River Road

by Tricia Currans-Sheehan

“An amazing journey, full of passion, childhood imagination and longings, and unique characters. A magical world, which reminds me painfully how America has fallen from grace.”—Josip Novakovich This novel in stories follows an Iowa farm girl’s maturity to womanhood as she is raised by her father after her mother’s desertion. Brigid O’Conner grows up to the sounds of rock and roll and distant voices as her father grows into understanding both Brigid and himself. Tricia Currans-Sheehan teaches at Briar Cliff University, where she edits the Briar Cliff Review . This book is the sequel to her first book, The Egg Lady and Other Neighbors (New Rivers Press, 2004).  River Road was recently awarded Honorable Mention in the 2009 Nashville Book Festival.

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Amelia Painter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Tricia at the Orange City Tulip Festival Author's Corner in 2009, but now that I have read her book, "The River Road," she is not an author that I will forget any time soon!

The story is told in a series of connected short stories that weave a dark, and often tragic, tale of a young girl growing-up motherless in a dying Iowa town.

Normally this is not the type of tale that would capture my interest, but the author uses such wonder language to illustrate the stores that you just can't put the book down for very long.

[Siobhan Fallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linked short stories about a young girl's awkward transition from childhood to adolescence in a rural town, fueled by the mystery of her mother's disappearance. The first story blew me away, I felt like I was reading something that ought to be memorialized forever in a Norton anthology. Other tales are a little spotty at times and lose momentum, but all in all a solid read.

[Marvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This "novel in stories," set in rural northwest Iowa, didn't appeal to me. It's a coming of age story in a dysfunctional family (off on the wrong foot with me right off the bat), with each chapter focusing on one incident in a given year, and the author seems to be obsessed with focusing in on the darkest possibilities of contemporary rural life. I didn't finish it.

[Nananina]

Loved the book. It was the first time I have read a book of "linked stories' and I really enjoyed the stories separately and as a whole. I even got to have dinner with the author and she was delightful...shared her writing process and her experience.