3 out of 4 stars
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American River: Tributaries by Mallory M. O’Connor is the first book in a trilogy that follows three families that settled on the American River near Sacramento, California. O’Connor begins the trilogy by tracing the history of the three families and their journey to California. She quickly (by chapter four) brings the reader to 1959 and lays out the conflicts plaguing each family. The majority of Book One takes place over four years during the societal tumult over changing attitudes toward sexuality, race, drugs, women, and war.
At the center of the novel are the McPhalans, on all accounts stable and successful landowners. But even as their 700 hundred acre ranch thrives, the family is disintegrating. Owen, the aloof and demanding head of household, drives away his artistic and free-spirited wife Marian. In the guise of better opportunities for their piano prodigy daughter Alex, she moves back East in what becomes a long-term separation. In the meantime, Owen and teenage son Julian cannot resolve their expectations of each other. Even Kate, Owen’s favorite, manages to provoke his ire.
The Ashidas, a Japanese American family, find themselves working on the McPhalan’s Mockingbird ranch. Through them, the lasting effects of Japanese internment are explored as well as questions of prejudice and acceptance.
The Fitzgerald Morales family represents two more waves of immigration into the U.S. Through this Irish Mexican mixed family, prejudice again has long term effects on relationships. The impact of the Depression and World War II on families is also an element of their story.
By 1963, the three families converge. While the introduction to the family histories, ‘The Ancestors,” is distracting and might be better included in the ‘present day’ of the story, once the novel moves to 1959 and the primary story, ‘The Inheritors,’ begins, I was swept into it and wanted to keep reading. Whether it was Kate and Tommy’s budding romance, Marian’s search for meaning and self through her painting, Julian’s perceived rejection by his father and attempts to relieve the pain of self-doubt, Carl’s desire for recognition and success, or Tommy’s pain in the face of thwarted love, I connected with each of their stories. Father/son conflict and search for self-expression through art are themes that are represented in multiple characters which may contribute to a certain lack of depth to the unfolding of each character’s story, but the action moved quickly and I found each character sympathetic, even as he/she made errors in judgement or actions. Each character, even surly Owen and careless Lilly, is struggling with something – sexuality, the realization of talent, rejection by a parent, ambition - and each is searching for meaning in their experience and relationships. As Kate writes: I can do something worthwhile, make some sort of contribution. I don’t want to regret my life. I’ll never have a better chance to strike out in a new direction and see where it will lead . . . O’Connor’s major characters express regret at the mistakes they’ve made and strive to do better. This is what made me keep turning the page.
By the end of this 400-page novel, some conflicts are resolved, some hang in the balance, and the reader is left ready for the next stage to begin.
Even without breathtaking writing or a deeper sense of the characters, this sweeping family drama is a good read. Just in real life, love is able to conquer some but not all things. The reader is left sad yet hopeful, ready to pick up the second book of the trilogy to find out what happens to the threads O’Connor left hanging. I give this book 3 out of 4.
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American River: Tributaries
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