The River Is Home

by Patrick D. Smith

Award winning Florida novelist Patrick Smith's first novel, The River Is Home revolves around a Mississippi family's struggle to cope with changes in their rural environment. Poor in material possessions, Skeeter's kinfolk are rich in their appreciation of their beautiful natural surroundings. The river on which they live—with its food supply, steamboats, and floods—figures strongly in their lives as the source of life, change, and death. Though their life is a simple one, it's filled with friendship, loyalty, love, and compassion.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Southern

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 31, 2012

About the author

Patrick Smith is a 1999 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, the highest and most prestigious cultural honor that can be bestowed upon an individual by the State of Florida.
In May 2002 Smith was the recipient of the Florida Historical Society’s Fay Schweim Award as the “Greatest Living Floridian.” The one-time-only award was established to honor the one individual who has contributed the most to Florida in recent history. Smith was cited for the impact his novels have made on Floridians, both natives and newcomers to the state, and for the worldwide acclaim he has received.

Smith has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize, in 1973 for Forever Island, which was a 1974 selection of the Reader’s Digest Condensed Book Club and has been published in 46 countries; in 1978 for Angel City, which was produced as a “Movie of the Week” for the CBS television network and has aired worldwide; and in 1984 for A Land Remembered, which was an Editors’ Choice selection of the New York Times Book Review. In the 2001 The Best of Florida statewide poll taken by Florida Monthly magazine, A Land Remembered was ranked #1 Best Florida Book. The novel also ranked #1 in all the polls since then. Smith’s lifetime work was nominated for the 1985 Nobel Prize for Literature, and since then he has received five additional nominations.

In 2008 he was honored with a Literary Heritage Award at the 1st Annual Heritage Book Festival in St Augustine. FLorida's Secretary of State Kurt Browning presented the award.

In 1995 Patrick Smith was elected by The Southern Academy of Letters, Arts and Science for its highest literary award, The Order of the South. Previous recipients include Eudora Welty, James Dickey, and Reynolds Price. In 1996 he was named a Florida Ambassador of the Arts, an honor given each year by the state of Florida to someone who has made significant contributions to Florida's cultural growth. In 1999 Smith was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, which is the highest and most prestigious cultural honor the state bestows upon an individual artist. Prior inductees include writers Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ernest Hemingway.

In October 1990 he received the University of Mississippi’s Distinguished Alumni Award and was inducted into the University’s Alumni Hall of Fame. In 1997, the Florida Historical Society created a new annual award, the Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Award, in his honor.

Thousands of people of all ages have enjoyed his books and his talks. With his new DVD, A Sense of Place, you can spend an intimate hour with this soft-spoken author and gain an insight into the creative processes that resulted in his beloved books.

Patrick lives in Merritt Island, Florida with his wife Iris and his beloved cats.

Reviews

[Johanna]

I didn’t want this story to end. As a teacher and a Floridian, I’ve taught from Patrick Smith’s A Land Remembered many times. On the River is his first novel, and is set in Smith’s native Mississippi. The book offers an authentic look into a time long past and culture seldom seem. As ever, I appreciate Patrick Smith’s in-depth, thorough research into the small details of the places and lives he portrays in his books.

[Warren Moore]

An exceptional story about life on the Mississippi frontier. Not written in a sophisticated style, but a book that captures the imagination and take the reader through time and space doesn't have to be.

[Edward Woodward]

Exceptional

[Anne Vandenbrink]

A year in the life of swamp people on the Mississippi Delta in the 1950s. A young boy, Skeeter and his family are poor in material goods, but love their natural surroundings.

[Bsldavio]

Fiction

[Teresa Kartheiser]

Such a great book, especially for those living in Florida.

[Sue Hunt]

Totally a different time in both storytelling and language but enjoyable.

[Suzette]

2.5 Easy listen.

[Cheryl]

The southern Cajun accent made it a slower read and a little difficult to understand. I enjoyed the story, but the ending just left me hanging.

[Christina Slater]

Very Scenic. Written in southern poverty dialect and very much "a year in the life" kind of story.

[Jeanne]

I found this book written mostly at eighth grade level which became boring for me and the use of a dialect was also irritating and made it seem even more juvenile. The story was interesting but particularly sophisticated. I mostly disappointed in this book though I did somewhat found it entertaining but not enough to recommend it.

[Claire Wilkinson]

It was a nice story but the way it was written (Cajun accent) made it slower difficult read.

[Jack]

I would give this book 3.5 stars if I could. it was a fun and easy ready but it wasn't very deep and didn't leave me with a very meaningfully feeling at the end like some of Mr Smith's other works. A missed oppertunity.