The Slide That Buried Rightful

by Rich Shapero

Join a self-exiled carpenter and the teenage daughter he aims to protect as they struggle to rise above the cynicism of a cold-blooded world. The Slide That Buried Rightful will confound your most deeply-held assumptions about right and wrong.

Wake to a new understanding of earthly, and unearthly, justice.

Genres: Fiction

281 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 18, 2022

About the author

Rich Shapero’s novels dare readers with giant metaphors, magnificent obsessions and potent ideas. His casts of idealistic lovers, laboring miners, and rebellious artists all rate ideas as paramount, more important than life itself. They traverse wild landscapes and visionary realms, imagining gods who in turn imagine them. Like the seekers themselves, readers grapple with revealing truths about human potential. All of his titles—Beneath Caaqi's Wings, Dissolve, Island Fruit Remedy, Balcony of Fog, Rin, Tongue and Dorner, Arms from the Sea, The Hope We Seek, Too Far and Wild Animus—are available in hardcover and as ebooks. They also combine music, visual art, animation and video in the TooFar Media app. Shapero spins provocative stories for the eyes, ears, and imagination.

Reviews

[Marsha Rafalski]

(3.5 rounded to 4.0)

In the 1920s, a small town named Rightful, Alaska was populated and visited by a wide diversity of people. There was a Native Alaskan tribe, a small white cohort, some white trappers. There is a general store, a church meeting place and generally peaceful. It is here that a traveling carpenter and his teenage daughter come to live.

The book opens with an avalanche that covers the village. At the moment it hits, there is a wedding in progress. The description of the avalanche is riveting. Perhaps the fact that I read this section on a night of a record cold wave. But the description of the roaring mountain of snow that became a monstrous wave which would throw everyone in its path up before allowing them to disappear underneath feet of snow crushing, pounding and finally setting in to become a cocoon of wet, cold snow.

The book is formatted with chapters alternating between following the progress of rescue efforts and a flashback to set the stage for the development of relationships that will influence the outcome of rescue efforts. Which brings me to my problems with the book. The flash back chapters didn’t hold my interest at all. They were disruptive and I did not like the storyline and some of the characters were positively repugnant. So I am split on the rating with a 4.0 for the avalanche portion and barely a 3.0 for the flashbacks.

This book was a gift from Goodreads for an honest opinion. My thanks to the author, publisher and Goodreads for the opportunity

[Shell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A widower carpenter with a teenage daughter travels to a remote Alaskan village for a job, in the 1920's. He only wants her happiness and to protect her. The village, Rightful, has several white residents who are extremely optimistic about what the village could become.. located near the village is a native Alaskan tribe, who many are pessimistic about their survival and yearn for the time before the whites ruined their ancestral home and brought the "Great death ". Underlying all of this are the missionaries trying to bring Jesus to the natives. There are many complicated relationships within this tiny population. An avalanche buries the village, during a wedding between a white girl and native boy, with the majority of the population at the wedding. The story is told in chapters of rescuing the victims and flashbacks of the carpenter's time in the village, detailing how his daughter becomes involved with the native trying to take his people back to the old ways, completely rejecting the missionaries teaching. A villain, in the form of a white trapper, angers the natives and a battle between the trapper and the rest of the population plays heavily in the story line. A very engrossing read and a book that is hard to put down.

[Linda Hartlaub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

The story of a carpenter and his daughter who travel to the Alaskan town of Rightful during the 1920s, indicates the hardscrabble life of former miners, preachers, mushers, local natives and others who are basically outcasts from society. The self-sufficiency of the individuals who live in a barren, cold environment with make-shift housing is well documented and simultaneously make you wonder why anyone would live there and admiration for those that do. The residents of the little town cope well with the elements until an avalanche destroys the town. Themes include man vs nature, man vs man, child vs parent. A different read from my normal activity.

Warning: There is substantial animal cruelty. If this bothers you (it caused a few sleepless nights for me), I would not read it.

[Pamela Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won the opportunity to read this for free in exchange for an honest review. I read the basic concept of the storyline in the giveaway section of Goodreads so I was open to the setting and the story. It was not a bad story; however, I personally have a hard time with getting interested in the story then have to stop abruptly to go back in time with partial lead ups to the current event. The stop/start/stop/start of it dimenishes what I find great about reading books. I find it distracting and breaks my train of thought. Once broken, it hard for me to get back into reading so I had to keep putting the book down and returning later. The experience with books such as this one does not sit well with me. I prefer to start at the beginning and push through to the end in a steady manner. With that said, the story itself was interesting.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a story! I felt like I really lived through this story with the characters and the feeling won't leave me now.

A carpenter, Garris, and his daughter, Yvetta, travel to a small town named Rightful in Alaska. Against Garris' will they stay, but the town is destroyed by an avalanche. What follows is the story of how Garris and Yvetta came to stay at Rightful, and the soul destroying aftermath of the avalanche tradegy.

I couldn't put this book down. The plot, the characters, the setting, the imagery, everything has stayed with me. Highly recommend.

[A. L. Stroh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you for this Kindle giveaway. I recommend it. Thought provoking. Interesting characters.

[francelia dillon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommend

The story is like an avalanche. The love, grief, and terror build and then roll down till everything is fine but a sliver of light and hope.

[Debra Wagenecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

great story

I really enjoyed reading this book. It got me thinking about what a rugged life the Eskimo people and the settlers lived in the early 20th century.

[JM · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's so fuckin boring

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tragic, turbulent, and sometimes as hard to follow as dogsled tracks in a blizzard. Residents of an arctic Alaskan village are a mixture of race and religion. Good and evil become interwoven in this story of love and horror; it takes an overwhelming act of Nature to wipe the slate clean in the town of Rightful, Alaska. Are the unfortunate souls buried by an avalanche reunited as their True Selves? There is mood and magic in this story. There are also breathtaking chases as Good stalks Evil, ending as wild goose chases. What makes the story readable is empathy for some of the characters and the amazing descriptions of the landscape beneath a mountain range known as the Teeth.

The copy I received that was provided at a book fair is missing five pages in an early but crucial episode in the story. So it is disorienting to wonder whether the following pages are part of the backstory or ongoing after the avalanche.

[DENISE · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't really care for all the flashbacks. I feel like I was really there in all the cold. Hated the trapper and wish they would have stood up to him sooner. I felt the most for the carpenter. I felt bad for him. I kept thinking somehow he would find his daughter alive. The book was interesting. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read the story.

[Rudrashree Makwana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is intriguing, spine-tingling and thought provoking. The author’s unusual take on story and gripping narrative will hook you and you will be not able to put it down until you will figure out the intricate mystery in the plot. There are secretive, mysterious and morally grey characters too. The author keenly observes things and have written every detail with a purpose.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely and lyrical in its weaving of cultural challenges with the inevitability of loss.