In the River Sweet [Paperback]

Patricia Henley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2004

National Book Award finalist Patricia Henley captivates us with this engrossing novel of a woman whose long-held secret will transform her life and her marriage.

From all appearances, Ruth Anne Bond is enviably lucky. Her husband, Johnny, still treats her like a young lover. Her grown daughter is a staunch friend. Her steady work and devotion to the church have quietly made her a pillar of the community. Then one long Indiana summer brings some unexpected communiqués—including one she has both craved and feared for thirty years. As long-hidden truths threaten to emerge, for the first time in her marriage Ruth Anne is faced with memories she and Johnny never discuss: of a year spent in Saigon in 1968—and a past she has yet to acknowledge. Probing questions of family and faith, Patricia Henley offers us a tender, far-sighted novel about seeking answers and achieving grace.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Henley returns with a worthy successor to her first novel, Hummingbird House. The heroine, Ruth Anne Bond, is a woman of 50, living in Indiana; Johnny, her husband of nearly 30 years, is the proprietor of an upscale restaurant. Everything seems picture perfect until devoutly Catholic Ruth Anne learns that their only daughter, Laurel, is a lesbian. While she adjusts to this revelation (she is more upset by the Church's intolerance than by the fact itself), her own secret past catches up with her: she is contacted by Tin, the illegitimate son she conceived with a blind Vietnamese boy when she was a teenager working in a convent in Saigon. The moral dilemmas attendant upon living with such a secret are sensitively treated and readers' sympathies for each of the troubled characters will be fully engaged. Written from the point of view of Ruth Anne, the tale unfolds in her memories as she relives the events resulting from her stay in Vietnam. But she must also focus on her current problems, including marital discord and a violent attack on Laurel and her lover, Oceana. Though the plot moves back and forth in time a great deal, it is enhanced rather than weakened by this strategy. Henley, who is also a poet, balances long, stream-of-consciousness passages with short, potent sentences to wonderful effect, tilling the familiar ground of sexuality and spirituality with originality and grace.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Ruth Anne Bond has been happily married for more than 25 years. Judging from appearances, things couldn't be better: her relationship remains loving, her spouse owns a thriving restaurant, and she spends her days aiding the good Father Carroll in a small-town Indiana parish. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a confluence of events shatters this domestic peace. First, Ruth Anne's adult daughter, Laurel, announces that she is a lesbian. While Ruth Anne loves her child, this news sends her reeling, forcing her to reconsider the homophobia promulgated by her beloved Catholic Church. But before she can fully process what is happening, a disturbing e-mail from a man who claims to be Ruth Anne's son causes her to confront a history she has spent decades denying. Vexing questions about commitment, faith, forgiveness, and love make Ruth Anne scrutinize the personal politics that control her life. Henley's second novel following National Book Award finalist Hummingbird House weaves important issues into a compelling story. Although spiritually disinclined readers will find its theological bent excessive, it is recommended for all public and academic libraries. Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385721323
• ISBN-13: 978-0385721325
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,256,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A moving novel about love and change, November 18, 2002

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the River Sweet: A Novel (Hardcover)

First with HUMMINGBIRD HOUSE and now with IN THE RIVER SWEET, Patricia Henley has established herself as a novelist of social and political wars. Her characters are rarely in the center of violent war but instead occupy the fringes, the gray areas people don't often consider. IN THE RIVER SWEET centers around Ruth Anne, a woman who traveled to Vietnam during the war to be closer to her drafted fiance Johnny and who spent her time there binding books at a convent. When the books opens, Ruth Anne has been married to Johnny for over twenty years. Their daughter Laurel has just announced that she is in love with a woman, a fact that Ruth Anne can accept intellectually but not personally. To complicate her already turbulent emotions, Ruth Anne is contacted via email by the secret son she left behind in Vietnam. Everything she had counted on shifts dangerously underneath her.

Henley touches upon - but does not fully develop - the effects of the Vietnam War, the clandestine operations in Laos, and gay rights. Each member of Ruth Anne's family bears scars from at least one of these conflicts. They all seek a salve to alleviate their pain and confusion. While Henley roots her people in war (and gay-bashing falls into that category), she cares less about the particulars of the general issues and more about the private lives affected by them. Ultimately, this is a novel about love and family.

I recommend this novel for readers of literary fiction and of socially engaged work. The interior nature (no quotation marks, detailed exploration of thoughts and emotions) demands greater concentration than does a commercial novel. Because Henley's last work was a finalist for the National Book Award, expect to see this novel garner widespread attention.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another fine novel from Henley, October 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: In the River Sweet: A Novel (Hardcover)

IN THE RIVER SWEET is a provocative, engaging, thoughtful page-turner with fully-drawn characters and crisp, stirring prose. Fans of Henley's last novel, HUMMINGBIRD HOUSE, will find much to like here, as well. Amazon's synopsis (above) does a good job of describing the events; I'll describe how you'll feel when you put the book down -- you'll feel dizzy in all the good ways. The prose shrugs off quotation marks and the like, which makes the reader essentially inhabit the characters' world more fully than ever before. Bravo to a brave new book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Moving Novel About Love and Change, January 15, 2006

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the River Sweet (Hardcover)

First with HUMMINGBIRD HOUSE and now with IN THE RIVER SWEET, Patricia Henley has established herself as a novelist of social and political wars. Her characters are rarely in the center of violent war but instead occupy the fringes, the gray areas people don't often consider. IN THE RIVER SWEET centers around Ruth Anne, a woman who traveled to Vietnam during the war to be closer to her drafted fiance Johnny and who spent her time there binding books at a convent. When the books opens, Ruth Anne has been married to Johnny for over twenty years. Their daughter Laurel has just announced that she is in love with a woman, a fact that Ruth Anne can accept intellectually but not personally. To complicate her already turbulent emotions, Ruth Anne is contacted via email by the secret son she left behind in Vietnam. Everything she had counted on shifts dangerously underneath her.

Henley touches upon - but does not fully develop - the effects of the Vietnam War, the clandestine operations in Laos, and gay rights. Each member of Ruth Anne's family bears scars from at least one of these conflicts. They all seek a salve to alleviate their pain and confusion. While Henley roots her people in war (and gay-bashing falls into that category), she cares less about the particulars of the general issues and more about the private lives affected by them. Ultimately, this is a novel about love and family.

I recommend this novel for readers of literary fiction and of socially engaged work. The interior nature (no quotation marks, detailed exploration of thoughts and emotions) demands greater concentration than does a commercial novel. Because Henley's last work was a finalist for the National Book Award, expect to see this novel garner widespread attention. -- Debbie Lee Wesselmann