Review: Follow the River

Follow the River by James Alexander Thom
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Somewhere I read that this was a great example of good historical fiction so I had to give it a try. I read tons of historical fiction growing up, so I'm not sure if this is re-read or not, but it didn't seem familiar. I've read plenty of captivity narratives, including Mary Rowlandson in a college class, and Lois Lenski's Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jamison growing up. I remember owning the book club version of White Captives by Evelyn Sibley Lampman and reading it over and over when I was a kid. More recently, I read Paulette Jiles' News of the World.

But it's difficult to read a 1981 book through my 2018 eyes. It's just so "whites are awesome!" and full of Indian bashing. The main character, Mary, the woman who is taken captive, fantasizes unrealistically about her husband and kidnapper sexually, and it just seems out of place. Yes, this women walked for hundreds of miles along rivers (I'm not sure why she didn't just save time and walk EAST?) I know the novel is based on her captivity story written by her ancestors but it just feels awkward. The best bits are when she is actually traveling the river and climbing the cliffs, but it does get monotonous. The author explored the same area himself, and you can tell because the writing is very descriptive.

The dialect is written as said back then, and thankfully there isn't much of it, because it's difficult to read.

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