Review of American River: Tributaries

[Keith Mbuya]

[Following is a volunteer review of "American River: Tributaries" by Mallory M. O'Connor.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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In the mid nineteenth century, an Irish immigrant Cormac McPhalan moves to California after reading about John Marshall's discovery about gold in a local newspaper. Cormac desperately wants to make a name for himself, or so he felt obliged with the fact that the love of his life, Maude Cahill, was a local businessman's daughter back in South Maine. Cormac is lucky enough to find gold worth buying him a piece of land in California which is later named the Mockingbird ranch. He starts a family with Maude on the ranch, the McPhalan family. This however is just one among the three families Mallory M. O'Connor tells about in the American RIver: Tributaries. Juan Morales of the Morales family was facing a looming disaster. Having inherited the Rancho Las Posas del Sierra from his father, he was now about to lose it to the government, this being so with the newly implemented laws after California became a state. Juan moves to Mexico with his family. The other family is of the Japanese, the Yoshinibu family.

Mallory M. O'Connor showcases great mastery in writing in American River: Tributaries. She connects the first generations of her characters from the nineteenth century all the way to the twentieth century with the most enthralling plot. The American River: Tributaries will stir emotions in you, it is packed with deceit, hate, love, success and failure, rejection, acceptance, agony, a lot of agony, sorrow, happiness, romance, loathsome affairs, pleasant affairs, dirty secrets, lies and more. I love the way Mallory vividly depicts each character, at the same time maintaining the characters touch with reality. It is so easy to relate with the character's thoughts, decisions and even situations. Owen McPhalan is shown to be a stubborn, carefree and proud father to his three children: Julian, Kate but with an exception to the youngest one, Alex. Owen thinks Julian is not man enough to stand for himself and is always looking up to his mother to speak for him or defend him. This breeds contempt in Owen towards Julian. So when Julian flees from home to the city and Owen does not really seem to be bothered, I am not surprised at all.

Owen is also depicted as one who has a fixed way of thinking and is very reluctant to embrace new ideas. He grew up in Mockingbird ranch and apparently thinks the ranch lifestyle is the best for his family. His wife Marian does not like it at all and after some time, she lives with Alex for Boston. Owen is so furious when he finds out his foreman's son, Tommy, is having a romantic relationship with Kate. All this because Tommy is Japanese and Owen thinks it is not appropriate for an American to be in a romantic relationship with a Japanese. Kate has to convince her father to accept Carl as her fiance, and brood over the idea that Carl is to be his son-in-law, this being so because Carl is of Mexican decent. Marian on the other hand is depicted as a selfish woman. She lives Mockingbird claiming that she wants to help her daughter Alex pursue a career in music, and also pursue her own passion in art, but as it turns out later, she did it partly because she felt lonely and was looking for male company.

Mallory employs a rich collection of vocabulary in American River: Tributaries. Her sentences are long enough to be comprehended and her ideas flow professionally, especially with the fact that she writes about more than a dozen characters, each in their own space or in some way connecting with other characters in the same book. You'll undoubtedly love how she twists her ideas around to fit the contemporary world. In fact, you should read the book and find out what Julian figures out about himself in San Fransisco, what happens to him in San Fransisco. You definitely will want to know how Marian's decision to leave for Boston affects her children, and the big secret her and her youngest daughter Alex keep from Kate.

Mallory M. O'Connor's book is a must read for love stories, music and art enthusiasts. I would not recommend the book to children as it has very picturesque scenes of romance.

The American River: Tributaries is a great piece of work. Except for a single grammatical error in the book, which to me does not affect the reader's comprehension of the book, I did not find any other significant error. The book is most certainly edited in a professional way and is more than just entertaining. I rate it 4 out of 4 stars.

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American River: Tributaries
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