Once Upon a River

De: Bonnie Jo Campbell

Narrado por: Susan Bennett

A finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Bonnie Jo Campbell is a rising star in contemporary fiction. Hailed by Booklist as a female Huckleberry Finn, Campbell’s heroine is 16-year-old Margo Crane. Complicit in her father’s death, Margo flees home for the Stark River. And as she follows the current, she learns the ways of the world from the eccentric characters she meets.

©2011 Bonnie Jo Campbell (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Great novel-- a girl and her river(s)

What a beautiful novel. Bonnie Jo Campbell is clearly one of the important fiction writers of our time, and this is a beautiful book.

Great story, need a non southern narrator!

The book was well written, however the story takes place in Michigan yet all the characters and narrator had heavy southern accents, made it really hard to listen and believe it could actually occur in the Midwest.

Will There Be More?

What did you like best about this story?

It has been a rare book that has presented such a collection of characters so real, so alive and a story line to go with that leaves one wanting for more.
Bonnie Jo is the perfect surprise in a market filled with okay writers. Do hope she has another book coming out soon.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Go with the flow.

Didn’t care for the excessive killing of animals in the story.

The abrupt ending. Felt like an unfinished story. Too many unanswered questions and dropped characters.

Growing Up in Impossible Circumstances

Many reviewers mentioned and were turned off by the rape and deer killing. This young girl was abandoned by her mother,(spoiler alert:) then saw her father killed. Maybe these reviewers know nothing about grief. With great loss comes a natural desire to procreate. It's normal human behavior, probably meant as a means of survival of the species. She does what she has to in order to survive living alone off the grid. The rape scenes were not overly descriptive, nor was the fact that she found solace in shooting deer. She found comfort where she could.