My Review: The Middle Fork

The Middle Fork by Rick Glaze is subtitled "A Political Novel". It is the story of a kayaking trip down the Salmon River in Idaho. On the trip are:

• Johnathan, the narrator. Middle-aged, widowed, the father of young adults.
• Mike, Johnathan's college roommate. A financial advisor
• Keith, one of Mike's clients. A college professor who has made a fortune because of a book on global warming
• Simon. Native of Iran. Oncologist specializing in ovarian cancer.
• Sonja. Friend of Simon's daughter. Journalist for a conservative political magazine.

Basically the book is the story of their trip down the river. There is a heavy rain while they are on the trip so the river is running much higher than normal. People get engaged in political discussions. There is danger on the river. We wonder if they are going to get out alive.

As I noted earlier, this is subtitled "A political novel" and while the characters discuss politics, I didn't find those discussions to be relevant to the story. The best presented political views were conservative and generally mirrored mine, so I wouldn't say that disagreeing with the characters was a problem, its just that I didn't understand why they were discussing politics (unless they are like my husband who talks politics constantly).

It is a short novel, only about 140 pages and I found it a satisfying read. You can read the first chapter by going to the author's website.

Thanks to Phenix and Phenix for sending me this book.