JUST RIVER

Diverse residents of a small industrial city seek happiness against the odds in a madcap novel about class and love.

Set in the last days of the 20th century in a crumbling, but still grittily colorful, industrial city in upstate New York, the story opens at “The End”—a scene of destruction that unravels in vignettes and still shots: a car upside down in a river; a diary floating away, its sentences dissolving in the water; a man with a gunshot wound flailing in the rapids. The narrative then rewinds to “The Beginning,” in a courtroom where 21-year-old Garnet Harlow, author of the aforementioned diary, is on trial for pushing an armoire over on her boyfriend, Ethan Thaxter, owner of the drowned car. Certain that the jury will take Ethan’s pattern of abusive behavior into account, Garnet is stunned to find herself convicted of assault and sentenced to two years in prison. Equally shocked are her mother, Carol, a cashier at the local community college cafeteria, and her best friend, Sam, a gay man navigating the dangers of toxic masculinity with matter-of-fact courage. Carol and Sam, both in their 40s, bolster each other against hopelessness in their furtive searches for romance. They both also offer Garnet what support they can as she finds herself facing bullying by fellow inmates and the continued manipulations of Ethan, whose wealthy background makes her a target in prison. Fraser’s narrative is written with notable humor and compassion, combining elements of screwball comedy with savvy class analysis. It’s clearly shown that the inequity between the wealthy and the working class is what lands Garnet behind bars; it’s a system in which “there’s only justice for the people who can pay for it.” The plot effectively shows the dangers caused by a lack of options for those who aren’t born to privilege. The work’s outlook is far from hopeless, however, and the indomitable central characters find that it’s their vulnerability, when shared, that gives them the strength they need to prevail.

A shrewd and vibrant story of the resilience of ordinary people.