REVIEW: ONCE UPON A RIVER BY DIANE SETTERFIELD
14 March 2019 • books
I found myself, not for the first time, drawn to a new book by it's beautiful cover. Setterfield's Once Upon A River is gorgeous to look at and I found it in the equally lovely independent book store, Topping & Co in Bath.
"Daunt tucked into his meal, listening as the events of two years ago were disinterred, rediscussed, loose threads were picked out of the old story and today's events, and efforts made to knit it all together and make of the two things a single tale. But the threads left gaps too wide to be darned."
Once Upon A River is as much about storytelling as it is anything else; not just through the stories shared by the town people at the Swan Inn and those they pass between eachother as the plot thickens, but also in the ever developing and interweaving stories that Setterfield presents as town members and families step to the forefront of the story, each as well crafted and compelling as the next. Setterfield creates a weaving blend of a novel; folklore and mystery, myth and drama, all working together around the river at the story's centre, washing over one another like the tides. It's an hypnotic novel and it's not just hungry curiosity that drives you through the pages but Setterfield's lyrical and self-propeling writing.
From the mystery of the novel's opening when the apparently drowned corpse of a child brought to the Swan Inn in by an injured stranger on a solstice night, who seems to magically return to life, we move swiftly between the characters who wintessed this miraculous event, to those who come to make a claim on the child, and then to all those who surround the Swan Inn and the river that the story unravels around. This story lives and breathes between them all and within the tales that they craft, tell and retell of both these events and their own pasts. As the story of the child is shared and re-worked at the Swan Inn, where story telling is as integral to the guests as N evening drink, the mystery of the chid begins to unravel further and we are led to question to boundaries between stories and reality.
Rita Sunday, the nurse who is called to attend to the child, remains perplexed by her miraculous recovery and begins, with the help of photographer Henry Daunt, to investigate what could have led to such a strange and improbable turn of events. As she countinues her research, more mysterious events begin to develop. Is the recovered child really well and healthy? Do we really know who she belongs to? Why does Lily White insist on living in the ruinous Basketman's Cottage and what really happened to her sister Ann? What became of Robin Armstrong's missing child? Who was behind the loss of the Vaughan's daughter? Is there any truth to the folklore tale of Quietly, the grim reaper like ferryman who comes to those in need along the river or else takes them on to the beyond? Are stories ever more than just stories?
Setterfield pulls us deeper into the lives of her characters as months pass, sifting through their pasts and searching for the resolutions they all seek and , as the river threatens to flood, Rita and Daunt grow more desperate to discover the truth behind the rescued child. When solstice approaches once more, a time when the barrier between worlds is said to be the thinnest, Setterfeild's titular and symbolic river breaks it's banks and washes over the town and it's growing mystery as our characters ever developing stories reach their climax.
Once Upon A River is an amazingly absorbing novel that held me captivated from the first page to the very last. I found myself deeply invested in each character and Setterfield crafts every moment with care, weaving mystery and myth into the strange and mesmerising events that occur upon the river.
"Daunt tucked into his meal, listening as the events of two years ago were disinterred, rediscussed, loose threads were picked out of the old story and today's events, and efforts made to knit it all together and make of the two things a single tale. But the threads left gaps too wide to be darned."
Once Upon A River is as much about storytelling as it is anything else; not just through the stories shared by the town people at the Swan Inn and those they pass between eachother as the plot thickens, but also in the ever developing and interweaving stories that Setterfield presents as town members and families step to the forefront of the story, each as well crafted and compelling as the next. Setterfield creates a weaving blend of a novel; folklore and mystery, myth and drama, all working together around the river at the story's centre, washing over one another like the tides. It's an hypnotic novel and it's not just hungry curiosity that drives you through the pages but Setterfield's lyrical and self-propeling writing.
From the mystery of the novel's opening when the apparently drowned corpse of a child brought to the Swan Inn in by an injured stranger on a solstice night, who seems to magically return to life, we move swiftly between the characters who wintessed this miraculous event, to those who come to make a claim on the child, and then to all those who surround the Swan Inn and the river that the story unravels around. This story lives and breathes between them all and within the tales that they craft, tell and retell of both these events and their own pasts. As the story of the child is shared and re-worked at the Swan Inn, where story telling is as integral to the guests as N evening drink, the mystery of the chid begins to unravel further and we are led to question to boundaries between stories and reality.
Rita Sunday, the nurse who is called to attend to the child, remains perplexed by her miraculous recovery and begins, with the help of photographer Henry Daunt, to investigate what could have led to such a strange and improbable turn of events. As she countinues her research, more mysterious events begin to develop. Is the recovered child really well and healthy? Do we really know who she belongs to? Why does Lily White insist on living in the ruinous Basketman's Cottage and what really happened to her sister Ann? What became of Robin Armstrong's missing child? Who was behind the loss of the Vaughan's daughter? Is there any truth to the folklore tale of Quietly, the grim reaper like ferryman who comes to those in need along the river or else takes them on to the beyond? Are stories ever more than just stories?
Setterfield pulls us deeper into the lives of her characters as months pass, sifting through their pasts and searching for the resolutions they all seek and , as the river threatens to flood, Rita and Daunt grow more desperate to discover the truth behind the rescued child. When solstice approaches once more, a time when the barrier between worlds is said to be the thinnest, Setterfeild's titular and symbolic river breaks it's banks and washes over the town and it's growing mystery as our characters ever developing stories reach their climax.
Once Upon A River is an amazingly absorbing novel that held me captivated from the first page to the very last. I found myself deeply invested in each character and Setterfield crafts every moment with care, weaving mystery and myth into the strange and mesmerising events that occur upon the river.
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