Published by Luminis Books on June 15, 2012
Written in uncomplicated prose, A River So Long tells Veronica's story in brief passages, a series of vignettes that eventually form the essence of a life. The novel's unconventional form is its chief strength.
Long before her unnamed husband let the septic system back up, flooding their house with sewage while he lay passed out on the couch, there were serious issues with Veronica's marriage. Veronica's response: a fling in Jamaica; chatting with old boyfriend Klein (with whom she once engaged in questionable behavior involving Klein's minor sister, now a television star); a fling with a married co-worker named Van she meets on business trips; a fling with Enzo who (she thinks) might be a suitable boyfriend even though he's not her type; a fling with old boyfriend Dylan -- and we're not even thirty pages into the novel.
The rest of the story skips around in time, describing Veronica's job-related travels and her trysts and chance encounters with the various men, women, and couples in her life. Veronica seems vaguely aware that she's searching for passion (or romance or love) in all the wrong places. As Veronica flits from city to city, hotel room to hotel room, her home and the homes of others, she engages in a variety of seemingly random acts, many of which are amusing if barely comprehensible.
It isn't clear what Veronica thinks about any of this; the reader is privy only to her most superficial thoughts on an emotional level. We know about the view she prefers in Jamaica and how she feels about the décor in various hotel rooms, but we learn little about the feelings she has (or lacks) concerning her husband and lovers. Veronica's husband has about as much depth as a stick figure; he exists only as a foil for Veronica. Much the same could be said for every character other than Veronica. Although there is more to Veronica, much of her interior remains hidden from the reader. Veronica's motivation for behaving as she does -- behavior that is often strange -- remains murky throughout the novel.
Veronica seems to be filled with fears and self-doubt but she doesn't agonize about her insecurities. To the extent that she thinks about her life at all, she realizes that she's living in the past. The relentless self-examination that is so often the basis for character-driven novels isn't part of Veronica's persona. Perhaps Vallie Lynn Watson's point is that some people just drift through life, unable or unwilling to take control of it. If so, it's a refreshing if unusual way to depict a novel's central character. At the same time, it makes Veronica something of a puzzle.
Despite (or because of) its strangeness, A River So Long sustained my interest. The story is told obliquely; what little we know about Veronica we learn as she remembers the cars she has owned or the crosses she received as gifts. A fragmented story that often seems superficial accumulates depth by its end, although the novel depends largely on the reader's imagination to fill the empty spaces. At some points the randomness of the story -- descriptions of Veronica's luggage or the co-workers at her first job or the flowers at weddings and funerals -- is mildly annoying, yet it makes sense if Watson's goal was to stitch together a life from its patchwork pieces. At times the story has a surrealistic quality but I never had trouble believing that the characters were real. Although I'm giving A River So Long a weak recommendation, in the end I found it more satisfying than not.
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