Review by londonmartine -- American River: Tributaries
Posted: 25 Mar 2018, 12:48
[Following is a volunteer review of "American River: Tributaries" by Mallory M. O'Connor.]
4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
I loved this book. Loved loved loved it. It absolutely has to have a four out of four star rating. Let's get that out there immediately. I couldn't put it down: I read it on the tube, I read it while I was cooking in the five minutes while the onions were softening, I read it in the bath. I did not stop reading until I had finished.
American River: Tributaries is a generational story of three families: The Californian farming McPhalans; the Japanese-American Ashidas; and the Mexican-American Fitzgerald Morales. Their stories interweave as their lives take various twists and turns, and move them from the sun-baked farmland of Mockingbird, to the wealthy gay scene of San Francisco, to the Boston art scene.
Owen McPhalan is a farmer whose grandfather mined the land during the Californian gold-rush and staked a claim to it. He is bound to the land and is abrupt and abrasive. His wife Marian has an artist's soul and is leaving with their youngest daughter Alex, a musical prodigy, so that Alex can take up a scholarship in Boston and Marian can set up a studio and reclaim her own life as an artist. Their oldest child, Julian, is at odds with their father; their middle child Kate is falling in love with the son of their farm manager, Tommy Ashida.
Tommy's parents, David and Connie Ashida have a turbulent history: they were put in the Japanese interment camps during WW2 (thank god people are writing about this, by the way; it's a horrific episode in US history that few people even seem to know about). They now work on the McPhalan land, and are constantly aware as their status as immigrants.
Carl Fitzgerald is a musical prodigy, with an Irish-American mother and a Mexican father whom he barely knows, and dead grandparents who raised him. He's off to Boston to study music with the best, and here he meets Marian, who is setting up her studio nearby.
From here, the lives of all characters start rubbing together, and we follow them through their developments. This is poignant in both generations: Marian's re-discovery of her art at a much later stage in her life than all the young prodigies and Owen's foray into public life as he runs for office; and of course more so in the younger generation as they chase their dreams and get knocked about by the real world. Being a story of life and its twists and turns, the story moves along in a smooth, linear way, but it does make its way to a climax - two, actually - at the end, giving the overall novel an arc as well as each character.
Given that two of the main characters are becoming professional musicians, and another is embarking on a life as a professional artist, it is unsurprising that there is a lot of music and art chat in here. It's exceptionally knowledgeable, but pitched (forgive me) well for an audience that may nor may not understand what on earth the author is talking about. It is neither patronisingly basic nor incomprehensibly in-depth.
The language is gorgeous, and every sentence paints a picture. It's heavy on the metaphor and simile, but not in a pretentious way. Try this: "The mockingbird's singing woke her. The bird was perched on a branch of the acacia tree just outside the open window, going through its entire repertoire - a chorus of chirps, squeaks, and trills - and the bedroom was filled with the cotton-candy scent of acacia blossoms." Or, "Graceful maple trees lined the street, their newly unfurled leaves creating a canopy overhead." It's full of that kind of thing, and conjures up the most glorious and graphic settings. I felt the cities and countryside alike came alive for me on these pages. The characters' connections to their settings did too.
I found I could identify with almost every character. My heart broke for Marian as she left her family, as she faced rejection of her work, and my stomach was squirming for her as she embarked on an affair with a younger man. Julian's struggle with his parents, and the futility of trying to connect with them, resonated hard, even though I've never experienced anything of the sort. The general aching passion and longing is beautifully done (no spoilers here!) and so very human. The pacing was perfect - no boring slow bits, no racing to try and cram too much in.
A couple of the spellings got on my nerves a tiny bit - for example, when someone was addressing a loved one, they call them "luv". Spelled like that. It's a stylistic choice, not an error, but the lay editor in me rolled my eyes a little.
Quick word of warning for those who aren't into it: There is sex in this book, and very occasional expletives. It's not wildly graphic, it's always in keeping with the mood and the character, and personally I didn't find it in any way offensive, but I've noticed from other reviews that some people actively avoid these elements, so consider yourselves warned.
My only gripe, and it's one I feel could be remedied quite easily, is that the only format available for review was pdf, and the download came out like a scan of each page at a tiny size, with a watermark stamped over the middle of each page. When I downloaded it I genuinely thought I wasn't going to be able to read it on my Kindle. But my eyes adjusted, and it was doable. I imagine a standard print format would be fine, and perhaps the digital copy that one would buy from Amazon would be un-watermarked and in a better format, but what I had really was incredibly off-putting. Also, I feel like there were a few typos of the space between words variety, but it was genuinely hard to tell for sure, because the print was so small. Apart from that, there was not a single error to be seen.
Normally, when I write a review I try to be reasonable about who would enjoy what I am reading - it's all very well for me to dole out four stars because I loved it, but I do try to caution people about their preferred genre. But honestly, in this case, I can't think of anyone who wouldn't enjoy it, even if you're not really into historical/generational fiction. The tone was not overly sentimental or nostalgic, as can so often be the case with this genre. Nor was it smug in its hindsight - don't you hate that? It was current and pragmatic, and makes the reader realise that people are always the same, no matter the era.
Never was I so glad to see the words "End of Book 1". Yes!! There's going to be another book! There’s so much scope for development. I shall certainly be reading it. And everything that the wonderful Mallory M. O'Connor deigns to write. Bravo, you goddess of authorship, you.
******
American River: Tributaries
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like londonmartine's review? Post a comment saying so!
4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
I loved this book. Loved loved loved it. It absolutely has to have a four out of four star rating. Let's get that out there immediately. I couldn't put it down: I read it on the tube, I read it while I was cooking in the five minutes while the onions were softening, I read it in the bath. I did not stop reading until I had finished.
American River: Tributaries is a generational story of three families: The Californian farming McPhalans; the Japanese-American Ashidas; and the Mexican-American Fitzgerald Morales. Their stories interweave as their lives take various twists and turns, and move them from the sun-baked farmland of Mockingbird, to the wealthy gay scene of San Francisco, to the Boston art scene.
Owen McPhalan is a farmer whose grandfather mined the land during the Californian gold-rush and staked a claim to it. He is bound to the land and is abrupt and abrasive. His wife Marian has an artist's soul and is leaving with their youngest daughter Alex, a musical prodigy, so that Alex can take up a scholarship in Boston and Marian can set up a studio and reclaim her own life as an artist. Their oldest child, Julian, is at odds with their father; their middle child Kate is falling in love with the son of their farm manager, Tommy Ashida.
Tommy's parents, David and Connie Ashida have a turbulent history: they were put in the Japanese interment camps during WW2 (thank god people are writing about this, by the way; it's a horrific episode in US history that few people even seem to know about). They now work on the McPhalan land, and are constantly aware as their status as immigrants.
Carl Fitzgerald is a musical prodigy, with an Irish-American mother and a Mexican father whom he barely knows, and dead grandparents who raised him. He's off to Boston to study music with the best, and here he meets Marian, who is setting up her studio nearby.
From here, the lives of all characters start rubbing together, and we follow them through their developments. This is poignant in both generations: Marian's re-discovery of her art at a much later stage in her life than all the young prodigies and Owen's foray into public life as he runs for office; and of course more so in the younger generation as they chase their dreams and get knocked about by the real world. Being a story of life and its twists and turns, the story moves along in a smooth, linear way, but it does make its way to a climax - two, actually - at the end, giving the overall novel an arc as well as each character.
Given that two of the main characters are becoming professional musicians, and another is embarking on a life as a professional artist, it is unsurprising that there is a lot of music and art chat in here. It's exceptionally knowledgeable, but pitched (forgive me) well for an audience that may nor may not understand what on earth the author is talking about. It is neither patronisingly basic nor incomprehensibly in-depth.
The language is gorgeous, and every sentence paints a picture. It's heavy on the metaphor and simile, but not in a pretentious way. Try this: "The mockingbird's singing woke her. The bird was perched on a branch of the acacia tree just outside the open window, going through its entire repertoire - a chorus of chirps, squeaks, and trills - and the bedroom was filled with the cotton-candy scent of acacia blossoms." Or, "Graceful maple trees lined the street, their newly unfurled leaves creating a canopy overhead." It's full of that kind of thing, and conjures up the most glorious and graphic settings. I felt the cities and countryside alike came alive for me on these pages. The characters' connections to their settings did too.
I found I could identify with almost every character. My heart broke for Marian as she left her family, as she faced rejection of her work, and my stomach was squirming for her as she embarked on an affair with a younger man. Julian's struggle with his parents, and the futility of trying to connect with them, resonated hard, even though I've never experienced anything of the sort. The general aching passion and longing is beautifully done (no spoilers here!) and so very human. The pacing was perfect - no boring slow bits, no racing to try and cram too much in.
A couple of the spellings got on my nerves a tiny bit - for example, when someone was addressing a loved one, they call them "luv". Spelled like that. It's a stylistic choice, not an error, but the lay editor in me rolled my eyes a little.
Quick word of warning for those who aren't into it: There is sex in this book, and very occasional expletives. It's not wildly graphic, it's always in keeping with the mood and the character, and personally I didn't find it in any way offensive, but I've noticed from other reviews that some people actively avoid these elements, so consider yourselves warned.
My only gripe, and it's one I feel could be remedied quite easily, is that the only format available for review was pdf, and the download came out like a scan of each page at a tiny size, with a watermark stamped over the middle of each page. When I downloaded it I genuinely thought I wasn't going to be able to read it on my Kindle. But my eyes adjusted, and it was doable. I imagine a standard print format would be fine, and perhaps the digital copy that one would buy from Amazon would be un-watermarked and in a better format, but what I had really was incredibly off-putting. Also, I feel like there were a few typos of the space between words variety, but it was genuinely hard to tell for sure, because the print was so small. Apart from that, there was not a single error to be seen.
Normally, when I write a review I try to be reasonable about who would enjoy what I am reading - it's all very well for me to dole out four stars because I loved it, but I do try to caution people about their preferred genre. But honestly, in this case, I can't think of anyone who wouldn't enjoy it, even if you're not really into historical/generational fiction. The tone was not overly sentimental or nostalgic, as can so often be the case with this genre. Nor was it smug in its hindsight - don't you hate that? It was current and pragmatic, and makes the reader realise that people are always the same, no matter the era.
Never was I so glad to see the words "End of Book 1". Yes!! There's going to be another book! There’s so much scope for development. I shall certainly be reading it. And everything that the wonderful Mallory M. O'Connor deigns to write. Bravo, you goddess of authorship, you.
******
American River: Tributaries
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like londonmartine's review? Post a comment saying so!
It sounds like this one has it all - good writing, relatable characters, and wonderful imagery. Glad you enjoyed it despite the formatting issues.