THIS MYSTERIOUS RIVER

by Mel Ellis ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 27, 1972

Mel Ellis, one of the few writers of uncloying animal stories, here extends his. concern with human weirs explored in The Wild Runners (1970) to a study of corrosive boyhood guilts instilled by rigid religion and adult entrapments during the Depression years in a Wisconsin town. Hammond Drum had pocketed, on a sudden impulse, a ten dollar bill from the collection plate in church to buy a dream bike. But now he must find a way to pay it back but he finds he is paying the extra wages of sin: his mother's sorrow, his father's violent anger, hellfire's terror. Ham's schemes for raising money -- killing sparrows, hunting gophers, selling carp for black bass, even peddling moonshine -- serve mainly to reveal something about adults: those who are kind, those who cheat and lie, and those who hold a terrifying and exciting knowledge just beyond his grasp, like the ""gypsy"" girl Lydia. He does get his ten dollars but like the pearls he finds and loses, an adult perspective is bought at the price of disillusionment. A bit too tangled with symbolism in places, but the time, the place, and the boy cut a clear and navigable path throughout.

Pub Date: April 27, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION