Slow River

by Nicola Griffith

Paperback, 1996

Status

Available

Call number

PS3557.R489 S58 1996

Genres

Collections

Your library, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Publication

Description

Nicola Griffith, winner of the Tiptree Award and the Lambda Award for her widely acclaimed first novel Ammonite, now turns her attention closer to the present in Slow River, the dark and intensely involving story of a young woman's struggle for survival and independence on the gritty underside of a near-future Europe. She awoke in an alley to the splash of rain. She was naked, a foot-long gash in her back was still bleeding, and her identity implant was gone. Lore Van de Oest was the daughter of one of the world's most powerful families...and now she was nobody. Then out of the rain walked Spanner, an expert data pirate who took her in, cared for her wounds, and gave her the freedom to reinvent herself again and again. No one could find Lore if she didn't want to be found: not the police, not her family, and not the kidnappers who had left her in that alley to die. She had escaped...but she paid for her newfound freedom in crime, deception, and degradation--over and over again. Lore had a choice: She could stay in the shadows, stay with Spanner...and risk losing herself forever. Or she could leave Spanner and find herself again by becoming someone else: stealing the identity implant of a dead woman, taking over her life, and inventing her future. But to start again, Lore required Spanner's talents--Spanner, who needed her and hated her, and who always had a price. And even as Lore agreed to play Spanner's games one final time, she found that there was still the price of being a Van de Oest to be paid. Only by confronting her past, her family, and her own demons could Lore meld together who she had once been, who she had become, and the person she intended to be.... In Slow River, Nicola Griffith skillfully takes us deep into the mind and heart of her complex protagonist, where the past must be reconciled with the present if the future is ever to offer solid ground. Slow River poses a question we all hope never to need to answer: Who are you when you have nothing left?… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member JohnGrant1

People have been telling me for years I should be reading some Nicola Griffith. They were right.

Slow River is the story of stratospherically rich kid Lore, who has just escaped from the seemingly homicidal maniacs who kidnapped her. She finds herself abandoned, severely injured, in a city; she's

taken in by Spanner, a data pirate living not so much on the criminal fringes of society as some way beyond them. After Lore has recovered from her injury she naturally becomes Spanner's apprentice in all sorts of illegal activities — data piracy when times are good, prostitution when they're not. But really Lore wants to make her way in the world honestly. Her family are this world's equivalents of Monsanto, except working in the field of sewage disposal rather than genetic modification; and so Lore gets herself a job at a sewage plant. There ensue some of the most exciting passages — I kid you not — that I've ever read set in a sewage plant! Of course, it's necessary that Lore's life get properly sorted out . . .

In a way this is the half — or far more than half — of the story that Ayn Rand never thought to tell in her clunky great doorstop Atlas Shrugged: it's the corollary nightmare, if you like, to Rand's fascistic wet dream. Lore's extended family forms part of the hyper-rich plutocracy for whom virtually anything is possible and/or obtainable; they and their kind essentially live in a different universe from the one occupied by the rest of the population, who must struggle to survive while carrying not just the burdens of their own lives but also, in effect, the plutocrats' burdens — the consequences of the plutocrats' failure to fulfil their own personal responsibilities. In a sense, then, this is a very political novel; but it doesn't read that way. Instead, it comes across as a very human tale, as we follow the fortunes of the by-no-means-flawless Lore.

And the book is really quite beautifully written. The prose is a joy to read. More, please.

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LibraryThing member clong

I thought this was a well-written novel. I was expecting something edgy and cyberpunky, and instead got a nicely paced character-driven near-future story of abuse, dependence, recovery, and taking control of one's own life.

The protagonist Lore is a compelling character, with hidden secrets that

are revealed gradually, a young woman who has grown up in a cold, wealthy family with plenty of dark complications of their own. Following a bloody escape from kidnappers Lore goes into hiding, trying to establish a new identity and find her real self. I could empathize with Lore, even though she looks at and responds to the world around her in a way that is totally foreign to me.

The narrative structure is a bit complicated, with four different overlapping storylines: Lore as a child, the kidnapping and escape, Lore with Spanner (whom Lore eventually joins in a series of progressively worse criminal activities), and Lore post-Spanner. The author jumped from first-person to third-person and past to present tense when she switched storylines; I found this more jarring than helpful.

The technology part of the story if fairly minimal: there are a couple of pervasive changes in everyday life and technology serves as a vehicle for one chunk of Spanner's criminal activity. Somewhat to my surprise I'd have to say that the most interesting parts of the story were the sections that talked Lore's experience working in a sewage processing plant.

This book is not for the prudish. There is lots of sex, most of it lesbian and none of it loving. And ancillary drug use, prostitution, and pornography.

The ending felt a little sudden, but drew the story to a satisfying conclusion without being cheap.

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LibraryThing member RobertDay

A copy of this book was once lodged in the library of Ofwat, the English economic regulator of the water industry, because of its literary treatment of wastewater treatment. I can't think of any other novels that have sewage treatment as a key theme, let alone lesbian sf novels.

The UK paperback

blurb says of the heroine, "She wakes naked and injured in a back alley of a strange city" - well, it's Hull, actually...

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LibraryThing member jwhenderson

As I read this novel written by Nicola Griffith I was impressed with the structure--the way the author slowly unfolded the story of Lore and her two lives. It took some patience, but that patience was rewarded as the story came together with an exciting climax that was effective and true to the

details that had gone before. The basic story is that of Lore van de Oest, the daughter of one of the most powerful families in the world, who awakens naked in an alley with a foot-long gash in her back. Her identity implant is gone and is without money after an unsuccessful kidnapping scam. A woman named Spanner happens by and takes Lore home. Spanner, who is an expert in identity theft, is in perfect position to help Lore out as long as Lore agrees to pay her back. Lore lucks out with a fake identity that matches her knowledge enough that she gets a job working on the same equipment that her family sells, the van de Oest sewer processing system. Lore, now under the ID of Bird, finds herself in the middle of a sabotage and corporate intrigue with her real ID at risk and an unhealthy debt to Spanner. The author effectively creates a future world that is on the verge of being overwhelmed with ecological disaster, setting the heroine in the center of the battle. The result is an excellent novel (winner of both the Nebula and Lambda Literary Awards) of speculative fiction that reminded me of the writing of Doris Lessing in this genre.

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LibraryThing member macha

good detail, fine writing, fairly ambitious, but in the end this didn't quite work for me. i guess at some point i started to question too many of the protagonist's choices, and as a result her character and her arc didn't hold together for me in a believable way. i like this author a whole lot,

though, and she's always worth the read.

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LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle

Excellent, neatly told story, but more psychological than sci-fi. Apart from the standard distopian future, where the technology has advanced but the climate is on life-support, 'Slow River' is about one girl, Lore, coming to terms with her own life, instead of fighting the outside world.

Nicola

Griffiths, I think, was right to add a disclaimer, because the abuse described in her novel is so subtly and painfully described, when Lore is even able to admit the truth to herself, that the fictional torment of the character must either be based on personal experience or intimate research. There is a tendency in fiction to use abuse in whatever guise as a crass plot device or instant character depth, but Griffiths approaches the subject sensitively and respectfully, using some wonderful language - Lore's reaction to watching a kidnapping on the news is startling and very effective.

The plot is also deftly woven, building up to two revelations concerning Lore's past and her family, but it is the voice of her inner demons that drives the story.

Also, another SF author from Yorkshire - I'm impressed and inspired!

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LibraryThing member Winterrain

Few authors could tell a story using three different timelines with as much success as Griffith does here. In fact, I've never seen it done before- I'm impressed, both that it was attempted and that it was executed in such a way that the story remained easy to follow. Griffith expertly interweaves

her heroine's childhood, her relationship with a daring and dangerous woman named Spanner, and her struggle to redeem herself once and for all.

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LibraryThing member dwhapax

Enjoyed the idea behind the river system, disturbed by the abusive family story and narrator's emotionally unhealthy lover, and the drugs.

LibraryThing member timothyl33

A book that I started reading on a whim without knowing anything about it, turns into one of the most memorable books I've read this year.

Though technically, this is listed as 'science-fiction', this is more of a character story with the focus being on Lore of the world-renown van de Oest family,

from multiple chronological perspectives. From the beginning, there are hints of a dark secret surrounding Lore's family that teases us throughout the book, that might or might not have had something to do with Lore's current circumstances.

However much the character is central to the story, it is still aptly fleshed out with an interesting fictional science of a possible near future, as things like personal identity chips, man made bacteria for waste management, and genetic manipulation are all commonplace in this time.

If I have one minor quip, it'd be over the nature of Lore's new relationship at the end. It felt a bit too tidy and somewhat unbelievable in its speed. Sort of like a 'happily ever after"
that sticks out a bit in the dreary realism of this world.

Overall, a sensual and thought provoking read about personal identity, the choices in life, and consequences.

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LibraryThing member PghDragonMan

I first read Nicola Griffith in an anthology of short science fiction short stories, Before They Were Giants, and was so taken with her style that I had to read more of her work.

Slow River is an erotically charged story, written in an almost cyberpunk style, of a young girl from an extremely

wealthy family that frees herself from kidnappers only to have to learn what it is like to live your life under a false identity. Ironically, many aspects of her new life are not too dissimilar from her past life: in both she was living a lie.

While sex is integral to the story, Griffith is to be commended in knowing the difference between erotic writing and pornography and being able to convey essentials without going completely out of bounds. The sex stays secondary to the actual plot, the meaning of personal identity and coming to grips with the forces that shape us, and makes for a slightly different kind of Sci-Fi than the usual fare.

If you are a fan of William Gibson and Richard Perez, give this one a try. Not overly graphic, but not for the easily shocked either. A solid four stars.

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LibraryThing member satyridae

Re-read.

Griffith is masterful at world-building. Her characters are all too real and her narratives sing. This is a multifaceted and delicately nuanced story that is a little bit cyberpunk, a little bit old-school SF, a little bit suspense- but mostly it's an exercise in diving deep and coming up

changed.

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LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher

This was hard to get into, but picked up considerably in the second half. Part of the difficulty was that the book is written as a set of parallel stories covering different parts of the timeline, and none of them have much impact until you know enough about the others to have some context. Once

the pieces begin to fall into place, the story becomes clearer and all the character development is sort of revealed all at once.

I didn't dislike it. There are some interesting things going on here, and I think it's a stronger artistic effort than Ammonite. But it's a grim story without many bright spots, and I just don't have much stomach for stories that focus on rape, abuse, and involuntary prostitution for the bulk of their emotional impact. The actual science fiction parts implied what I think would have been a much more interesting story with more global implications - instead, we have incest and the perfect date-rape drug.

I wouldn't recommend against it, certainly - it's a well-crafted novel. But it just made me tired.

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LibraryThing member bunwat

I think I may have liked this book slightly more than it actually deserved. Not that it doesn't deserve to be liked, its solid, intelligently written science fiction with believable characters and an interesting plot, expressed in some fairly elegant prose.

There are some pacing issues though. I

ran into this with Ammonite too, its like somewhere around the last couple of chapters she just ran out of time or incentive, and wrapped everything up a little bit too quickly and easily. I'm a little bemused as well by how very interesting I found the whole sewage plant management portion of the story. Seems like that should have been less engaging than it was. I'm still uncertain whether the twist near the end was supposed to be a surprise to anyone but the protagonist, it certainly wasn't any kind of surprise to me. Intellectually I see that there are some things here that seems like should have bothered me more than they did.

The fact is however, I just had FUN reading this. I would set it down to go do something, and in the back of my head was a little warm feeling because I knew that when I got done I had reading pleasure waiting for me. I would pick it up again and be absorbed within a page or two and just happily trundling along like a kid making mud pies and singing a little song. Sometimes an author's voice speaks to you enough like the voice in your own head that you just feel comfortable and interested, flaws or not.

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LibraryThing member comixminx

Liked it a great deal: gripping, hard to put down. The flipping back and forth in narrative time worked well. I also liked the fact that the main character was uncomplicatedly gay; it was done as something normal enough not to need commenting on, as was the case with her uncle who was in a gay

marriage.

As sometimes can be the case, the protagonist was a bit too all-round capable and competent for strict reality, but it was backed up well with the plot and character development, and all loose knots were satisfactorily tied. Will look out for more by this author.

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LibraryThing member bxhz

i'm reading this now. i was looking for a sci fi book written by a woman and/or with a female lead character. this one has received a nebula award and there was a copy in the book store, so i am reading it. so far it's an interesting story about characters as well as about science. it's a little

bleak.

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LibraryThing member sturlington

Lore is the privileged daughter of a wealthy family, but her life changes when she is kidnapped and her family won't pay the ransom. After escaping her kidnappers, Lore falls in with Spanner, who gets her involved in more and more illicit activities. Lore finally breaks away from Spanner and sets

out to build a new identity through a job at a wastewater treatment plant and a burgeoning romance. The story is revealed through three separate intertwined storylines going through the three phases of Lore's life: up to and including the kidnapping; with Spanner; and after Spanner. This is a slow-moving, character-driven story depicting a near-future world where the privileged few are even more separated from everyone else, who are often the victims of their capriciousness. Although romance is an integral part of the plot, this doesn't feel like a book about lesbians; rather, Lore just happens to be a lesbian, and having relationships is part of her development as a person. I mostly enjoyed the story but I wasn't blown away, and I found the big reveal about the abuse that happened in Lore's childhood to be somewhat unconvincing as depicted, which tainted the overall reading experience for me.

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LibraryThing member ScoLgo

This is the 2nd Griffith book I have read and she continues to impress. Love, kidnapping, murder, stolen identities, drug use, nano-tech, sewage treatment, and kinky sex all play parts in this exquisitely detailed story. Griffith imbues her protagonist with a strong voice and crafts a near-future

world that is not all that far removed from ours. The reader gains perspective of current and past events via shifts between first-person and third-person narrative; a tough thing to pull off but Griffith handles it with such adroitness that, instead of confusing, it enhances the reading experience. Even though these shifts often come between one paragraph and the next, within a few words it is crystal clear exactly where & when we are in the narrative. This is quite a feat that really added to my enjoyment of the book.

Slow River is aptly named as the pace is definitely not fast. On the other hand, the characters and settings spring to life and the pages turn quickly - all due to the wonderful writing style. The fact that Griffith won the Nebula in 1996 for this work, beating out two of my favorite authors, (Neal Stephenson and Tim Powers), comes as no surprise -- Slow River is a very good book.

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LibraryThing member kinsey_m

This is quite an interesting book, on the one hand for its very specific subject, water reemediation and a family-owned corporation which deals in it. On the other hand, its structure is also peculiar as it jumps back and forth in time, between the "now" parts in first person and past parts in 3rd

(which is well suited to the situation since the protegonist feels as if all that happened to a different person). There are several interesting characters, in particular Spanner, BUT, there was someething about the story that seemed a little too cold, so it didn't have the emotional impact (for me at least) that it should have had.

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LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing

Too much cyberpunk is all about the Net and the Virtual World and omg, hackers are so cool! [book: Slow River] is definitely cyberpunk, but it's also full of meaty characterization and realistic relationships.

LibraryThing member jkdavies

thoughtful and atmospheric, I liked the detailed descriptions of the biological processes in the sewage works, and I found the switching between different perspectives of the same person quite effective in building up a picture of who Lore was.

LibraryThing member questbird

A near-future story of identity and abuse and slow recovery. Women are the protagonists here -- men are secondary players.

LibraryThing member krau0098

This was an okay book set in the future. The story focuses around a young woman, Lore, who's been kidnapped. When her parents refuse to pay the ransom she ends up broken and alone in an alley. Eventually she is picked up by a woman named Spanner. Spanner helps her learn how to make a less than

legal living off grid.

Eventually Lore decides to try to make a honest living and this leads her to somewhat accidentally uncovering a number of secrets from her past.

The story jumped around a lot between Lore's childhood, the near past, and the present. It was decently done and never got all that confusing. The writing style is beautifully done and descriptive.

Somehow the whole story just came off as feeling a bit pointless to me. I did enjoy the world-building but never found either the characters or the story all that engaging. I almost stopped reading this a few times because I just didn't really care much. I kept hoping that something amazing was going to happen to tie everything together but it never really did.

Overall this was okay but not great. It very much has that mid-90's somewhat ambiguous cyberpunk feel to it...if that's your thing you might enjoy this.

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LibraryThing member jen.e.moore

An emotionally harrowing but deeply moving story about Lore, heiress to a bioremediation company, who is kidnapped and escapes without her ransom being paid and builds a new life for herself. The throughline is about abusive relationships, both with Lore's family and with her rescuer, Spanner.

Despite being published in the 90s, the near-future of this book is still near-future, a cyberpunk-ish tangle of environmental degradation and corporate monopoly. Griffith's greatest strength is internal character arcs, and Lore is a terrific example. This book will linger.

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LibraryThing member xiaomarlo

I really like something - I'm not 100% sure what - about Griffith's storytelling. I know this because this is the third book of hers I've read, and they are all about completely different things, but I've been totally engrossed in all of them. She has a love of nature and science and sapphic love

that pervades all her work, so that might be one reason why. I am looking forward to reading the next Hild book, and searching for whatever else she has written.

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LibraryThing member ansate

It was really well done but it was also really intense and troubling. Lots of abuse and trauma with a side of making you very nervous about wastewater processing.

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