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T. Greenwood's new novel is a powerful, haunting tale of enduring love, destructive secrets, and opportunities that arrive in disguise . . . In Two Rivers, Vermont, Harper Montgomery is living a life overshadowed by grief and guilt. Since the death of his wife, Betsy, twelve years earlier, Harper has narrowed his world to working at the local railroad and raising his daughter, Shelly, the best way he knows how. Still wracked with sorrow over the loss of his life-long love and plagued by his role in a brutal, long-ago crime, he wants only to make amends for his past mistakes. Then one fall day, a train derails in Two Rivers, and amid the wreckage Harper finds an unexpected chance at atonement. One of the survivors, a pregnant fifteen-year-old girl with mismatched eyes and skin the color of blackberries, needs a place to stay. Though filled with misgivings, Harper offers to take Maggie in. But it isn't long before he begins to suspect that Maggie's appearance in Two Rivers is not the simple case of happenstance it first appeared to be.… (more)
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Complicating matters is a lynching we keep reading about in flashbacks. The man killed had something to do with Betsy’s death, but we don’t find out what until the end. We do know right from the beginning though that Harper and his two best friends Ray and "Brooder" killed a man "with skin the color of blackberries” in the same year Betsy died. This is especially ironic because Harper’s mother was so liberal that she spent time in the South helping to register black voters, and also published a newsletter about civil rights.
The chapters go back and forth in time. After we learn about the lynching in the past, we return to the present, and read that a young black pregnant girl named Maggie ends up in Two Rivers subsequent to a train derailment in the town. Harper is helping to rescue the victims, and Maggie seeks him out, begging for a place to stay. Reluctantly, he takes her to his house so she has a place to rest while he figures out how to get her back home. But Maggie refuses to go home - she says she was raped and she is afraid to go back. She offers to do childcare for Shelley and to cook and clean in exchange for being able to stay. Harper gives in, at least for the short term, not realizing the impact that Maggie's arrival will have on all of them.
Discussion: Supposedly this book is about healing and redemption, but I just didn’t see it. Harper is incredibly self-absorbed, and has trouble seeing that there is more to the universe than his own pain and loss. He “pities” his father for his supposed “weakness” vis-a-vis Harper's mother, and yet his father seems to be twice the man Harper is. But Harper never figures that out. Moreover, he claims he “can blame every episode that caused me either embarrassment or shame on [one of his two best friends] Brooder.” Again, he takes no responsibility for anything. Even the lynching turns into Brooder’s fault. (Assigning the fault to Brooder apparently “counts” as “redemption” for that particular egregious act.)
The reader feels like saying: look, I know Betsy was the love of your young life. But it has been twelve years. Get over it! And get over yourself! Your twelve-year-old daughter is more mature than you are! And look at Maggie: what about her pain, and her courage? Will you ever transcend your self-absorption and grow up?
Evaluation: I liked this book, even though the main [living] character was irritating, and the main [dead] character wasn't much better. There are a couple of unsolved mysteries that push the reader on, and one also hopes the protagonist really will achieve “redemption” as promised by the [once again deceptive] blurbs. The writing isn’t bad, but ultimately, I was left feeling dissatisfied with Harper's lack of either self-awareness or atonement, not to mention, the plot in general. Nevertheless, it's an interesting read.
One day he's informed of a train derailment in Two Rivers, Vermont. There are people trapped in the train. He runs to the river, crawls
This plot driven story dwells on Harper's turmoil throughout the book. It is oppressive and this reader felt that it would be good if he got some counseling and got on with his life.
The setting of rural Vermont is beautifully told and picturesque. However, with Harper dwelling so much on the past and feeling such melancholy thoughts, it was depressing.
His tortured history includes a revenge murder, madness,
I read this book as an advance reader and absolutely begged my store to carry it!
The story is told in current time and flashbacks, until slowly we are allowed to see exactly how his wife died and how the mystery of the long ago brutal crime between the three friends fits into the story. Also, why the appearance of the pregnant girl is not random.
I felt the story was rather slow and plodding but I did want to find out how it all pulled together in the end. Harper was a frustrating character and much of the story was depressing. It did look in the end like everything had been resolved and his life would move forward from there, yet it didn't satisfy. I would not go out of my way to recommend this book.
Who is the mysterious 15-year-old pregnant black girl named Maggie who
Greenwood has written a delicately unfolding story about redemption and salvation that is distinctive and memorable and echoes "To Kill a Mockingbird" in life lessons and humanity. But there are drawbacks: Maybe too many large themes? Maybe too much emotional angst? Maybe symbolism a bit heavy-handed? Still -- worth it to try other books by this author.