Shelly Read sets her debut novel, Go As a River, in the mountain town of Iola, Colorado. The setting, which is based on a real happening when the town was destroyed by dam construction in the 1960s, joins the story like an extra character. Protagonist Victoria’s life is heavily influenced by her location beginning in 1948 when she is seventeen and wrapped up in her family’s peach farm and continuing through a time in the surrounding wilderness and a return to the farm. As a fifth generation Coloradoan, Read pulls from her own knowledge for this setting.
Wilson Moon, called Wil, an indigenous worker who has recently left the coal mines, makes a chance encounter with Victoria. The stage is set when she and Wil are attracted to each other in a town that teems with bigotry and hostility. Her father and brother share the racist views of the town and threaten Wil. This tension and the following anxiety of the town of Iola being swallowed up with the dam-building makes for an engaging story as Victoria learns to “go as a river,” finding her way forward no matter what life flings in her way.
The book has been optioned for a film. The jury is still out whether I’m willing to sacrifice my own head pictures for those in a movie that may not match. I don’t always like the movie if I have really loved the book. Still, both the plot and the setting lend themselves to a wonderful cinematic portrayal – maybe.