Reviews for Black River

by S. M. Hulse

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Hulse's evocative debut novel is a modern Western about a wounded, retired prison guard from a small Montana town. He returns to mourn and scatter his late wife's ashes but ends up rekindling a fraught relationship with his stepson, attending the hearing of an inmate that tortured him long ago, and mentoring a misfit youth who shares his passion for bluegrass fiddle. The powerful story unfurls in braided flashbacks that evoke mourning, longing, and bittersweet healing. Narrator George Newbern performs the laconic but well-wrought characters with deserving aplomb. VERDICT All listeners-particularly those with an interest in music, Montana, or men in mourning-will enjoy this audiobook. ["Bound to turn readers' hearts inside out and leave them yearning for some sweet, mournful fiddle music": LJ 9/1/14 starred review of the Houghton Harcourt hc.]-Mark John Swails, Johnson Cty. Community Coll., Overland Park, KS © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This top-of-the-line modern American Western debut explores the themes of violence, revenge, and forgiveness with a sure hand. Security guard Wes Carver, age 60, lives in Spokane, Wash., with his wife, Claire. When she dies after a lengthy battle with leukemia, he fulfills her request to transport her ashes to their first home of Black River in the Montana outback. His 34-year-old stepson, Dennis Boxer, a successful farrier, puts up Wes at the old homestead despite the history of acrimony between the two men. Black River is a "prison town" where the majority of its residents are employed by the Montana State Prison operating there. Two decades before, when Wes lived in Black River and worked as a correctional officer, a prison riot erupted, led by sadistic thug Bobby Williams, and Williams tortured the captive Wes for 39 hours before rescuers arrived. Williams, who has been a born-again Christian and model inmate since the riot, is coming up for parole, and Wes intends to speak in opposition to it. Meantime, Wes, also a man of faith, has a moral struggle over accepting the sincerity of his former tormentor's religious conversion. Events take a darker, more tragic turn before any hope for a resolution can arise. From the bluegrass theme to the Western rural setting, Hulse handles his story like a pro. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Starred Review. Claire Carver's dying wish is that her husband play a song on his fiddle that she loves, one he wrote that evokes the mountainous surroundings of their Montana hometown. But Wes Carver has not been able to play the fiddle for 20 years. His hands are crippled, one of many cruel reminders of a prolonged episode of hideous torture at the hands of a convict during a prison riot. Wes, like many men in Black River, worked as a guard. After the riot, he and Claire left Black River. When Wes next returns there years later, numb, laconic, and angry, it is with his wife's ashes in tow. Can he mend the broken relationship with his stepson? Can he withstand the parole hearing for the man who maimed him for life? Will he rekindle his lost Christian faith and find any kind of hope for a good life without his beloved Claire? VERDICT Heads up-Hulse is a smart writer, able to reveal her character's gut-level emotions and trickiest self manipulations. Comparing the author to Annie Proulx, Wallace Stegner, or Kent Haruf is no exaggeration. Her debut is bound to turn readers' hearts inside out and leave them yearning for some sweet, mournful fiddle music.-Keddy Ann Outlaw, Houston (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Twenty years ago, an inmate, Bobby Williams, held correctional officer Wes Carver hostage during a prison riot. He mutilated Wes' arms with cigarette burns and broke all his fingers. The one thing that set Wes apart was his fiddle playing, which, after his injuries, he's unable to do again, leaving him a broken, confused man. Wes continues to work but retreats from his hometown of Black River, Montana (also the title of Wes' signature song), to Spokane, where he works as a security guard. As Hulse's novel begins, Wes returns home with the ashes of his wife, Claire, and a letter from the prison parole board that Williams is up for parole. Wes may want to testify at the hearing. He stays with his estranged stepson, Dennis, and the two work on a reconciliation of sorts. Dennis' protégé, a troubled teenager named Scott, takes up the fiddle under Wes' tutelage, a counterpoint both to Wes' broken self and to his failures with Dennis. Meanwhile, Williams has seen the light and got religion, a story line Wes considers absurd; he doesn't believe a sociopath such as Williams even has a soul. However, Wes' soul needs some scrutiny, too. Why is his stepson still so angry? Did he do right by Claire? What has his life meant, and how might he live the rest of it? Hulse clearly loves Montana, and her own experience playing the fiddle and knowledge of horses shine through the novel. She maintains suspense and manages to avoid the clichés of redemption stories in this assured debut.--Mort, John Copyright 2014 Booklist


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Hulse debuts with a stark, tender tale about one man's quest for faith and forgiveness.The initial question is whether Wes Carver can forgive Bobby Williams, the inmate who tortured him during a prison riot that left two of his fellow corrections officers dead. He gets a letter informing him Williams is up for parole just days before his beloved wife, Claire, dies of leukemia, so Wes is in shaky condition when he returns to Black River, Montana, site of the prison and home to his stepson, Dennis. It's been 20 years since the riot, 18 since Wes and Claire moved to Spokane, leaving behind her 16-year-old son after a violent altercation between the two men. Hulse unpacks this back story slowly, reproducing the way past traumas shape the present. We grow to realize that Wes too needs forgiveness: for forcing Claire to choose between him and Dennis; for the silent stoicism that shut out even his wife; for the rigid, judgmental morality that keeps him away from the funeral of a troubled teen he befriends in Black River while waiting for the parole hearing. This last act prompts another angry break with Dennis, who has his own traumas to deal with. Wes is a hard man, yet we empathize with him because Hulse quietly reveals two defining, crippling absences. When Williams broke Wes' fingers one by one, Wes lost his ability to play the fiddle, the great joy of a life haunted by his father's suicide. Religion is no consolation; though Wes regularly attends church and says grace at meals, he struggles to truly believeand is enraged that Williams claims to have found God. By making Wes' suffering so palpable, Hulse makes it even more moving when, in the novel's final pages, he achieves something he's been seeking for a very long time: grace. Profound issues addressed with a delicate touch and folded into a strong story populated by wrenchingly human characters: impressive work from a gifted young artist. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.