Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell (2011)

This was a random book by local author picked up at the Michigan Library Association Conference - wonderful choice. It has been ages since I have sat down in the morning with a book, and actually finished it by the end of the day - doing other things in between. The luxury of a long weekend.

It was really fun to read about the local area and the Kalamazoo River. I even started driving out along the Kalamazoo River and was wondering where the tributary was, that was in the book, as there was a map at the front of the book. (I believe I have mentioned before how much I love maps in books, that help me place where things are happening.) But then I realized, that other than Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo River, the rest of the places were fictional.

The story itself was engaging - about a modern day Annie Oakley - who had learned to live off the river and land from her grandfather, and was a crack shot. I once had fantasies about living off the land, but the concept of hunting has never appealed to me, and I have done very minimal fishing, and have never even gotten very far with growing my own vegetables, so obviously this was much more fantasy than reality. But it doesn't mean I can't appreciate and admire someone who can do these things, especially a young girl.

Margo Crane has a tough life, her father is the illegitimate son of Grandpa Murray of Murray Metal. Her mother deserted the family a year and a half before the story starts. She has a good relation with her aunt across the river from them and one of her cousins, but gets bullied by cousin Billy, and though her uncle Cal teaches her about shooting guns and hunting, that is not exactly a healthy relationship. Life gets complicated, and Billy ends up killing her father, when he thinks his father is in danger. Margo takes the boat her grandfather gave her and travels upriver and finds ways to survive.

Jaimy Gordon, a National Book Award winning author at Western, said it very well on the cover of the book: "A lot of us, not only women, were looking for a fictional heroine who would be deeply good, brave as a wolverine, never a crybaby, as able as Sacagawea, with a strong and unapologetic sexuality."