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Women's
Studies : Alumnae & Friends |
Alumnae News:
Our first WMS graduate, Dawn Paul (1979) has just published
a novel, Still River.
Read what one reviewer has to say
about her book.
Out in Print
Brian Jewell
bjewell@baywindows.com
Still River
Dawn Paul
Corvid Press
The connections, actual and potential, between three
young people are at the heart of this melancholy
novel. The characters are caught in the gentle eddies of the
river of time, as well as the fascination of an actual
river, and a love for wetlands and woodlands blinds
them together. Southern New England’s Still River dominates
the novel, a chattering reminder of death (a winter suicide)
and life (tadpoles clogging the brooks in summer.) It’s
a delicate, carefully observed tale of two families and
two friendships, and the unexplored erotic undercurrents
that take people by surprise, like unexpected white water
leaving you exhilarated but shaken. The Brownells are
a typical family with pretensions of propriety and upward
mobility. The Bruleys are strange, insular and woods-wise.
David Brownell’s inability to deal with the unwelcome
crush on a male schoolmate leads to the first connection
between the families: Jay Bruley discovers his frozen
body in the chilling waters of the Still River. Years
later, an awkward friendship grows between Jay and David’s
sister Eleanor, two young women who have nothing common
except that they have nothing in common with anyone else,
either. Inevitably, they are parted and their cool friendship
lapses into cool memories. In Paul’s clear prose,
even the landscape seems to take up the mourning for
lost opportunities and days gone by. Although the tone
is wistful, there’s something oddly life-affirming
about the book; there’s a just-so quality to it
that feels right. “Life’s hard but it’s
good,” sighs the river, if we only take the
time to listen.
Dawn Paul will read from her book at 5:00 PM
on Wednesday, April 4 in the URI Women's Center on
Upper College Road. Free and Open to the public.
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