What the River Means (Emerging Writers in Creative Nonfiction)

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Summary: Rivers run, flow, ripple, swirl; so does Hodges' prose.
Review: The startlingly clear sense of time and place, the sharply drawn evocation of childhood with its world of half-understood adults and fully realized fears and fantasies, the humor and pain of growing up, of simply being who one is and becoming who one must--all make reading Hodges' What the River Means an experience not to be missed. One meets not only the intriguing and delightful manifestations of the writer's many selves, but also her collection of idosyncratic relatives, childhood friends (and enemies), and the people and creatures of her world along the river. The Vegetable Man comes to life driving his wagon on a dusty road; proud and grotesque, Grandfather fishes with Betsy in the nettle-infested depths of the Severn; Grandmother beheads crocuses on Easter morning; and a herd of deer appears miraculously out the back window, leading mother and daughter to a fragile peace. We swim, float, and kayak the river with the writer, catch and taste buttery crabs, and listen with her to the adults murmuring downstairs after dark. Hodges takes us into those very real old childhood dreams we have almost forgotten, dreams of fantastic horseback adventure, heroic rescues of the weak, and "Dreams of Pushbutton Eyes." At times nightmare intertwines with dream, just as reality and fantasy do in the lives of children, and Hodges shows us death of the very old and the very young; illness, aging, and loss; failures, accidents, mistakes; and the courage it requires to examine and accept these universal human facts of life. What does the river mean? I think Hodges' Severn River embodies not only both her own real and perceived past but also that of any sensitive, emotionally honest individual. Indeed, in the "real-ness" of her written experiences we receive a sense of the eternal. During the hours we spend taking pleasure in her pages, the river links for us the memories and experiences of a young girl and the woman she becomes; but just as the river changes through years and seasons, so will this writer's messages for her readers. As an avid reader and would-be writer, an English teacher of no little experience, and a person who has grown up without a real home, on the move as it were, I have treasured the people, places, and adventures Elizabeth Hodges has so bravely--and skillfully--shared with her readers. Be one.