Customer Reviews

A River Out of Eden: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"A River Out Of Eden" sounds like it might be a very pastoral and peaceful novel about a beautiful river. Yes, the river is beautiful, and the country it flows through is likewise pastoral -- and the river is very real. It is the mighty Columbia. Hockenberry has done a great deal of research of the region. Many issues make up this fascinating novel about the Chinook native peoples, the dams on the river, white supremacists, a plutonium researche at Hanford, excessively heavy rain that treatens the strength of the dams. When people begin to show up dead by a strange but familiar harpoon, Francine Smoholla, a marine biologist who happens to be part Chinook Indian decides to do some investigating. This is a real page turner, well worth your time.

Perhaps her plight is that of most Americans as her heritage (as a half- Chinook Indian) battles with her professional life working as a Corps of Engineer marine biologist on the Columbia River. Francine Smohalla cares about both of her worlds even if the divergence leaves her with inner turmoil. She knows the dams built by the Corps have destroyed the life of her people and she realizes that her people want to destroy the dams.

However, Francine was not expecting a serial killer to emerge who goes one step further by eliminating those individuals working for the Corps and associated organizations. The evidence accompanying the first corpse discovered by Francine points towards a Chinook Indian as the culprit. As other events add to the heated dispute and the death count grows, Francine worries that her beloved Chinook father is the killer and she begins to investigate.

A RIVER OUT OF EDEN is an exciting amateur sleuth thriller that showcases the Pacific Northwest dispute between environment and heritage vs. technology. The story line is fast-paced, enjoyable, and filled with critical details that brings the area and the dispute to life. Although John Hockeberry has too many sub-plots filled with the range of issues diverting the reader at times from his central theme, the author writes a strong tale. Sub-genre readers will find this novel provides insight into a very complex debate inside an entertaining mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I really expected to like this book. I like John Hockenberry's work on NPR, and the subject matter is near and dear to my heart. But the novel just doesn't work very well. I think the author tries to weave 3 or 4 ideas too many into the plot, and the story and characters suffer as a result. The characters end of being cartoony, their motivations end up being very sketchy and unconvincing, and by the end I just didn't really care what happened. And as another reviewer points out, Mr Hockenberry glosses over an aftermath of immense contamination and suffering.
The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars is that his writing style and descriptions of scenery are good. Alas, that's not enough.

'A River Out of Eden' is so richly layered both in the characters and in the story. It reflects a massive amount of research. John Hockenberry refers to places and situations in the Pacific Northwest that I have been around for 25 years, yet he clearly knows them more intimately than I do. I 'stayed in the book' even after I had finished reading it.

To paraphrase David Holihan, this piece just stinks. Someone should have fed it to the turtles. I've noticed that people seem to find negative reviews "not helpful." I'm not sure why that is, but I'm begging you--trust me on this one. If you read the editorial review from Publishers Weekly on this page, they're right on. Plot elements that aren't patently absurd are either trite or spectacularly convenient. Character development is non-existent. What we learn of the one-dimensional,caricature-of-stereotype characters is told to us in the narrative, rather than demonstrated in action or dialogue. Let's see, there's a drunken Native American, a Native American who owns a casino, a Native American who runs around in a breechclout making enigmatic remarks about setting the salmon free (while killing forestry employees), and a Native American who falls in love with a white supremacist (despite the fact he's about to contaminate the entire Pacific Northwest with a nuclear explosion. By the way - after this occurs, the damage and devastation is dismissed in about two sentences. The story is sadly deficient. The only reason I finished the book was so that I warn others away from it with a good conscience. Honestly, pick something else... please.

A third grader would have done better research. The geography, history, politics, and understanding of the Northwest was so bad I thought at first it was written to be a farce. As I read further I realized this guy was serious. Unfortunately a good plot was populated with shallow characters who are caricatures of what New Yorkers must think of Indians, survivalists, farmers, and government workers. All are insulted. If the author had even bothered to get a map it would have helped considerably. He had locations in the wrong states, government agency responsibilities so screwed up it is laughable. He twisted history so badly it even contradicts itself in the book.

Anyone who has lived in the Pacific Northwest or who has visited its magnificent landscape will enjoy this detailed, well-researched novel. Hockenberry's tale of the ancient and modern history, cultural clashes, and immense natural forces of the Columbia River is very different from his memoir, but his readers will continue to appreciate an amazing gift for storytelling.

The Northwest part of america is one of the most magnificent areas that this great country has to offer. It is rich in it's natural beauty, it's history and cultural makeup. It is an area that is ripe in subject matter in which to write a book, I use the wonderful story of "snow falling on ceders" as my example. So I was looking forward to "A river out of Eden", containing the ingredients of salmon fish, northwest indians and the ever volatile battle between history and the future. I was sure of an enticing story. I am afraid to say though that I was presented with a story line that took over 200 pages to solidify. A cast of characters that always seemed to stop short of their potential. And their interaction with each other could have been a bit more detailed. I always felt that the story shifted too quickly and left parts underdeveloped. I needed to know more about Francine's father and less about her mother, more about Duke and less about his father, more about the history of the Chinook and their transformation and less about how to be profanic towards blacks. The story has great potential but I don't feel it ever reached it. I commend Mr. Hockenberry on this attempt, but found the results disappointing.

Don't buy A River Out Of Eden. Thankfully, I borrowed the book so I am not guilty of supporting Hockenberry's poorly researched Easterner view of us backwards NorthWesterners. The geography is wrong, the history of the Columbia / Snake River dams is inaccurate, the hierarchy of Northwest Power System and Salmon Recovery Program is totally incorrect and the plot muddled. It is clear that Hockenberry is making a political statement, but even at that he could have taken time to research his subject matter and included a plot.

I enjoyed the overlay of a fiction story on top of an interesting history of the river and its people.