Title: Run, River
Currents
Author: Ginger Marcinkowski
Pages: 230
Year: 2012
Publisher: Booktrope Editions
This
is a very well-written first book by Ginger Marcinkowski. This fictional story takes place in a few
small towns in Canada near the border of Maine.
The time period ranges from the 1940s-1970s. The author uses flashbacks to the characters’
pasts to show how they have become the people they are today. The author has chosen the extremely dark
topics of incest, as well as emotional, physical, verbal, and sexual abuse, and
handles the subject matter in a delicate manner.
Maureen
is the mother of three children. She is
married to a violent man, Denny. Denny
was the victim of the above-mentioned violations as a child and witnessed his father
kill his mother and then set the house of fire with his mother inside. However, he tells no one of his past and he
gradually becomes the man he hates—his father.
He begins to drink more and more.
He doles out all the same violence and evil that was done to him upon
his wife and children. Maureen is beaten
so severely sometimes that she can’t walk.
But where can she go? This is the
1950s and the resources available to victims of abuse were basically
nonexistent. She knows her husband hits
her two oldest children, her daughters Stephanie and Emily. She eventually discovers the heinous acts
Denny is performing on Emily, and finally leaves Denny. Maureen has longed to be somebody, the life
of the party, the center of attention all her life. She makes bad decision after bad decision
that leads to a miserable life for herself and her children. After leaving Denny, taking him to court for
divorce and for custody of the children, she entertains man after man in search
of a happiness that never arrives. As
Maureen faces death, Emily notices a change in her mother and wonder if she has
found forgiveness.
Emily
has been afraid of the dark and loud noises for as long as she can
remember. In the dark, after hearing the
squeaky third stair step, is when her father comes to her room to hurt
her. After he’s finished, he threatens
to kill her and her family if she tells.
She is only five years old when this begins. She escapes the abuse every summer because
that is spent out of town at her grandparents’ house. She loves spending time outdoors in the
forest and near the river. Her
grandfather teaches her about logging, trees, fishing, and the river. Most importantly, he teaches her about God
and his love for her. Grampy says that
God will never leave her, and Emily longs to believe that, but with the reality
of how everyone, except Grampy and Grandma, in her life disappoints her and
hurts her, she can’t believe in this love.
Jesus is a carpenter, but so is her dad and look how he treats her. As Emily grows up, she longs to find this
love to heal the hurts she has experienced.
She marries a man after knowing him just two days. She drinks more and more, has violent fits of
jealousy if any female even looks at her husband, and is very bitter and full
of rage. She keeps hanging on to her
anger and hate, which eventually puts people at a distance from her. She comes to the river for a final try at
obtaining peace. She has returned to her
grandparents’ house, which has sat empty for years as they have passed away a
long time ago. She always found peace
here, but never seemed to be able to take it with her when she left. She faces the river, realizing she can’t go
on like this any longer. Everyone will
be better off without her and her anger.
Will she succumb to the call of the river and take her own life? Will she succumb to the call of the God she
heard so much about from her Grampy and give her life to Him? Her sister and brother have come to Christ as
well as her husband. Can she finally let
go of the bitterness and hatred and believe that she is worthy of God’s love?
At
some points, I was so angry at how these children were treated and how they
were so innocent and unprotected and hurt by the two people who should be
protecting them! While their mother
didn’t physically abuse them, she always kept them at a distance and let them
know what a burden they were to her. Then,
I was in tears at what they experienced as well as the hope and love they
experienced with their grandparents and eventual spouses and their Father. This is a very moving fictional story, but
uses events that still happen today.
This is a great story of God’s ability to redeem His children, enable
forgiveness and the His unconditional love.
My
rating is 4 stars.
Note: I received a
complimentary copy for an honest review of this book. The opinions shared in this review are solely
my responsibility. Other reviews can be
read at http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/
. Also follow me on Twitter
@lcjohnson1988, FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/lisa.johnson.75457
