O River Remember! by Martha Ostenso (1943. Grosset and Dunlap)
As a member of the Rural Lit R.A.L.L.Y. Advisory Board, a joint effort of Buena Vista University and Buffalo State University to preserve essential (but forgotten) novels of the Great Plains, I read O River Remember in preparation for participating in a discussion of the book on the Rural Lit site:
You’ll find my comments about the book, in the context of criticism and not review, on the site. My objective in this piece is to attempt a fair and honest review of Ms. Ostenso’s novel.
Essentially a family saga set in the Red River Valley of Minnesota, Ostenso weaves the story of the Vinge (Wing) and Shaleen clans-the Vinges being Norwegian immigrants, the Shaleens of Irish descent-and the intersection of their lives and dreams in a small corner of the American Midwest. The primary protagonists are a farm couple, Ivar and Magdali Vinge, and much of the story revolves around the marital politics between the plotting, coniving wife and mother (Magdali) and the taciturn, diligent, and loving husband and father (Ivar).
As a psychological/family drama with literary aspersions,the book is successful in large part to Ostenso’s brilliant characterizations and her ability to depict and utilize the landscape as an additional protagonist in the tale. One of the less satisfactory aspects of the author’s storytelling is that, while we learn early on to dislike Magdali’s selfishness, pride, and greed, her come-uppeance seems far too timid a retribution for the magnitude of her sins. By way of stark contrast, Ivar seems far too unrewarded for his patience and virtue. (Though Ivar does, as Jimmy Carter once did, “lust in his heart” for another, there is no consummation of that desire.) Not that all such tales need happy endings or plots tied up in pretty little bows. I’m not that dedicated to formulaic fiction. In fact, many times a story is better off ending with an unresolved moral dilemma. (I’m thinking of The Horse Whisperer and The Natural as examples here, remembering back to the way the authors wrote the endings before Robert Redford prettified them. My own novel, Pigs, a Trial Lawyer’s Story concludes with similar moral ambiguity.)
There is some serious discussion among Ostenso experts as to just how much of the novels bearing her signature were products of her, rather than her novelist-husband’s, imagination. (See blog discussion on link above.) I’m not sleuthy (my word) enough to uncover the truth as to who actually wrote O River Remember any more than I’m able to discern if Old Bill wrote all of the plays and sonnets attributed to him. What I am able to say is that this is a quality piece of literary fiction that holds up well over time.
4 stars out of 4.
