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Title: River of the Brokenhearted

Author: David Adams Richards

Narrator: Steve Coulter

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-04-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Janie McCleary runs one of the first movie theatres in New Brunswick. A successful woman in a world of men, she is ostracized, a victim of double-dealing and overt violence. She trusts no one outside her family. Spanning generations, River of the Brokenhearted explores the life of this formidable woman, a pioneer before the age of feminism, and her legacy as it unfolds tragically in the lives of her son and grandchildren.

Written with aching compassion and masterful sophistication, River of the Brokenhearted muses on the tyranny of memory and history, and peers into the hearts of these extraordinary characters. By the author of Mercy among the Children.

Editorial Reviews:

What begins with an act of rebellion evolves over time into the investigation of a murder in a moving examination of one womans legacy across generations by David Adams Richards, previously recipient of the Giller Prize (awarded for the years best Canadian novel or story collection) for Mercy Among the Children.

Steve Coulter, known from numerous television and film roles, provides a poignant interpretation of the multigenerational cascade of human drama resulting from one young girls attempt to bridge a religious divide and battle small-town prejudice. Richards work, which he says was set in motion by the story of his own grandmother, is ultimately a tale of forgiving without ever forgetting.

Members Reviews:

wanted it to be better

The synopsis from the other reviews are accurate. The feud between the families is really one-sided as the main family keeps getting duped and manipulated by the other - over and over and over again for generations. There are a few laughs and some tiny victories but they are too few and far between. There is a bit of pay-off/resolution finally at the end, but I'm not sure it was worth all the tedium. I feel that the author communicates the characters' emotion well. However, the writing style can be difficult to follow. Sometimes within the same paragraph the setting and focal character changes with no transition. It will jump like this often. The book's voice is in the present, but he speaks almost in 1st person while following the chronology of 4 generations. I enjoyed the bits of cinema history, but again, not really worth the time.

Couldn't wait to put it down... forever...

Found this an extremely tedious read... pathetic characters ... from over the top evil to simply ignorant.. I cannot remember laughing, not even chuckling, once through this whole story. I only read it all the way through because I was hoping for at least one redemption of a character in this book. Never happened. Glad the torture of finishing this book is complete.

just okay

I thought the book drug on with very little action. I considered not finishing it when I was about half way through the book but I always finish books. I really wouldn't recommend the book. I thought the way it was written was good. The story unfolded from the past and continued until the writer was telling the current day. I thought all of the characters were unlikable.

Hard to Read

I purchased this while it was $2, thinking I'd expand my reading topics. I can't finish the book. I think it could have been a good book - but the speach patters the charactors use drive me nuts. It reads like something a child would write.