Ricochet River

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kylebrittain, March 3, 2011 (view all comments by kylebrittain)
As a former small-town adolescent (in Colorado, not Oregon), I was amazed by the precision and depth with which Cody writes about kids coming-of-age in insular, often-stifling rural environments. Cody captures the ennui of small town life better than just about any writer, and his three-dimensional characters are often reminiscent of J.D. Salinger’s. There’s a lot to like here—especially the character of Jesse, an impulsive Native-American transfer student. Cody also writes about weighty, potentially controversial (for younger students, anyway) issues such as race and sexuality with great care and sensitivity.

Although Ricochet River’s primary demographic is probably high school students, this is a novel with universal appeal. Reading the novel as an adult provoked feelings of nostalgia for my childhood (as well as relief that I’ll never have to do it again). Ricochet River would make a great gift for any intelligent and introspective teenager.

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Samwise, December 7, 2009 (view all comments by Samwise)
An interesting story of three teenagers coming of age in a small town. The book deals with issues of prejudice, freedom, and fitting in. The book is also a good area piece of northeastern Oregon.

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Polysorbate, August 7, 2009 (view all comments by Polysorbate)
The best coming of age novels tend to reflect some aspects of the readers’ youthful experiences: emotions, awkwardness, aging, social wars, friendships gained and lost, first loves, sexual exploration and the feeling of place in the town where you grew up.

Ricochet River is a masterfully crafted tale that weaves all these aspects together through three friends among the background of a river in a small Oregon town called Calamus.

But beyond the general questions of growing up, Ricochet River flows with an underlying theme of racial tensions in a small town and how it tests the bonds of friendship to their limits.

The setting is the mid-1960s in a fictional logging town about an hour drive from Portland, Oregon. Other geographic locations, however, are actual areas of the Pacific Northwest described in vivid detail, including the twists and turns of the Columbia and other rivers.

Wade, the narrator, is a high school senior descended from loggers and liked among the town’s denizens for his personality and academics, but even more so for his athletic prowess. His girlfriend, Lorna, feels an outcast in the small town and wants nothing more than to escape. And Jesse, an Indian who joins Wade’s high school as a junior transfer from elsewhere, lives in the present with a devil may care attitude, seemingly unconcerned about what the future may hold.

Their distinct personalities seethe through the pages of Ricochet River and Cody rarely fumbles through the narrative that so perfectly describes them, revealing that as much as they are different, they have a common bond beyond friendship.

Calamus is the most prominent character in the book, the foundation from which the characters derive their sense of place. It’s a town loaded with positives and negatives as the three develop their lives.

It all culminates into an ending that will leave the reader in stunned, satisfied silence when they close the book, which should be considered one of the better coming-of-age novels in recent decades, whether the reader lives in Oregon or elsewhere.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9781932010046

Author:

Cody, Robin

Publisher:

Ooligan Press

Author:

Cody, Robin

Subject:

Historical - General

Subject:

General Fiction

Subject:

Literature-A to Z

Copyright:

2005

Publication Date:

20050431

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

272

Dimensions:

8.50x5.76x.73 in. .85 lbs.