The River Between Us

Bibliography

Peck, Richard. 2003. THE RIVER BETWEEN US. New York: Dial Books. ISBN 0803727356.

Plot Summary

In 1916 Howard Hutchings a fifteen year old boy and his father drive in his father’s Model T Ford to Grand Tower, Illinois to visit his grandparents, great uncle and great aunt. Howard’s dad describes the place of Grand Tower as nothing more than a ghost town. A place with just a “saddle factory, a cigar plant, a gunsmith shop or two, and a brick works.” As Howard looks around the house his father grew up in he wonders “how many layers you’d have to scrape away until you came to the time when these old people were young.”

Grandma Tilly takes over the story in the next chapter as she describes what life was like in 1861. A time when Lincoln was in office and the Civil War was just beginning. Tilly lived at home with her mother, sister Cass, and her twin brother Noah. When a steamboat arrives from New Oleans, two mysterious young women, Delphine Duval who is dressed in ballooning crinlines and Calinda who must be her servant, exit the boat and announce they need a place to stay. Mama Pruitt invites them to stay with their family and thus begins a new and exciting life for the Pruitts.

Life for the Pruitt family seemed all too wonderful, until Noah sneaks off and leaves for the war. When mama Pruitt senses that her son is sick, she demands to Tilly, “My boy’s sick. Go to him. Nurse him till he can travel. Then bring him back to me.” When Tilly and Delphine travel to Cairo, the true realities of war and the mystery behind Delphine and Calinda are revealed.

Howard takes over the final chapter and reveals one last twist to the story; secrets that the Pruitt family has kept for many years.

Critical Analysis

Richard Pecks has crafted an authentic story that captures both fictional and historical events that took place during the Civil War. The story is set in Grand Tower, Illinois in 1916. During this time period, people and states were divided. Times were tough and young men were eager to run off and fight in the war. Pecks shares how his research of the Civil War led him to the places and events that were true during that time period and cites them at the end of his novel. As the reader follows the story, both elements of fiction and fact are successfully achieved.

Pecks choice of characters evolve throughout the story, and the reader is able to connect with their struggles and emotions. His choice of first person narrative is believable and reflects the language that is true to the time period. Tilly describes the family as being poor, eating “white beans, gristle, and cornmeal mush through the winter, and how they kindled the fires with flint and steel” and “cooked over an open flame in the kitchen.” When Delphine and Calinda arrives, Mrs. Pruitt opens her home to the mysterious strangers. Mrs. Pruitt was unable to trust them at first, but a beautiful friendship soon evolved with Delphine’s southern belle charm and Calinda’s New Orleans cooking.

When Tilly and Delphine make their way to Cairo to go and find Noah, they come to realize the true realities of the war. Tilly describes her first sight of real war. “Tied hand and foot to that wheel, spread-eagle, was a soldier boy-no older than Noah. He was burned by the sun, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. Around his neck a sign hung on twine: THIEF.” Tilly goes on to tell about the sickened soldiers she and Delphine encountered and nursed back to health. Pecks detailed accounts are both descriptive and powerful.

The theme of war and race reveal the experiences and struggles of the people and offer the reader a small glimpse of what this time period was like. Richard Pecks combines all of the elements of a historical fiction into this wonderful masterpiece that will leave the reader begging for more.

Review Excerpts

School Library Journal review: “In this thoroughly researched novel, Peck masterfully describes the female Civil War experience, the subtle and not-too-subtle ways the country was changing, and the split in loyalty that separated towns and even families. Although the book deals with some weighty themes, it is not without humor.”

Booklist review: “Peck's spare writing has never been more eloquent than in this powerful mystery in which personal secrets drive the plot and reveal the history. True to Tilly's first-person narrative, each sentence is a scrappy, melancholy, wry evocation of character, time, and place, and only the character of Delphine's companion, Calinda, comes close to stereotype. A final historical note and a framing device--a grandson writing 50 years after the story takes place--make the reading even better, the revelations more astonishing. It's a riveting story that shows racism everywhere and young people facing war, not sure what side to be on or why.”

Connections

Other books by this author include:

Pecks, Richard. A YEAR DOWN YONDER. ISBN 0142300705

Pecks, Richard. FAIR WEATHER. ISBN 0142500348

Pecks, Richard. A TEACHER’S FUNERAL: A COMEDY IN THREE PARTS. ISBN 0803727364