THE RIVER ROAD

Osborn (Between Earth and Sky, 1996, etc.) offers a haunting tale of the grief, jealousy, recrimination, and revenge in the wake of a young man’s accidental death.

Kay always knew that she was bound to marry either David or Michael. An only child who never knew her father, Kay grew up lonely and insecure in the Massachusetts college town where her mother taught art history and made pottery. She became inseparable from the two brothers who lived next door and for years seemed almost a part of their family. In high school, Kay started dating David, and they had already begun a fairly passionate affair by the time both entered college—right there in town, under the watchful eyes of their families. David, brighter and more outgoing than Michael, was a golden boy: the apple of his father’s eye, forever trying to test his limits, break records, and surpass everyone’s expectations. Michael was content to stay in the shadows. One night, however, David’s hubris became his undoing when, having taken LSD, he jumped off a bridge (convinced that he could dive safely into the river and swim to shore) and died. During the police investigation that followed, Michael claimed that Kay (who was with David at the time) pushed him, and she was brought to trial for manslaughter. Was Michael’s testimony the pent-up envy of the scorned brother? Not entirely—for, on the very day of David’s funeral, Kay seduced Michael (or did Michael seduce Kay?). At any rate, Kay is left in a very bad position indeed, since she had concealed a number of things from the police in her initial interview (mainly that she and David had been lovers), and now her credibility is called into question just when she needs it most. Narrated from different perspectives in alternating chapters, the story has a Rashomon-like intensity.

Carefully constructed and well told: a work of tremendous, quiet power.