Customer Reviews

All Rivers Flow to the Sea

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I checked this book out from the library I knew that "All Rivers Flow to the Sea" was cataloged as a teen fiction book. Normally, that is a reading level that I don't even look at, but this was written by one of my favorite authors, and Minnesota resident, Alison McGhee. McGhee is best known for her novels "Rainlight" and "Shadow Baby", but is also the author of two children's books and a young adult novel ("Snap"). Everything she has written has been quite excellent, though I didn't love "Snap" the way I did her three adult novels.

"All Rivers Flow to the Sea" is a short novel about a teenage girl dealing with grief and loss. Rose and her sister were in a car accident, another driver hit them and her sister has been in a coma for months. Her mother hasn't been to the hospital since the day of the accident. Rose does not know how to live her life alone because she has never been alone and going back to school she does not know how to deal with the looks and the whispers that her sister is a vegetable and someone should pull the plug. What Alison McGhee gives the reader is a very real feeling story about Rose and how she deals, acts out, comes back, and finds healing in her life and acceptance about her sister. This is a novel that presents a true human challenge for Rose and one that I do not remember reading about, and certainly not quite like this. Likely, this novel will appeal to teenage girls and girls who have had to deal with grief in their own lives.

Alison McGhee has done something remarkable with "All Rivers Flow to the Sea." Not only has she written an excellent short novel for a particular age group, she has written a novel that transcends the age group. If I didn't know that this was "teen fiction" I would easily put this among her adult novels. She doesn't talk down to her reader, she is incredibly sympathetic, and "All Rivers Flow to the Sea" happens to be just as good as "Rainlight" or "Shadow Baby". That is high praise indeed, because those two novels (especially "Rainlight") are exceptional.

-Joe Sherry

As a fan of McGhee's critically acclaimed adult novel Shadow Baby, I was excited for to read this contribution to YA fiction genre. Shadow Baby was marketed as adult literature but is also a great teen read; conversely, All Rivers Flow to the Sea is marketed to teens but is terrific fiction for readers of any age.

17-year-old Rose was in a car accident. Her manta, repeated over and over, is "Ivy and I were in an accident. It was dusk in the Adirondacks that night, and we were coming around a curve." Now Rose is a freak at high school--the girl with a sister in a coma. Rose and Ivy's mom can't face the comatose Ivy and works overtime at the bottling factory to escape from life. Rose is numb. Will giving her body away to her classmates let her _feel_ something?

The world should have stopped, but it didn't. The world kept on going. Since the accident the seasons have changed, meaning changes in the outfits for Rose and Ivy's classmates. "Goodbye Romeo and Juliet; hello, Hamlet. Goodbye World War II; hello, Korea. Goodbye, rudiments of string theory and hello, chaos complexity."

"Hello June. Goodbye March, when it happened, and goodbye April, when Icy slept, and goodbye May, when Ivy slept, and hello June, and Ivy sleeps on."

Will Rose be able to drive again? To come to terms with a mom who avoids reality? To form a healthy relationship?

This review will be brief. A teenager girl Rose, and her sister Ivy, are in a car accident in the Adirondack Mountains where they live. The sister who was driving is left in a coma. As Ivy sleeps on, Rose attempts to live with the pain of loss -- her own, and the losses that surround her. This is an illuminating look at grief and at what happens after a severe trauma when the event itself refuses to stay in the past and replays the present tense.

What Mcghee achieves with words -- the fluid and static movement of life and death itself -- is beyond what I can use words to describe. Her writing is brilliant -- stark, poetic, never forced. This book reads like a dream, it has that mesmerizing and sometimes surreal quality. Not surreal in the extreme sense of the term, but in the sense that what happens in day to day life is sometimes simply beyond one's grasp of reality. The writing style is repetitive, but only insofar as Rose's thoughts continue to circle around "the accident," and the repetition builds until you begin to notice slight differences. I don't know what to call this technique -- it is like a translation of what happens in your mind, into words on a page. Never overdone, just the suggestion, which keeps you knowing that for every time Rose repeats to herself "Ivy and I had an accident," this stands not for one repetition, but for hundreds, thousands.

This is a story/stories of how Rose finds a way to let go of Ivy *and* to let her live, and what she learns about her own resilience and her own desire to live and love in the process. Simply and beautifully written. For younger adults? I think this is classic literature of a contemporary age. That it is full of emotion, and focuses on a 17-year old girl, does not make it a "young adult" book, although young adults will be able to relate to it, and will undoubtedly never forget it.

Even beyond the scope of the narrative, this book will make you cry -- not just because of the events in the book, or of the pain of the protagonist, but because the realities your life will insert themselves in-between the pages, beyond the words, and make you remember anything important that you may have forgotten, and there is always something worth remembering.

Here's another opportunity to visit the town Alison McGhee has featured in all her books. This one is lyrically written and poignant. The narrator, Rose, may remind some of Clara from Shadow Baby. Some of the same issues are explored here: no father, an absent (at least emotionally) mother, and a young girl with many questions just trying to cope. There are so many things going on the narrative that you may want to linger over it as if it were poetry. I highly recommend it.

ALL RIVERS FLOW TO THE SEA

Being a fan of Ms. McGhee's, I am very slowly working my way through her writing only because I don't want to run out of her wonderful books. She is amazing!

This book is listed as a TEEN book. Adults, have at it. This is one heck of a good read.

Ms. McGhee hits home with her stunning story of young teenaged Rose trying to deal with an accident that leaves her sister, Ivy, in a coma and on a respirator.

Poor Rose -- dealing with the death of someone you love is hard enough and hurts so badly that I cannot imagine being part of the accident that leaves Ivy at death's door and Rose OK. Rose has a hard time dealing with this situation also and this book tells the story of her coping.

Rose cannot imagine life without her sister, Ivy. Ivy and Rose are two extremely close sisters. The sentence that keeps repeating throughout the book -- "IVY AND I HAD AN ACCIDENT. IT WAS DUSK IN THE ADIRONDACKS, AND WE WERE COMING AROUND A CURVE AND THE LIGHT BLUE TRUCK CAME SLIDING" -- that ONE sentence hits home each time you read it and each time it is like a blow to your mind and your gut.

Rose tries to cope with her sister's situation and in the best way she knows how. Rose visits Ivy each day and it hurts her that their mother will not set foot in the hospital. How Rose deals with her life -- a life that is a gift she cannot deal with -- why is she alive and her sister is in a coma? This young girl deals with many, many issues and you cannot help but admire her.

The characters ring true and life-like. Ms. McGhee sneaks in a few characters for a visit from her other novels. This is good, I really like this.

Rose makes it through each day, has a hard time coping with her mother's non-interest in Ivy, her mom's obsession with making paper cranes, dealing with the kids at school who don't understand how Rose is feeling and what she is going through emotionally. Through no fault of their own, her friends are treating Rose in a different way, and while they cannot see this, Rose certainly can and this makes her life even harder.

I LOVED this book. Having lost my dad 14 years ago, I could really feel Rose's pain and know how she was totally feeling. The phrase WE ALL WALK AROUND WITH A STONE IN OUR SHOE really is true. EVERYONE has pain and sorrow in their life, but living is what makes all that hurt worth the journey. Rose had to learn that it was OK that she was alive and living. She had to learn how to deal with the accident and what happened to her sister, Ivy.

And we all have to learn how to deal with stones in our shoes. READ THIS BOOK. I highly recommend it. It is filled with great characters, some sadness, but mostly it is filled with love.

Thank you!
Pam

Alison McGhee's story is about 17 year-old Rose surviving a collision in which she and her older sister, Ivy, were innocent victims. Rose agonizes throughout Ivy's lengthy hospitalization, and the accident is replayed over & over; also the mother's 'coping mechanisms' - keeping her hands busy while her mind and heart cannot allow the release of Ivy from the hospital's life lines.

This is a heart-wrenching story, like a movie that must be seen again and again - my reading became skimming at times: I identified Rose as a middle-schooler & didn't want her story to tell young girls that sex is a good release from the agony of being alive; nor is it safe, or without other consequences. (I was never comfortable about the time our daughters spent on the school bus!) McGhee's characters became a part of my life, not to be sloughed off easily. (Don't miss her other teen novel, "SNAP" - - also excellent reading for adults.)

Reviewer mcHAIKU agrees with the judges for Minnesota's 2006 Book Awards that the author's "poetic text authentically and movingly reflects the thoughts and actions of a teen who is desperately trying to salvage her life." Alison McGhee's writing, and the characters that developed strengths, the quotes which melded to become prime movers for the telling , and the friends who cultivated the writer's talents - - all are to be admired.

(p.s.: I do wonder why Alison McGhee left the Adirondacks for Minnesota?!)

in a sentence or so: Rose and her sister Ivy were in a car accident that leaves both sisters hanging in-between existences - Ivy hangs between life and death while Rose hangs between life and grief.

Ivy can best be described as moving water. she was constantly in motion and brought others along for the ride. Rose was the still, silent water that needed that rush of Ivy to keep her moving. with Ivy gone, Rose is totally lost. she feels the water inside her bursting and pushing and stirring to get out. she feels an ache in her heart she can't get rid of and tries to make that pain tangible just to try and release it.

the reader meets Rose in the most raw stage of her grief, which is shortly after the accident while Ivy is in the hospital. there's no mystery to what happened - a car crash. there's no mystery about who survived - Rose did and Ivy has zero brain activity and is alive only by machines. the only mystery we have is how Rose will cope with this loss. how can Rose move on when her mother refuses to visit her own daughter in the hospital? how can Rose move on when she has so much hurt, so much pressure, so much water inside of her struggling to move that the only way she knows how to feel is to hurt? how can Rose move on knowing Ivy can't move her fingers, her toes, or her eyelids?

much like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, by entering into the story after the event has occurred, we are immediately immersed into the emotional storms of the characters. McGhee does an incredible job connecting Rose's pain with us as the reader. we experience her grief from her perspective and the poetic and cyclical storytelling compliments her insights and connects it all home with the reader. frequently the narrative is brought back to the accident, jumps to the present, and slips to the back into childhood memories lyrically and flawlessly. the emphasis on the love between sisters and loving neighbors who invest in Rose wholeheartedly create a tight-knit cast of characters that weave seamlessly into the plot.

i was so impressed with this brief, yet incredibly powerful and insightful story of grief and hope. Rose struggles with her grief within the high school setting and on a personal level from cover to cover. this is the type of book where the lump in your throat begins on page one and doesn't leave. ever.

fave quote: "But I do. I do know. I Know all about noise and electricity, silent screams running up and down the waterways of my body. I know about walking, rhythm, the cadence of footsteps that tire my muscles and bring me peace, bring me peace, bring me peace." (57-58)

fix er up: i could have read this story forever. i was bummed it was short, but i also felt like it was perfect the length it was.

title: All Rivers Flow to the Sea
author: Alison McGhee
genre: Contemporary, Grief
publisher: Candlewick Press

Wow. Alison McGhee really gets it. The terrible, omnipresent, obsessive pain of losing someone who is so much a part of who you are. I loved the repetition of the stark details of the accident, replayed over and over again in Rose's head as she tries to go back to "normal" life - as she tries to be the one who survived. How can life go on as normal when someone's heart and soul have been ripped to shreds? Rose sees the beautiful spring day, hears the other kids talking, feels the cool night air, and then remembers "Ivy and I had an accident", rediscovering the pain of loss anew each time her mind brings her back to this tragic realization.

"All Rivers Flow to the Sea" is so beautiful and melodic and heart-wrenching and hopeful. I'm not sure why this is marketed as a young adult book. It deserves a much larger readership. I am geniunely amazed that Ms. McGhee could pack so much into one little book. This is one of a very few books I will read over again. Wow.

In All Rivers Flow to the Sea, Alison Mcghee captures the essence of raw, unresolved grief (not that the loss of a beloved family member is ever completely resolved). I picked up this book and, except for sleeping, didn't put it down until I read the final page. Her repetitive use of text imitated the repetitive thoughts that rumbled around at one time in my own grief-stricken brain, with reality occasionally breaking through. I also settled right in to her method of bouncing from telling a story as it unfolded while making repeated excursions into the past, with more being revealed, sentence by precious sentence, during each historical trip. I don't quite know what to make of the few less-than-stellar reviews that are posted. I wonder if the reviewers who wrote them have been through a personal loss of the magnitude that Alison has obviously been through. Yes, I realize this is fiction, but I can't help thinking that only someone who has been through the loss of a personal loved one could illuminate the harsh anguish and heartache this author portrays.

I think the first thing that was made clear about this book was the quality of writing itself. There was this consistent, smooth flow that was maintained all throughout the story. There were some really well written parts that might even be called beautiful.

But on the whole, I think this book tried to be more than it really was. Lines that repeated themselves didn't provide me with a nice, clear feeling, but rather, "Are you trying to make this more dramatic and 'well-written'?"

Overall, McGhee created a story that was easy to read, quick, but almost entirely unmemorable. Okay, Rose is the main character. But I couldn't feel any sympathy towards her. The characterizations were surprisingly flat and didn't provide me with anything to take. While McGhee did write this clearly and nicely (at times - sometimes the style grew to be annoying and dull), it didn't quite feel right. It was almost entirely unimpressive.

No, "All Rivers Flow to the Sea" is not a bad book. But nor is it a great book. For readers in search of a story of loss and pain through a not-to-difficult to absorb lens, this may be your book. It's short, simplistic, and a quick read, but it's not particularly striking. For readers looking for a really good book about loss and dealing with it, they should turn elsewhere.