph on Page 234 that begins: "Hey, girl. Hey." It will rip you as it ripped me. I had to read it multiple times. Sometimes we just have to lean into it all and force ourselves to be embraced by both the good and the bad in life.