Where the Forest Meets the River

July 29, 2024
Bowring follows The Road to Dalton with another engrossing tale that tracks the residents of Dalton, Maine, as they wade through grief and interpersonal drama. It’s 1995, five years after the suicide of Bridget Theroux, who dealt with postpartum depression in the previous novel. Bridget’s widower, Nate, has left his job with the local police department for a less demanding gig at the lumber mill, to better raise the couple’s five-year-old daughter, Sophie. Meanwhile, Nate’s mother-in-law, Annette, deals with her addictions to shopping and alcohol, and his mother, Bev, who’s carried on a long-running secret romance with Trudy, the library director, contends with the limits of Trudy’s devotion as Trudy cares for her husband following his heart attack. Other plot threads are given equal weight but have less traction, among them the stories of bisexual college student Greg Fortin, who’s expected to take over his family’s hardware store but would rather pursue his interest in horticulture, and Rose, a single mom who’s dodging her abusive ex-husband while building a friendship with Nate. Still, Bowring effectively conveys the ways in which Bridget’s suicide reverberates in the characters’ lives, reshaping their perceptions of love and death to a degree that disproves what a doctor tells Annette in an attempt to be comforting: “Suicide is just a moment.” This slice of life cuts deep.

August 1, 2024
A small town in northern Maine grieves the sudden death of a woman with postpartum depression. Bowring's second novel revisits the same town and characters from her debut, The Road to Dalton (2023). It's five years later, 1995. "On the surface, nothing has really changed in Dalton since Bridget killed herself" at age 26, months after her first child, Sophie, was born. Below the surface, her death has transformed life for much of the town. As with her first novel, Bowring shifts perspective to a different character in each short chapter. It's a large and lively cast. Many can hardly find time to grieve while parenting and working. Bridget's husband, Nate, has quit the police force to work a mindless job in the Frazier lumber mill, owned by Bridget's father. Bridget's mother, Annette, is now an alcoholic and home-shopping-network addict. Old friends and lovers Bev (Nate's mother) and Trudy, each married to a different man, are still together. Their love is tested when Trudy must care for her husband, Richard, after he has a heart attack. Bowring doesn't create much tension in this novel, and there is no major twist or surprise. The focus is on the subtleties of her characters' hearts and minds. At times, key character traits are repeated too often, as people are mired in comforting bad habits. But Bowring brilliantly evokes people's inner lives through small, illuminating moments, not unlike Sherwood Anderson, and fills the novel with thoughtful and comic one-liners that ring true. Her love for these characters is apparent on every page, shining brightest in the tough but tender relationship Bev and Trudy share. "Bev can't believe that tiny word--us--can contain so much. All their love and all their stories. All their hopes and all their sorrows." A moving portrait of the ways people survive palpable, harrowing grief.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2024
A young wife and mother's death by suicide shocked a small Maine town in Bowring's much-praised debut novel, The Road to Dalton (2023). Five years later, a ""heaviness"" still ripples through the close-knit community. Despite his grief, Bridget's husband, Nate, is determined to give their daughter, Sophie, a joyful life. Bridget's mother, Annette, is locked in grief and addiction. Nate's mom Bev's longtime loving relationship with Trudy falters when Trudy's husband, the town doctor, suffers a heart attack. Bowring focuses on inner lives. Her subtle, empathetic rendering of everyday joys and sorrows in the eddy of Bridget's death rings true. Richly detailed descriptions, from a Highlights magazine in the doctor's waiting room to the river ""a shock of blue in all that green,"" set the scene. As the summer passes, grief loosens, and Bowring's characters grapple with reimagining their place in the world without regrets because, as Nate comes to realize, some, like Bridget and Sophie, ""chase the light,"" and others, like him, ""stand still and wait for it to come around again.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.