Once Upon a River: A Novel

Note: I just realized that the author wrote a book in 2003 called Q Road. Q Road takes place after this book. So it flows really well if you read Once Upon a River and then read Q Road.Fond memories of Kingsolver, Katniss, Winter's Bone, Huck Finn, My Side of the Mountain and Anne Rice's Belinda were all stirred up as I read Once Upon A River. I am not saying this book is rehash. It is just that I think if you like any of those things you will like this book too. I just finished the book on my kindle last night and I loved it. I think I am going to reread it. I can't even tell you the last time I reread a book right away.The setting is the river. The river is in Michigan. The main character, Margo, is a teenager for the entire book. Most of the other characters that she interacts with in the book are adults. This is not to say that they are grown-ups, because that would be false.A strong theme in the book and something that has been on my mind lately is teenagers and senior citizens interacting. I've been watching the young aids at my grandmother's nursing home and even the seniors and teenagers working together at my local McDonalds. This is a fascinating dynamic that this author explores here.Guns and Annie Oakley play a huge part but don't be put off by that if you're not into guns.Margo sort of is the river. Or the river is so much a part of her that they blend together. She ebbs and flows through events rather than being completely present sometimes. The character is completely believable but it still frustrated me at times. I wanted her to make better choices but I understood why she did what she did. Just because the character's motivation is believable doesn't make it acceptable. I mean I got left off at a very troubling dock at the end of this book. The next few months and years for Margo are probably going to be really ugly. That is partly why the ending of the book is going to go either way for readers. Am I supposed to jump into that filthy water and try to help her? It's not like she listens to sense. Is it possible going with the flow for her could result in a happy ending years down the road? I want answers!I love a strong woman character and I love books where characters have to use survival skills and I love books with steamy sex scenes and I like to spend time in places I'll probably never get to in real life. But you could argue that Margo is often not working from a position of strength, sex in this book is often if not always, inappropriate or down right rape/wrong and this river for all the passion that Margo feels for it, is a polluted poison ivy filled depressing place. But yet I am looking forward to diving back in there. Why?Spoiler alert from here on.Things I `d love to talk about at book club: Was Michael a Unitarian? I'm guessing yes. One of my favorite scenes is when she has no desire to eat any more stolen vegetables after eating the entire jar of jam. Perfect! The scene with Smoke in the river, again, perfect. Huck Finn, and the role of the Indian and the role of the black man. What would happen when what's his face gets out of jail? And guessing the next few months and years. And what was she thinking when she hid and watched her mother?

Someone I know conducts her life according to the notion that happiness is the absence of dread. Fear is fleeting but a smothering apprehension that something awful is coming becomes long-lasting and debilitating and carries you to a place empty of hope.Margo Crane has known dread and is driven to escape its grip even as she moves up river in search of her mother. "Margo herself had lived with dread, like every other creature in the wild. Dread about what she might lose or who she might encounter that day, maybe someone who wished her harm."Margo, 15 when the book begins, is the fully realized main character in a book stuffed with vivid, endearing and treacherous Michiganders, most of whom are river rats living on the banks of the Stark or Kalamazoo rivers in the state's Lower Peninsula.She is a completely original heroine, self-sufficient in a wild and brutal natural environment and as strong as Indian flint. She's a soul mate of Ree in "Winter's Bone," and occupies the same status as outsider and survivor. She's comfortable in her sexuality and strong in her simple resolve to find someone to care for who cares equally about her.The spirit of Annie Oakley is Margo's guide. Margo's limited edition lever-action 0.22 gauge Marlin, the same gun that Annie Oakley shot, is her sword. The rifle is her protection and her weapon of vengeance.Her odyssey along the Stark River is mesmerizing but I don't know if she's someone I would want to become close to. She's extreme, someone too wild. Michael, one of the many characters she encounters, sees something feral in Margo. He tells her she freaks him out, that she seems to him like a kid raised by wolves.For me, "Once Upon a River" is an amazing read. It's thrilling, as merciless as it is caring, and continually gripping. It's rich in its language and lore and you'll meet characters that will stay with you.The book is long but a fast read. It's mythic in scope and ultimately a work of folklore. I'm left imaging Margo living life her way, sitting on the bank of the Stark skinning a rabbit in a minute flat or slinging her Marlin over her right shoulder and shooting an acorn off a horse apple.[4.5 stars]

This book may very well stay in my mind for a long time. There seem to be so many issues and subtexts addressed that I have been thinking about it since I finished it two days ago.This book is the story of Margo Crane, a young woman who lives near a river in a rural area of Michigan in the 1970's. But Margo, who is about 15 when the story begins, is no ordinary teenager. She can shoot, hunt, skin an animal, and does not appear to be afraid of much. Margo will need these skills when she finds herself forced to assert her independence earlier than most teenagers do.Be aware that this is not really a plot-driven book. This is a painting with moving characters. The backdrop of the river provides a rich canvas on which the author can place Margo and the various people she meets. As she searches for something that she has lost, she experiences fear and violence; and like many young women of her age, she often mistakes sex for love.There were times when I struggled with this book. It is a heavy story and doesn't start to show some rays of sunshine until the very end. However, the deeper themes explored in this book are worth sticking with it. It is truly a unique story of growing up, and it raises the very legitimate question of whether we all need to have the suburban house and picket fence to be happy. The book also explores how judgmental we can be about the way that others choose to live, simply because they are different from us. The characters in this book find contentment all around them just by paying attention to life. And these are just some of the issues explored; in reality there is a kaleidoscope of concepts from which to choose for further examination after closing the book.This is a strong recommend, but with the caveat that this is not a "beach read". This is an intense book that will keep you thinking. I know that Margo will be on my mind for quite awhile.

Good book. Good summer read. This is a light easy fictional book about Michigan. I thought about using it as a Book Club read.

Some may call Margo a female Huck Finn and the comparison may be valid, but this book is an ORIGINAL in every way I can think of. It is intense, highly readable and will keep you thinking until the end and even afterwards, as you accompany a young heroine searching for freedom and individualism, for her particular place in the world. A good book should do just that...keep you mulling over the characters and their lives long after you have finished reading it. In this novel there is plot, fetching dialog, suspense, surprise, characters, good or bad that the reader can cling to, moral issues and an ending that is satisfying, just as it deserves to be, and even a well done little map to help you to know physically right where the story develops...a detail often lacking in books that should have them. The environment of river life is a key to fully appreciating the travails of Margo but, ultimately the story is about the girl and her challenges and the characters that she must deal with to grow into the person she is becoming. One of the BEST books I've read in some time

I'm not quite sure how I came upon this book on Amazon. I picked it up solely based on the fact that the author had previously produced a National Book Award finalist. I was also drawn to the publisher description about the strong female heroine at the center of the novel and its description of her as a modern day female Huck Finn."Once Upon A River" is the story of Margo Crane, Annie Oakley wanna-be, living along the Stark River in Michigan across from her more "well-to-do" relatives, the Murray's. Margo spends her time swimming in the river, hunting in the rolling fields for venison and gutting her kill for food and hides. Margo's mother Luanne left Margo when she was about 8 and she developed a unique bond with her grandpa. However, we know Margo's life will never be easy and always filled with struggle. She comforts her best friend as her grandpa dies, is raped by neighbor Cal Murray and witnesses her father's murder at the hands of one of the Murray sons. The tragedies befall Margo and we know she is destined for a life of pain and struggle.After her father's death, Margo takes to the river, hunting for her food, encountering other down-on-their-luck characters along the way. It is the characters and Margo's relationship with nature that shape this novel. At its essence, this is a coming of age story but about the most atypical character one can imagine. Margo is on a journey of self-discovery -- finding her moral, sexual and spiritual self through her encounters with the river, the land, the animals and others. While the choices she makes are certainly not always the right ones, it is the unpredictability of the decisions and Margo herself that keep the reader engaged.In my mind, most of the book is just a prelude to Margo's relationship with Smoke, the emphysema and cancer riddled vet. Smoke is as you'd imagine -- a chain-smoking, wheelchair bound, crotchety old man whom Margo forms an indelible bond, although not an easy one, reminiscent of the bond she had with her father and grandfather. Their relationship is filled with moments that will make you laugh and smile, but also exchanges that are deeply poignant and moving.While "Once Upon A River" does not rise to the level of a masterpiece, it shows the promise of its author Bonnie Jo Campbell, and her deft ability to create a strong, unique and memorable female the like of which you've probably not encountered in any recent American fiction.

Sixteen-year-old Margo Crane is a river girl. That would be the Stark and Kalamazoo Rivers in Michigan. The rivers are connected and Margo eventually lives on both. Margo is beautiful. Margo is earthy. She is an expert with weapons and her heroine is Annie Oakley. Interested yet? Bonnie Jo Campbell has created a character I will not soon forget.The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially the Depression Era, seem to have spawned characters we have dubbed mountain people, hillbillies, rednecks, river rats, etc. . . And those characters had children that adopted their parents' dialect and culture. I like the way they (we) talk and their culture fascinates me, especially their music. But I had not heretofore considered Michigan in the seventies a place or time to find these characters.Campbell proves me wrong. The Cranes and the Murrays carry on a late twentieth century feud worthy of the Hatfields and McCoys of West Virginia and the back country of Kentucky or the Sutton-Taylor feud of Texas. But this novel is not about the 1970's feud; it's about a beautiful teenage girl who seems to be part fish and part wolverine. She belongs to nature, to the river where her father and grandfather taught her how to navigate and how to survive. That teaching becomes essential.Warning. This book can be raw. There is violence, sexual and otherwise. You will learn how to skin a muskrat whether you want to or not. Bonnie Jo Campbell makes it all believable. This National Book Award finalist is not exactly an amateur and this is fine work.

This masterfully told story involves a young, (teens,) girl whose life becomes entangled in troubles created by neighbors. Things escalate until one day she watches as her father is killed. She is forced to flee and decides to take a small row boat, throws in a rifle, and begins her extraordinary getaway. Her future suddenly becomes only a matter of finding a life for herself. She will meet some interesting characters along her way as she moves upon the river. Her adventures are filled with beautifully developed stories and people. The book is well written and the pages flow by with ease. It's a terrific story, a really good read, enjoy.

途中まで作者はなにを訴えようとしているのかわからなかった。１９７０年代ミシガン州を流れる川沿いで育ったマーゴ・クレーンは祖父に可愛がられて銃に親しみ小動物を狩って野生児のまま１５歳になった。母が家出し、祖父と父が相次いで他界したあと独りで手漕ぎボートに乗り、遠くに居ると伝わる母を訪ねようと川を遡った。話はその数年間の少女の心の動きを丹念に追う。自然の営みに縺れる若い女性の一人暮らしは「ザリガニの鳴くところ（ハヤカワ文庫）」ほどの息苦しさはなく、マーゴ以外の登場人物はすべて大人の男女で、皆彼女の純真さに惹かれなにかと気遣ってくれる。そしてマーゴはなんの感慨もなく男たちとセックスをするので読みながらはらはらしてくる。最後はほんのりと希望の光がさして読み手も安心な気分になるという不思議な一編だった。

I adored this book. Everything had to stop so that I could just sit and finish it. Margo's story made me wince sometimes but, in the end, it was one of the most beautiful accounts of someone seeking their own way to live that I have ever read.

This book is so strange. It's very dark, and has a lot of weird family incest. I did not make it even quarter of the way through.

Michigan, on the banks of the Stark River that leads into the Kalamazoo. Tomboyish teen Margo is at one with nature, less so with people. Outwardly she may seem slow at understanding and a bit weird, but woe betide any who tries to bully or exploit! (She has devastating ways of getting even.) When a family feud leads to tragedy, she simply rows away in the boat her adored grandfather bequeathed. Adept at trapping and skinning and an excellent shot (Annie Oakley her inspiration), she will now find her own way. Her resilience is beyond doubt, but will Margo ever discover a place where she truly belongs...?An involving, at times unsettling read - rich in atmosphere and colourful characters (some of them best avoided). Over the months Margot is destined to make unusual friendships amongst riverside residents - not least prematurely old and chronically ill "Smoke", he virtually a fixture in the wheelchair on his porch. Fiercely independent, he will remain where he loves to be. Always there is something to learn about attitudes, perhaps a need to reconsider priorities - simple pleasures with more to offer than does so-called civilization.Episodes deeply disturb, particularly when rape is involved. Much, though, uplifts. Welcome here a spirited young heroine, devoid of self-pity, she forever adapting to new circumstances. After all Margo has gone through, she deserves to succeed. Many readers will hope that she does, this a work poetical and life-affirming.

Stumbled across this by accident and am so glad I did. Soulful, evocative, fierce. Every woman should read this book.