3 out of 4 stars
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American River: Currents is the second book in the Tributaries historical trilogy, a saga about three immigrant families making a life in America.
The novel introduces us to Kate McPhalan who is musing about life and about losing her brother, a talented poet and a gentle soul. She meets a lawyer to discuss his legacy, and as the chapters progress, more and more characters are introduced into the story. Since I haven't read the first book in the trilogy, I was slightly confused. My senses were suddenly assaulted by all the many people and their relationships to each other, and I found myself scrolling back to the start of the book, to the cast of characters section to understand whom I was reading about just then.
Once I knew the most players and could follow the numerous storylines playing out in front of my eyes, my initial confusion was replaced by a sense of immersion in the story. I did take a quick peek at the first book’s blurb on Goodreads, and that helped me internalize the material even faster. Now I understood that we were looking at three different families of immigrants: a Japanese family, Ashida; a Mexican family, Morales; and an Irish family, McPhalan. These families’ fates would somehow intersect throughout the entire trilogy.
The story itself is quite remarkable and, as with most sagas, intrigue, drama, and tragedies abound. I found most characters compelling; however, the one that really stood out for me was Stefan Molnar. I related to him for various reasons. First, I am also Hungarian, like he was. Second, he was a classical piano musician. While I call myself rather tone deaf, I do come from a family of musicians. The famous Hungarian composer, Bartok Bela, who is often mentioned in the book, is part of our family history (my grandfather was closely related to him, and we actually met once Bela’s Hungarian son in Budapest many years ago).
Apart from my feelings of closeness to one or the other character, American River: Currents has a most urgent message for everyone living in today’s turbulent times where immigration issues are on everyone’s lips. The book is a strong reminder that we are all the same people, united on this lonely planet, Earth. In addition, the author touched on some themes of historical importance for the 1960s, such as the JFK assassination, the draft for the Vietnam War, Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, and the unstable political climate of those times.
History buffs will enjoy this book as will those who love family sagas. Nevertheless, you might want to read the first book in the series before picking up American River: Currents. Things will make much more sense, especially for the first few 200 pages or so. Also, if you enjoy classical music, you will feel right at home with some of the main players keeping you company.
I give American River: Currents 3 out of 4 stars. While I found a couple of grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the pages (no question mark at the end of a question, “near” instead of “hear,” “she saS,” no period at the end of a few sentences, etc.), there were not enough to disrupt my enjoyment of the book. The story was compelling, and the characters were realistic and sympathetic.
My main issue stemmed from having to flip back and forth between the chapters I was reading and the list of characters to figure out whom I was reading about at the time. On my small iPad, this was no small feat. Also, while I really enjoyed Tommy’s story (the American-Japanese guy who was part of one of the three main immigrant families the trilogy is about), at some point, he was no longer mentioned. Once a particular event happened in his life, he just disappeared. His thread will be probably picked up in the third book, but I really wanted to learn what happened to him following that event.
Overall, this was a great book, and I would have probably given it 4 stars if I had read the first book in the series beforehand. As a standalone novel, however, it doesn’t really work all that well.
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American River: Currents
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