Review: Life, love, shadows and redemption by the river
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 25, 2011
Told in the first person, this long short story jumps straight into the tale with the pleasing voice of a mother looking back on life. Childhood troubles are bluntly, honestly depicted--break-up of parents' marriage, death of a beloved grandparent, a teenager's feelings that "froze into opposite halves."Amanda finds solace in fishing and the love of a dog, but soon her grandmother becomes sick and her fragile security is threatened again. The grandmother speaks wise words of choices and regret, and Amanda heads for the river. The author paints beautifully evocative scenes of water shimmering while birds sing and trout bite. Though I've never fished, I feel the pull of the words, the call of the wild. "Stay calm." I listen and the battle continues, trout against girl, line pulled, rod pulsing, dream fulfilled."Rivers are like poems," the grandmother says, and this story reads like a poem to the river's beauty and the power of relationships to light up shadows in people's lives. Amanda's walking companion has shadows of his own, but his "simple" answers hide deep mysteries like those beneath the surface of fishing pools. And maybe truths sometimes hide "like trout in a stream."The Bad, the Good and Two Fly-fishing Women is a sweet lunch-time read, filled with the scents and sounds of the riverbank, the honesty of youth, the wisdom of ages, and the promise of redemption. To share with a child, to ease the pain of loss or the confusion of betrayal, or just to enjoy the peace engendered in a change of time and pace, it's a long short story well worth reading and remembering.Disclosure: I received an ecopy of this story from the author in exchange for an honest review.