Narrow River, Wide Sky

A Memoir

By: Jenny Forrester

Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley

In the vein of The Liar's Club and The Glass Castle, Jenny Forrester's memoir perfectly captures both place and a community situated on the Colorado Plateau between slot canyons and rattlesnakes, where she grew up with her mother and brother in a single-wide trailer proudly displaying an American flag. Forrester's powerfully eloquent story reveals a rural small town comprising God-fearing Republicans, ranchers, Mormons, and Native Americans. With sensitivity and resilience, Forrester navigates feelings of isolation, an abusive boyfriend, sexual assault, and a failed college attempt to forge a separate identity. As young adults, after their mother's accidental death, Forrester and her brother are left with an increasingly strained relationship that becomes a microcosm of America's political landscape. Narrow River, Wide Sky is a breathtaking, determinedly truthful story about one woman's search for identity within the mythology of family and America itself.

©2017 Jenny Forrester (P)2017 Tantor

Absolutely beautiful

I read this short memoir in one sitting. It is stripped down to its bare bones, with emotion filling in empty narrative places. It's incredibly well-written and well-read, about a time and a place and a girl becoming a woman.

Mundane and poorly delivered

Gave up almost half way through. At least up until then it's a dull story of a pretty normal childhood in a ordinary small town. That need not have been a problem in itself except none of the characters nor the setting are developed - even the pivotal mother seems flat - plus the narrator whines. Hope I can return it!