Review by Marcia Darnell
Novel – August 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Soul Like a River
by Jeff Stern
Published in 1999 by Rare Air Books
ISBN 0-9666962-0-4
IF YOU LIKE funky mountain valleys, Soul Like a River is a good read. The characters include a rebellious Mormon daughter, a burned-out reporter, warring Hispanic and Anglo ranchers, an ineffectual mediator, and an extraterrestrial shaped like a stalk of broccoli. All are hemmed in by mountains, water problems, and poverty in the valley named for Saint Jude (patron saint of lost causes).
The main character, however, is the Florida River. Lifeline of the valley, it’s showing the effects of having been bulldozed into a straight course a generation before. This has led to flooding in some places, drought in others, and loss of riparian habitat along the riverbanks.
Author Jeff Stern lives in the San Luis Valley and is coordinator of a watershed preservation project in Conejos County. The Alamosa River was straightened by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1970, leading to the problems Stern chronicles in Soul Like a River.
In the novel, a committee is formed to find a solution to the now uncontrolled flow of the Florida River. The committee (this novel is obviously based on reality) is made up of violently opposing factions — ranchers who want concrete levees, dams and headgates along the river; environmentalists who want to restore the river and its trees; those who want to find the best solution for everyone; and those opposed to everything everyone else says.
THIS COMMITTEE’S MEETINGS are covered by reporter Roscoe Snively, who is disillusioned and disgusted by his home, his work, and himself. Roscoe’s life takes an interesting turn, though, when he’s visited by an alien named Nister, who has mistaken Roscoe’s flashlight-illuminated trips to the shed for intergalactic signals. Nister advises and guides Roscoe to a better life, and his philosophy passes on to the committee members and other residents of the Saint Jude Valley.
The style of Soul Like a River is a little rough — the transitions between action and internal reflection are sometimes awkward. But Stern’s descriptions of geography, culture, and institutions are dead on. His portraits include the operations and attitudes of a small paper owned by an out-of-state corporation, and a young woman’s painful search for independence, good work, and love.
The theme and message of the book intersect like clear, blue rivers in the Colorado mountains. If readers are paying attention, Soul Like a River can help them rid their own lives of the dams, gates and rip rap that they’ve built, while enjoying a good story of quirky characters in a weird little valley.
Reminiscent of Rita Mae Brown’s Bingo and the works of John Nichols, Soul Like a River is an enjoyable trip, with or without the epiphanies.
— Marcia Darnell