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Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In the opening sequence of this plodding generational saga, a Neanderthal called First Boy kills a mastodon by the banks of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. A few pages later, in 1792, the family chronicle of the Demers clan officially begins when a Chinook Indian princess is driven by a spiritual vision to marry a white trader, Duncan McDougal. Their son, Caleb, a half-breed raised by the white Demers family, marries a woman who had been raped by a Cayuse brave. Their descendents build a logging empire and participate in the construction of Washington's Grand Coulee Dam. In the 1980s, scion Nelson Demers, a journalist, helps archeologist Lisa Sing try to uncover evidence of First Boy's ancient triumph before the upstart river floods it out of reach for all time. Jekel (Sea Star has researched the river's history well, making interesting analogies between the ebb and flow of the water and the trying tides of human affairs, but in her preoccupation with the Columbia, she neglects to bring her characters to life. (June 16) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
More historical fiction from the author of Sea Star (1983), this time about how five generations of the Demers family lived and loved in the Pacific Northwest along the Columbia River from 1792 to the present. Much information about Indian customs, the treatment of Indians by the government, the Wobblies, the I.W.W., the Tongs, W.P.A. work crews, fish planting, salmon fishing, lumbering, dam building. Ilchee, a Chinook Indian princess and shaman, with the consent of her spirit vision Raven, founds a dynasty with Scots trader Duncan McDougal. Their son, Caleb, is raised by the white Demers family when Ilchee leads the remnants of her tribe up the mountain to try to save them from extinction. Then Caleb marries Suzanna, a young woman whose journey West in a covered wagon ends with kidnap and rape by Indians. Caleb and Suzanna's son, Isaac, seduces a family servant, Ning Ho, a beautiful Chinese girl from a good family, who was drugged in Canton and sent to America to be a Tong sing-song girl and prostitute; Ning Ho is pregnant with Isaac's child and commits suicide when she learns he is to marry. Isaac goes on to make his fortune in lumbering; his son, Will, becomes an engineer and helps construct the Grand Coulee Dam. Finally, Ilchee's prophecy has come true: ""Soon the river will be tamed like a dog, and the land will float, and the red fish will come no more. It will be the end of the People."" Will's son, Nelson, a newspaper reporter, interviews Lisa Sing, a Chinese archeologist who heads a team of scientists urgently looking for evidence of ancient life along the river, before the Columbia's waters, which are rising, cover the past forever. And Lisa and Nelson fall in love. Devoted readers of historical fiction may overlook the overwritten, highly decorated prose and find pleasure in the interesting data and the writer's enthusiasm for her subject. But characterizations are thin, and dialogue is often reminiscent of speeches in an outdoor summer pageant: ""It's a good thing when folks remember us pioneers. . . I got a lot to remember. Yessir. . . Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Historical fiction at its best by an author who has thoroughly researched a subject she loves, and who can write. This fascinating saga of the Columbia River begins 9000 years ago and ends with a present-day archaeological dig. The saga of the family involved with the river starts in 1792 with Ilchee, a Chinook shaman who marries a white trader. Each succeeding generation plays a vital part in the progress of the Columbia country in the Pacific Northwest, as it produces its abundant riches of salmon, fur, lumber, and water. The characters are strong, vivid, passionate, and the writing is rich in local color and humor. Sister Avila, Acad. of the Holy Angels, Minneapolis (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.