Fourth of July Creek

A Novel

By: Smith Henderson

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia

Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times.

But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.

In this shattering and iconic American novel, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion, and anarchy, brilliantly depicting our nation's disquieting and violent contradictions. Fourth of July Creek is an unforgettable, unflinching debut that marks the arrival of a major literary talent.

©2014 Smith Henderson (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes

I'd not heard of Smith Henderson. He has won both the Pushcart Prize and a PEN Emerging Writers Award in 2011; he also wrote the Emmy-nominated Super Bowl commercial “Halftime in America” which featured Clint Eastwood. The buzz in such circles that follow these kind of *accomplishments* has his name and the *Great American Novel* in the same orbit. Oblivious to Henderson prior to Audible's *Best of the Month* book list, I found myself, throughout this one, asking, "Can this truly be a debut novel?"

It is no coincidence that Henderson dips his toe into the book writing business with the aptly named Fourth of July Creek. His depiction of 1980's America is heartbreaking and beautiful -- the kind of story flowing with the flotsam and jetsam down-and-outters that would have inspired a Woody Guthrie song. Like watching the ripples radiate from a rock thrown into Henderson's creek, the story grows and encompasses different themes and struggles until it slams onto the landscape of 'this land made for you and me' of today.

The ghosts of Tom Joad inhabit the pages. Henderson's wretched refuse battle their own demons: poverty, drug addiction, alcoholism, sexual abuse, neglect, and mental illness, Hope driving them on as they struggle for different kinds of freedom. The people seem scraped from our underbelly. Even the DCFS case worker, Pete Snow, is a divorced alcoholic -- dispersing disposable diapers from the trunk of his car to homeless mothers, hiking into the mountains to aid the son of a Old Testament quoting survivalist. His own teen daughter has run away, disappearing into the seedy Seattle life of prostitution and drug addiction. He admits to his ex-wife, "I take kids away from people like us." (An insider's joke in psychology has always been: the odd treating the id.)

How is it that we go on reading when an author makes us ache to our bones? When we can see the projection of an inevitable disaster, the futility of any effort, the cruelty of hope? Because Henderson's language is like a healing balm. It is elegant and rings with bare truth. He glides effortlessly from despair and ugliness to the beautiful realism redolent of Woodrell's *hillbilly noir* novel Winter's Bone, and the zen-like beauty of Heller's Dog Stars. It is restorative, redemptive. How can this be a debut novel?

I'll admit 5 stars is generous. It takes a commitment to get going, and it is a gritty tough novel -- but it is worth it. Novels that still vibrate in you long after you finish them, or when you hear the title mentioned, are rare. This one is like a Steinbeck and McCarthy novel taped together, with a Guthrie and Springsteen soundtrack running through the pages.

**I will caution readers: the female characters here range from meth-head child abusers to full blown mental cases that murder their whole families, with nothing in between but prostitutes and hard-boiled backwoods ignoramuses. If you are looking for the positive female pillar of righteousness...wrong book.

Finally, I was curious about Guthrie's patriotic anthem "This Land Was Made For You and Me". Inspired to read the lyrics, I found the Dustbowl Balladeer's original verses -- which aren't contained in the song we learned back in elementary school:

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
In the squares of the city,
In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry,
I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

Superior fiction

Fourth of July Creek (FOJC) was in my audible wish list for 8 months before I pulled the triggered and made the purchase. The author, Smith Henderson, was publically lauded as the next big deal writer and received exemplary book reviews from almost all the major book critics. I was not at all disappointed with FOJC and should not have hesitated to engage this entraining and throughout provoking book. Henderson is a magnificent writer who brings the reader into situations and communities one would never have an opportunity to experience. FOJC is realistic, gritty, and full of deep meaningful concepts lying just underneath the facades of the main characters. The book can be enjoyed solely based on the story or as an examination of communities in rural America.

Beautifully-written story of people on the fringes

This is a story that delves into the lives of people living on the fringes of what many would consider normal society - vast expanses of America, whether in cities or rural mountains where people fall through the cracks and struggle to live in unforgiving environments. Smith Henderson powerfully conveys a time and place in American history mainly through the narrative of Pete Snow, a deeply flawed, yet kind-hearted and earnest social worker.

As others have said, this book delves into a lot of dark and sad characters and events, and readers should be prepared for some difficult content. However, I don't feel that anything in the book is there to shock, or is necessarily in any way gratuitous, even if it is uncomfortable and problematic. It might be more accurate for me to say that the gratuitous things that happened did not feel untrue, and that what I mean is: life is that way sometimes.

On the whole, the tone of this book is contemplative, honest, and poetic. There's beauty in the way the characters see the world - both the bad and the good, and Henderson's writing is a pleasure to listen to. Both MacLeod Andrews and Jenna Lamia narrate it wonderfully.

What I liked most about this book is Smith Henderson's treatment of the characters. Almost every character, no matter who they are or what role they play in the story, are humanized, and treated with a tenderness that is truly refreshing.

This book is gritty

Where does Fourth of July Creek rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best.

What does MacLeod Andrews and Jenna Lamia bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great performance by both. Really great.

Any additional comments?

This is an intense story that grips you — but it's also a big downer full of sad experiences and sad characters. The prose is beautiful, but it's a little depressing.

Superb.

A superbly confident first novel that holds up all the way to the end. the narrator mispronounced Spokane which was annoying but other than that is a fine job

Brilliant

Amazing characters, story, structure and language. Brilliant novel! The voice ... one of my favorite audio books of all time. Right up there with The Help and Big Little Lies, though a different flavor of story. Wow.

Not enough stars

Fourth of July Creek is the real deal. It deserves more than five stars. The story, the writing, the performance -- tremendous all around.

BROKEN LIVES AND INSTITUTIONAL FAILURE

Smith Henderson’s "Fourth of July Creek" is about broken lives and institutional failure. After two chapters, a listener wonders, “Is this America”? Henderson vivifies a part of America conditioned by high divorce rates, sexual exploitation, substance abuse, and institutionalized apathy.

Henderson’s hero, Pete Snow, is a divorced, alcoholic social worker. Snow works in child welfare services, covering a large area of Montana. Snow makes a point of saying he is not a cop whenever he is investigating a home with children that are suspected of being neglected. Though Snow is careful to distance himself from police, he is mired in the same dark side of humanity. Snow is a character that sees the worst side of human nature; i.e. like a cop, Snow is exposed to a world of human’ degradation that fills and empties his life.

Henderson frames a story that captures American government failure. The book can be listened to as a cautionary tale, a call to action, or just a well written tale of travail. At the very least, one comes away with the feeling of how lucky they are to have not lived the life of one of Henderson’s characters. MacLeod Andrews’ and Jenna Lamia’s narration add to the drama of Henderson’s expertly written fiction.

Dark and disturbing

This is a dark book with numerous unlikeable characters who make some really bad decisions. This seems to be the year of dark stories with books such as The Enchanted and An Untamed State. While for me the tone of the two aforementioned books rang true and I found them both excellent; I did not find Fourth of July Creek as compelling.

Part of my problem with the book is personal. I have an aversion to stupidity and while I can happily read about somene with no redeeming characteristics (I loved Hannibal Lechter), I cringe at watching characters making one stupid move after another.

My other problem was the language. There are times that the language just sings. It is beautiful and lyrical. However, it did not seem real that a high school drop out could on occassion wax poetically like somone with a MFA in English.

Given that, the book does a good job of involving you and making you care about the characters.

If at First you don't succeed..

I got this book about a year ago. I just finished it. The first and second and even third time I tried to read this book, I just could not get into it. I actually hated it and wanted to return it and then I ran out of stuff to listen to. I started over and I forced myself through those first couple of chapters. Then I wanted to know what would happen to the characters in the story and I was hooked. I think for me, I have to admit, I am a social worker and so I think I hated this book because I was not willing to give it a chance to develop. I was way too judgmental of Pete and his casework and how he conducted his private life while doing the job he was charged to do. So when I listened beyond the first couple chapters and he tells a story of knowing he is flawed but still trying to do some good for the children and families he touches and he realizes and owns that he takes children away from parents like himself and he becomes so disillusioned with the system that he questions if he wants to still be a social worker. This book and this story became very real to me and something I could touch. The characters in this story are rough and unlikable but they are a snapshot of the kind of people you deal with and the situations for the children are horrific but they happen and unfortunately, sometimes with the same kinds of factors and events that are described in this book. I will say the ending of this book is very well written and truthful. For many in the field of a helping profession there are days and weeks and months when you cannot imagine ever wanting to go back to work and back in the field but just like Pete... you do a good thing or one little thing works out and its enough to get you through the crap, take a deep breath, and start over. Great book, good stories, worth the read, good performances.