Book review: Two Rivers

Two Rivers by T. Greenwood

I read this book in January so the details are foggy. I read reviews online to refresh my memory but they didn't help much. My apologies in advance.

The book stars Harper Montgomery and opens in a memory of the past... 1968. "Blackberries. The man's skin reminds him of late summer blackberries. The color of not-quite midnight. The color of a bruise. This is what Harper thinks as he looks at the man they have taken to the river, the one who is half-drowned now, pleading for his life: the miracle that human skin can have the same blue-black stillness as ripe fruit, as evening, as sorrow itself."

The book switches between past and present, which I've found to like in novels as of late. Present day Harper lives with his daughter Shelly in an small town apartment. He works at the railroad and has been in a state of depression since his wife Besty died twelve years earlier, the day Shelly was born. Betsy was Harper's childhood crush turned love-of-his-life, and her death devastated him.

Harper was somehow involved in a murder in 1968, but the book reveals little of the crime or why he was involved. However, the event significantly impacted his life and he feels guilty about his involvement.

This becomes more clear after a horrific train derailment occurs present day in Two Rivers, in which many people die. He attempts to save a man who's stuck in one of the train cars under water, but is unsuccessful. The man had skin the color of blackberries. As a result of not being able to save the man, Harper runs out of the water and rushes to a place to be alone, collapses next to a tree, and his mind goes back to 1968 and the murder. After many minutes, he becomes aware that a young pregnant black girl stands dripping wet in front of him, begging for him to help her. Reluctantly he lets the girl stay with him and his daughter, explaining that she's his "mother's friend's daughter."

In addition to flashing back to the 1968 murder, the book also flashes back to Harper and his growing relationship with Betsy, and with his parents. His father invented things to make his mother's life easier, although his father reminded me somewhat of the crazy inventor in the movie, "Honey I Shrunk the Kids," and the inventions were clunky and useless. Harper's very liberal mother spent most of her time alone, writing. Once Harper left for college, she left the home to help register black voters. In Harper's sophomore year of college, his mother started Freedom Press Monthly and had one thousand subscribers. At one point she was beat up so badly that her jaw was wired shut.

Harper's mother printed a special edition of the Freedom Press almost immediately after Martin Luther King, Junior was murdered. The headline read DREAM TURNS NIGHTMARE. She delivered to her usual neighborhoods. "But on April 4, when she drove down Blue Hill Avenue, the street was on fire, and the last thing the residents of Roxbury wanted to see was a crazy-haired white lady driving a Buick through a riot." After the beating she received on that day, she lapsed into a coma at Harvard Medical Center, and quickly died.

Betsy was pregnant at the time of Harper's mother's death. Besty died after giving birth, and the murdered man had something to do with Betsy's death, but we don't know what until the end of the book.

Does Harper find redemption? Forgiveness? I guess you'll have to read the book to find out.