A River Closely Watched - Softcover

Boilard, Jon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0982520492 ISBN 13: 9780982520499

Publisher: Dzanc Books, 2017

Synopsis

Bobby DuBois comes from a long line of misfits Basically a good kid he can t shake an inherited propensity for violence and drug abuse When his father gets arrested it appears likely that Bobby too is headed into the system Then Uncle Thaddeus rescues him and they take to the backwoods managing to stay one step ahead of the law until hurricane rains swell the Swift River ravaging Franklin County and flushing Bobby and Thaddeus out of the hills Still on the run Thaddeus teaches Bobby how to drink fight and fornicate how to be a right DuBois Perhaps the most important lesson Bobby learns however is that he doesn t want to grow up to be like his father or his uncle The bristling action culminates with a disturbing custody battle waged in the shadows of Stillwater Bridge The DuBois clan is in trouble and has been for generations and at its core this beautiful and violent first novel is about Bobby s struggle to save his own soul

About this title

About the Author:

Jon Boilard is the author of A River Closely Watched (MacAdam/Cage, 2012), a finalist for the Northern California Book Award; The Castaway Lounge (Dzanc Books, 2015); and Settright Road (Dzanc Books, 2017). Born and raised in Western Massachusetts, Boilard lives in San Francisco, CA.

From Booklist:

The all-maile DuBois clan is well known to local police. Though Grandfather Earl is now senile, his two adult sons, Blackie and Thaddeus, are still trouble. Thaddeus has just been released from prison but has already violated parole and is on the run. Blackie, teenage Bobby’s father, has just killed a policeman. Is Bobby headed to foster care? Not if Uncle Thaddeus has anything to say about it. Whether Bobby wants it or not, Thaddeus takes the boy on the lam with him and together they head for the high timber, pursued by the police; by Blackie, who has escaped from custody; by Ed, a soulless tracker; and by various aggrieved others. And then a hurricane blows in, and all bets are off. Boilard’s first novel is an exercise in noir, or perhaps it might be better described as Southern gothic come to rural New England. Whichever, it is a darkness-drenched celebration of violence. Yes, the author leaves a skein of loose ends, but his treatments of tone and mood are spot on, and his story is compulsively readable. --Michael Cart

About this edition

• Publisher: Dzanc Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0982520492
• ISBN 13: 9780982520499
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328