A Review of Wind River by Tom Morrisey
July 10, 2008
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Wind River
(Bethany House July 1, 2008)
by
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Tom Morrisey is a mountaineer, aviator, shipwreck diver, and explorer, who holds a Full Cave certification from the National Speleological Society – Cave Diving Section.
He has launched, edited or contributed to numerous national publications and is an award-winning adventure-travel writer. A popular speaker, he is also active in both evangelism and the arts. Morrisey earned an MFA in creative writing from Bowling Green State University, and his fiction has been featured in numerous anthologies and magazines.
His first novel, Yucatan Deep (Zondervan, 2002) was a finalist for the Christy award, and he is the author of four other novels: In High Places (Bethany House Publishers, 2007), Dark Fathom (Zondervan, 2005), Deep Blue, (Zondervan 2004), and Turn Four (Zondervan 2004). In addition Tom has also written two nonfiction books: 20 American Peaks & Crags (Contemporary Books, 1978) and Wild by Nature (Baker Books, 2001). He and his family live in Orlando, Florida.
ABOUT THE BOOK
You Can’t Outrun the Sins of Your Past
Desperate to forget what happened to him in Iraq, Tyler Perkins flees to the emptiness of Wyoming. He’s here to escape and also to fulfill a long-ago promise by accompanying his 86-year-old friend Soren Andeman on a fly-fishing trip–once more for old time’s sake. But their trek to an idyllic trout lake soon becomes something more deeply harrowing–a journey that uncovers long-held lies, deadly crimes, and the buried secrets of the past. Ty barely has time to contemplate the question of what constitutes justice when nature unleashes her own revenge. Trapped in a race back to safety, he must face his own guilt-ridden past or risk being consumed.
Powerfully imagined by the acclaimed author of In High Places, Wind River is an engaging wilderness adventure that explores the power of confession, the beauty of forgiveness, and the freedom of truth unveiled.
If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE
Sally Says: A couple years ago I read Tom Morrissey’s first book and enjoyed it enough that I remembered his name and said I needed to read his future books. So I did, this being the second of his that I’ve read.
But Wind River fell flat to me. Part of that may be due to the actual writing, but part of it may be due to the back cover copy. The back cover promised a suspense book, a story full of long-buried secrets, some danger perhaps, and a dramatic climax when nature gets involved.
The book had little of any of that.
The first 200 pages were a camping trip with very little conflict, very little action. Yes, Ty has his war issues and the way it’s affected his marriage, but that hardly takes up any space. Instead Ty and Soren take a camping trip, and the story is full of them fly-fishing and eating their catches, getting equipment packed up and then unpacked when they stop. I kept waiting for the story to start, but instead there were more details on types of lures used and brand names of various camping equipment that I couldn’t decipher even by their use in the novel. It wasn’t until the last 100 pages that what was promised on the back cover ever appeared in the book, and even then it wasn’t anywhere near as intense as what it was made to sound like.
So I can blame that part on whoever wrote the back cover copy — which probably wasn’t the author. Whenever a back cover copy only tells the climax of the book, the reader’s in for a disappointment because either they know everything that leads up to that climax from the back cover copy or (as in this case) there’s just not much happening.
But another problem with the book was the way the characters were so distant from the reader. The technical term, I believe, is called Deep Point of View, and this book was about as far from that as possible. Deep POV is getting the reader inside the character’s head, letting us hear his struggles, his thoughts, his reactions, etc. It makes US the character and makes us root for him.
There was very little to none of that in this book. And I kept seeing opportunities for it all over the place. Perhaps it was done on purpose to show how distanced Ty was keeping himself from people, but instead it made the book fall flat. Instead of a fishing scene that shows how much Ty’s struggling with someone, it was just a fishing scene. We were watching people camp without every getting inside their minds.
So for me, Wind River was not a good read. I won’t rule out any of Tom’s other books because I remember how much I enjoyed that first one, but I do hope they’re all different from this latest one.
Comments
3 Responses to “A Review of Wind River by Tom Morrisey”
I love your reviews, Sally. They’re so insightful and honest. I’m really interested in point of view issues lately, though–so it almost makes me want to take a look at this book and study the problems you found.
You’re right about the POV, Sally. One of the things that I was trying to do in this book was write something where the author had to show everything; no telling allowed. So if you want to reveal something about a character, you have to do it by, say, showing how he cooks dinner.
And it’s a style you either love or you don’t. I’m hearing more of the former than the latter, but I know that it won’t be for everyone.
If you want to read something that’s totally opposite, IN HIGH PLACES (finalist for a 2008 Christy) is just that: a first-person POV throughout. Maybe I can vindicate myself with you — hope I can!
Blessings,
Tom
I just wanted to let you know, that I felt exactly the same way.
The cover copy is misleading. The novel may have been more enjoyable had it not been billed incorrectly.