Review of River Crossed
Review: Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
River Crossed by Bruce P. Spang is an LGBTQ love story with a difference set in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jason Follett moved to a small West Virginia town to head up a new federal education program for young children. The move is also designed to be a new start for Jason, who has been plagued with feelings of attraction to other men for years. He doesn’t want these feelings but he is unsure how to deal with them and hopes his new beginning will allow him the “normal” life he so desperately craves. Pearsall Flats is a conservative town that still carries a hangover from the Confederacy and the Civil War, which makes flashy Yankees, gays, and other weirdos decidedly unwelcome. Despite the difficulties of fitting in, Jason begins to carve out a new life, make new friends, and establish a solid reputation as an astute administrator. When he meets and falls in love with Eric, he is torn between the thrill of being his true self and the knowledge that it could cost him his job and his community’s acceptance and respect.
River Crossed is a fascinating tug-of-war between living your own truth and fitting into a conservative society in rural West Virginia. Although the period was a time of immense social change in America, that change was perhaps less felt in the backcountry of the rural hinterland.
Author Bruce P. Spang has created a character in Jason Follett who must choose between living a lie and forging a heterosexual relationship that even he understands is not real or standing up for who he is and loving who he truly loves. I particularly appreciated that Jason had wonderful friends who accepted him for who he was and would stand by whatever decisions and course of life direction he chose.
The poetry and poetic nature of the prose woven through the narrative added immensely to the enjoyment of the read and resonated with the bucolic rural setting. Given today’s political climate for the LGBTQ community, this novel does a wonderful job of reminding us how far we as a society have come in embracing love in all its glory, but also how quickly those freedoms and rights can be taken away and how harsh that is for this community. This is a lovely story that I enjoyed greatly. I highly recommend this read.
