Review of THE RIVER by Peter Heller

3 Stars

Because I lived in northern Ontario for many years, I picked up this book since, in terms of setting, it is based on a trip the author took on the Winisk River.  He does in fact thank the people of Peawanuk for their hospitality after a long river trip.  Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I’d hoped.

Jack and Wynn are college friends who share of love of the outdoors and books.  They undertake an extended canoeing trip which will eventually bring them to Hudson Bay.  All goes well until they discover a forest fire is moving closer.  Then they overhear a couple arguing; their encounter with Pierre and Maia proves to be fateful so their peaceful trip becomes a desperate paddle to reach civilization. 

The novel begins very slowly.  For the first quarter, not much happens.  The suspense comes afterwards when they face dangers from both nature (rapids, fire, weather) and humans.  There is also a mystery:  what exactly happened between Maia and Pierre.  Unfortunately, that question is answered only vaguely.  Jack and Wynn’s friendship is also tested because the two interpret events differently.  Jack tends to be skeptical but Wynn has “faith in the essential goodness of the universe.” 

There is a great deal of description.  It is obvious that the author loves the outdoors because he gives detailed descriptions of nature, both flora and fauna.  These descriptions tend to be very lyrical:  “the river slowed and expended itself in unexpected wide coves.  From which loons called as they passed – the rising wail that cracked the afternoon with irrepressible longing and seemed to darken the sky.  The ululant laughter that followed.  Mirthless and sad.  And from across the slough or from far downstream the cry that answered.  And the eagles.  They seemed to mark the canoe’s progress from the gray spires of dead spruce, spaced downriver like watchmen on some lost frontier, sometimes just the unmistakable shape of the hooded predator, sometimes a scraggly limb and a huge stick nest.”

The problem is that there are often unnecessary details about other things such as fishing techniques:  “Jack tied on a dark elk-hair caddis” while Wynn “threw a tiny parachute Adams.”  Even brand names of camping gear are given:  they have Sierra Designs sleeping bags and tent, a Sage fly rod and a Winston one too.  Does the reader need to know that their rifle has a “Leupold 4-12X scope” and that their travel mugs are “stamped with the Dartmouth Pine and the school logo, Vox Clamantis in Deserto”?  Canoes and paddles are always described in detail:  “an old white-painted square-stern woodstrip canoe” and “His canoe was polyethylene, the heavy plasticlike material of the synthetic Old Towns” and “the Wenonah nineteen-foot Itasca expedition canoe” and “The canoe was Kevlar but it had an extra layer like a bow plate” and “The boat was sleek Kevlar, nineteen feet, and with a V’d hull in bow and stern” and “They each used an alder and basswood paddle made by the master Mitchell in New Hampshire.” 

The book blurb describes “a heart-pounding tale of desperate wilderness survival.”  This emphasizes suspense but there is much less of it because of the irrelevant descriptions which suggest the author is writing a non-fiction essay for an outdoor magazine.