BEND IN THE RIVER

Author: Susan Gibbs ISBN: 097146670X 10/2004 (Reprint) HISTORICAL Publisher: HAWKSHADOW PUBLISHING COMPANY
Time Period: America's Great Plains, 1877

Kansas, 1877: After the sudden, tragic deaths of her parents, seventeen year-old Emma Jorden is left an orphan and must fend for herself. She heads for the safety of a remote trading post, the only civilization in the region. On her journey, she becomes lost in a freak autumn blizzard and hovers near death. Shea Hawkshadow, a mixed-blood Cheyenne warrior, rescues her and takes her to the Cheyenne reservation in the Indian Territory. Following an impulsive love affair, Emma and Shea marry. Their marriage sparks condemnation amongst settlers and soon such intolerance escalates to attempted murder. Escaping with their lives and little else, Emma and Shea risk a journey across the vast western frontier. Many trials await the couple in their search for a life free from persecution. Emma masks her increasingly fragile emotional state until years of repression exact a dreadful toll. She battles to unearth the causes of her mental instability hindered by the lack of compassionate treatment in the 19th century. Emma’s transformation from a guileless girl into a complex woman with an unflinching will to survive is remarkable and moving. The Bend in the River is an absorbing saga of savagery, love, secrets, and healing.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I have read a lot of books in my lifetime, but never have I read a book that runs me through such a gamut of emotions as THE BEND IN THE RIVER. This truly is one of the finest pieces of literature that I have ever read. After reading this book, I have a monumental respect and awe for its author, who must have been blown over by the depth of emotions that hit her while writing this book, as I, just a reader, could hardly hold back the tears, the laughs, the gasps of anger and shock.

The book centers on Emma Jorden, an orphaned girl of seventeen from Kansas who is found freezing out on the prairie by Shae Hawkshadow. She goes to live with Shae and his Cheyenne family on a Cheyenne reservation in the Indian Territory and marries him impulsively, feeling alone and wanting to be loved, which Shae gives her. They are both very young and and the book truly shows you how they grow together through many trials and tribulations.

Here is the complex part of the story for me. At times, I did not like the way that Shae treated Emma, and I felt horribly sorry for her for the things that she went through because of her love for him. But, because Ms. Gibbs keeps it so real for the readers, you can truly understand the depth of love that Shae had for Emma, despite his somewhat hard treatment of her at times, and Emma's depth of love for her husband and her willingness to help him through anything, just because she loved him, no questions asked.

Ms. Gibbs gives you a true and realistic book that leaves you feeling a myriad of emotions. Mostly, though, I just never wanted it to end. I wanted to keep following this brave woman's walk though life. THE BEND IN THE RIVER is a book that I will keep close to my heart, as it is one that I will not forget for years to come.

Kristal Gorman