Down to The River, Anne Whitney Pierce, Author
I really enjoyed reading this book. There was no gratuitous sex and no unnecessary use of foul language, unless it was pertinent to the story. The author’s personal political views were not inserted to disrupt or distract from the narrative. All of the descriptive words and scenes were purposefully placed and necessary. My first thought when I turned the last page of this book, was WOW.
Those who have lived through the 60’s and the times leading to them, will surely submerge themselves right into the narrative, as it authentically describes an era of chaos and confusion in America. Those who are only being introduced to the decade of trauma that overtook the country, during that time of The Silent Generation, monstrous assassinations, the Vietnam War, bomb threats, cults like the Hare Krishnas, free love, racism, bra burnings, drugs, Black Panthers, Woodstock, alcohol abuse, SDS, riots, and all sorts of other protest movements, will join with the ones who knew it, and both will view it as a momentous moment of our history, but there will be an “aha” moment too, that informs them all, as they think, so this is how we got where we are today! One might ask oneself, are the results of those times positive or negative?
Presenting the story through three generation of the Potts family, the reader bears witness to success and failure, pleasure and despair, hopes, fading dreams and heartbreaking loss. All of this occurs around them, and therefore everyone else, often without anyone noticing. In this book, as in our own lives today, we are experiencing the same kinds of moments. Although the book will encourage profound thought, and perhaps not be a quick read, it will be a very satisfying, enlightening read for everyone and an amazing choice for discussion in a book group or discussion group about America and how we all fit into its puzzle. As love grows or fades, as time passes and we mellow or fill with regret for what we have not accomplished, is the end result always a desire for more? Is there a moment of contentment that any of us reach? Using two brothers, identical twins, we see two sides of the same coin growing up, morphing into adults that are incomplete and not totally satisfied with their lives when they are finally able to be introspective and examine them with honesty. Can their sins be forgiven? Do we all sin? Are we all square pegs trying to fit into round holes? Do we own our children? Are we responsible for how they turn out? Do they want us to be? Are we “helicoptering” or abandoning them? Is it possible to be happy and grateful for what we have been given? Must we always feel shortchanged? Can rage be controlled? Can we find satisfaction?
Remi and Nash are married to Faye and Violet. They are the respective parents of Chickie and Hen, Minerva and Henry, who might as well be twins, growing up as close to each other as they did. Is that healthy? Is that all they want? Is it acceptable to want more? In 1943, when the adults married, they all looked forward to being parents. Women, though, were wives, mothers, maids and cooks, as the men mostly stood by and watched and were the breadwinners. How times have changed! This novel really informs the reader of how that viewpoint morphed into the independent woman of today. Was it worth it? Are our children better off now or are they still conflicted? Is neglect a universal problem along with excessive need on the other side? Are women or men happier with the standards of today? Have we learned to live together more peacefully? Six decades have passed, surely some things have changed. What are they?
As the very foundation of American society was questioned by women and the young who demanded less control, even as they craved boundaries, by music trends that had sexual innuendoes, and men who were conflicted by the demands placed on them to fight in foreign wars, all were forced to deal with changing mores, values and standards of behavior. Were we sleeping at the wheel, unaware of the profound cultural sea changes taking place? Secrets and a lack of outlets to express our emotional needs as children and adults began to take precedence over the regular pattern of our daily lives. More freedom, to perhaps selfishly enjoy life, was pursued, but was anyone really fulfilled when they ventured outside their gates? Pierce has truly investigated every avenue of society as it existed then. However, she used a very light touch so as not to titillate, nor to in enrage, but merely to inform and enlighten the reader as to the existence of those last vestiges of traditional society in America. So clearly has she captured the times and the emotions, the lifestyles and the pitfalls, that the reader is immersed in the moment as each character grows in a different direction. The ability of the author to capture, so purely, the atmosphere of those times, was critical for this book, and Pierce was pitch perfect. It required extraordinary research or the experience of having lived at that time. The very essence of our society’s morality was being questioned.
Unbeknownst to the author, she was prescient, for the idea of abortion in her book is front and center in America today. As the laws surrounding the right to abortion are being questioned, and Planned Parenthood is demonstrating against the highest court in our land, she has given the topic a significant role in this book. I was left wondering if easy access to abortion was perhaps instrumental in encouraging a great deal of the changes in female behavior and in our overall moral code. Did the idea of Margaret Sanger and her hateful idea of eugenics actually morph into an idea that would degrade society’s morality and become an unexpected method of customary birth control, sometimes dangerously close to infanticide? In the sixties, Planned Parenthood actually took young women from one state to another, without parental approval, for legal abortions.
With a narrative that sometimes-used staccato sentences to probe into the thoughts of her characters, their unfulfilled desires, disappointments, misunderstandings, and failures, the author upends the prevailing views of their day, perhaps foreshadowing the prevailing views of today. Men were chauvinists, are they still? Women stayed home to be homemakers, do they still? Real men fought in wars; do they still feel that way? Did they strive for happiness or challenges? Did anyone ever achieve contentment? One might ask, what is contentment?
It was a tumultuous period in history captured perfectly by the author and the communication that takes place between the characters is pitch perfect.