Guide Assessment
The River Is Ready
By Wally LambMarysue Rucci Books: 480 pages, $30If you purchase books linked on our website, The Instances might earn a fee from Bookshop.org, whose charges assist impartial bookstores.
Wally Lamb’s first novel in 9 years, “The River Is Waiting,” opens with a devastating scene during which a troubled however devoted stay-at-home dad spikes his espresso with two splashes of Captain Morgan and pops an Ativan earlier than getting right into a automotive to drive his two-year-olds, Niko and Maisie, to their grandmother’s. Corby’s plan is to make use of the day pretending to job hunt, although in reality he’s resigned to being unemployed after being laid off the 12 months earlier than from his place as a business artist at an advert company. His spouse Emily, a trainer, has already left for work, so he attire the children and brings them outdoors earlier than realizing he’s forgotten their diaper bag.
He buckles Maisie into her automotive seat whereas Niko research a swarm of ants devouring cookie crumbs on their driveway. Corby retrieves the bag and begins the automotive. It’s solely upon seeing his neighbor gesturing wildly, then listening to her screams and the horrific crunching sound beneath his tires, that he realizes with horror what he’s uncared for to do.
As he proved together with his astonishing first two novels, “She’s Come Undone” (1992) and “I Know This Much Is True” (1996), in addition to 4 well-received subsequent books, Lamb has a singular capability to unpack dysfunction and the cascading results of trauma, which is among the many causes all six of his earlier novels have been bestsellers — and the primary two Oprah’s Guide Membership picks. Compelled to provide again after his out-of-the-gate success, Lamb for 20 years performed writing workshops at Connecticut’s York Correctional Establishment for feminine offenders, and he has clearly drawn on that have right here: “The River Is Waiting” is about virtually totally in jail after Corby is convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to a few years behind bars.
Within the days main as much as the choose’s resolution, Corby attends AA conferences, counseling periods and frantically clings to his fraying marriage. Emily’s grief is all-consuming, the tragedy exacerbated by the revelation of her husband’s secret habit to pharmaceuticals and alcohol. By all of it, she fights to defend her daughter from additional hurt, although Maisie, too, is more and more distraught — and confused.
All of this could make for a compelling saga, however the fly within the ointment is that Corby is a narcissistic character much less involved with the enormity of his transgression than with how he can return the whole lot to regular. He weighs whether or not to confess he was below the affect when the accident occurred, till a blood check makes that moot. He addresses his lifeless son, musing as as to whether to plead responsible to the costs in opposition to him: “Hey, little man, can you hear me?” he intones. “Niko, what’s going to happen if I tell the truth? Will your mother leave me? Will I go to prison?” To Corby’s credit score, he in the end opts to return clear within the identify of accountability.
All through the novel, Corby says he’s consumed by guilt and regret, and people feelings are current, however really feel performative. We’re informed that he has frequent crying jags and bouts of insomnia, however we don’t really feel his despair. In his few conversations with Emily, he’s usually blithe, targeted extra on the inconveniences jail life poses or whether or not Maisie will keep in mind him than on what his spouse and daughter should cope with. In a single such interplay, Emily makes an attempt to reassure Corby that she’s retaining his reminiscence alive whereas he serves out his time period: “We look at pictures of you on my iPad and my phone, mention you in her bedtime prayers. And those drawings you’ve been sending her? We put them in her ‘Daddy folder.’ And her favorite — the ones of her and her dolls having their tea party? That one’s Scotch-taped to her wall.” Corby’s response: “Well, lucky you, Emily. You can use Scotch tape. It’s contraband here.”
I’ve little question that Lamb labored onerous to faithfully replicate what he’s gleaned about jail life, and has nice sympathy for his character’s plights. But a lot of what happens feels cliched, as does a lot of the language and dialogue. Corby has a predictably tough time together with his first cellmate, Pug, till the guts of gold throughout the hardened legal is revealed. Enter Manny, who turns into Corby’s protector, and over time, his confidante. When Corby is sexually abused by a pair of guards, Manny suspects what has occurred and tries to get him to open up. Ultimately, an investigation is initiated, and widespread wrongdoing is revealed. The resident librarian takes Corby below her wing, and invitations him to place his artist expertise to work by portray a mural, which proves cathartic. But Corby stays haunted by the incident with the guards, and by Emily’s failure to forgive him.
“The River Is Waiting” is greater than 400 pages lengthy, but the ending looks like an afterthought, wrapping up free ends with out satisfying the reader. To disclose Corby’s destiny can be a spoiler, however what upset me was the absence of an genuine epiphany; I used to be left feeling I’d spent years with a person who by no means really reckoned together with his regrets or discovered from his errors. Perhaps that’s the extra real looking situation. Nonetheless, I yearned for a protagonist who hits backside, then finds a approach to evolve and transcend. Lamb has written an earnest, well-intentioned novel, albeit one with the promise of a lot extra.
Haber is a author, editor and publishing strategist. She was director of Oprah’s Guide Membership and books editor for O, the Oprah Journal.
