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Once Upon a River

by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Once Upon a River

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ISBN13: 9780393079890
ISBN10: 0393079899
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Bonnie Jo Campbell has created an unforgettable heroine in sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, a beauty whose unflinching gaze and uncanny ability with a rifle have not made her life any easier. After the violent death of her father, in which she is complicit, Margo takes to the Stark River in her boat, with only a few supplies and a biography of Annie Oakley, in search of her vanished mother.

But the river, Margo's childhood paradise, is a dangerous place for a young woman traveling alone, and she must be strong to survive, using her knowledge of the natural world and her ability to look unsparingly into the hearts of those around her. Her river odyssey through rural Michigan becomes a defining journey, one that leads her beyond self-preservation and to the decision of what price she is willing to pay for her choices.

Review

"A dramatic and rhapsodic American odyssey. A female Huckleberry Finn. A wild-child-to-caring-woman story as intricately meshed with the natural life of the river as a myth....[S]he conveys all that Margo does, thinks, and feels with transfixing sensuous precision, from the jolt of a gun to the muscle burn of rowing a boat against the current to the weight of a man. From killing and skinning game to falling in with outlaws and finding refuge with kind if irascible strangers, Margo's earthy education and the profound complexities of her timeless dilemmas are exquisitely rendered and mesmerizingly suspenseful. A glorious novel destined to entrance and provoke." Booklist (starred review)

About the Author

Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of the National Book Award finalist American Salvage, Women and Other Animals, and the novels Q Road and Once Upon a River. She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize, the AWP Award for Short Fiction, and Southern Review's 2008 Eudora Welty Prize for "The Inventor, 1972," which is included in this collection. Her work has appeared in Southern Review, Kenyon Review, and Ontario Review. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she studies kobudo, the art of Okinawan weapons, and hangs out with her two donkeys, Jack and Don Quixote.

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Read an exclusive essay by Bonnie Jo Campbell

4.7 7

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.7 (7 comments)

`
Heather Sias , January 02, 2012
Bonnie hit it out of the park, and deserves all the love she's getting. Couldn't have happened to a nicer gal.

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AmyM , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by AmyM)
Margo Crane is one of the most mesmerizing and memorable heroines in years, a free spirit who is nonetheless acutely aware of the realities of being a young woman trying to live life on her terms. Campbell's lyrical prose captures the rhythms of the Stark River for which the novel is named and carries readers to the story's satisfying conclusion.

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rwrkb , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by rwrkb)
hands down, my favorite read of 2011.

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rriley115 , January 01, 2012
Bonnie Jo Campbell is on a roll. Her writing style is compelling and lyrical.

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GINA BETCHER , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by GINA BETCHER)
The untalkative Margo Crane makes her way along the world of the Stark River (the Kalamazoo River) to avoid and avenge and discover. If you overlook Margo you overlook a journey upon a river. Even once, you've lost your chance.

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techeditor , October 19, 2011 (view all comments by techeditor)
ONCE UPON A RIVER by Bonnie Jo Campbell begins with description of the natural surroundings in the rural Michigan area where the story takes place and Margo Crane’s interaction with them. Margo is a teenager. The book continues with Margo’s story. • She’s gorgeous. • She doesn’t talk much. • She is exceptionally good with a gun. • Her grandfather Murray had one of his children, her father, out of wedlock. His other son, Cal, and Cal’s family live right across the Snake River from her family. • She has a beautiful mother who hated the life in rural Michigan so took off, promising to return for Margo, except she didn’t. • Margo lives with her very short father who did work at a metal shop and now works at a grocery store for much less money. That Margo is gorgeous turns out to be a problem. While most would count this as a lucky asset, in her case, it just means trouble. That’s because, in this book, too many grown men in rural Michigan can’t keep their hands off beautiful teenage girls. And Margo says nothing. Her father (who Margo thinks of as Crane, their last name) wants to go to the police in one instance, but she will say nothing. And she continues to say nothing when she should be speaking up, maybe yelling, kicking, and screaming, throughout the book. Many writers use this device, but it is not a good sign. That is, when a character is wronged but refuses to talk about it or defend herself, it seems that the author couldn’t think of a better reason for what happens next. Besides, this device is terribly frustrating and makes the story predictable. Other readers of ONCE UPON A RIVER post mostly praise for the book on the Internet. So I think it must be a good book for some. But it’s not for everyone. My trouble with this book is that it didn’t grab me. That’s because no character, Margo in particular, was given enough depth for me to care about her. If you think, as I do, that this style is more appropriate for a short story, then this book may not be for you.

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McGuffy Ann , September 02, 2011 (view all comments by McGuffy Ann)
It is 1970s Michigan. When her father is killed, 16 year old Margo Crane loads a rowboat with supplies, along with her rifle, and sets off in search of her mother. Margo doesn’t consider this dangerous, as the river is her sanctuary, her salvation. She also has her favourite book, the book of her personal inspiration: Annie Oakley. This river journey through Michigan becomes one of self exploration and self discovery. It is a defining journey for Margo. She will meet with many hardscrabble people, and encounter experiences beyond the normal for a 16 year old girl. But Margo is not the normal 16 year old. Once again, Bonnie Jo Campbell has written a unique book, filled with characters and situations that life is really made of. It is intense, even harsh at times. This book will take you on quite a ride!

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780393079890
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
07/05/2011
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Pages:
348
Height:
1.30IN
Width:
6.40IN
Thickness:
1.00
Illustration:
Yes
Author:
Bonnie Jo Campbell
Author:
Bonnie Jo Campbell
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

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