Riverine: A Memoir From Anywhere But Here

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Angela Palm grew up in a place not marked on the map, her house set on the banks of a river that had been straightened to make way for farmland. Every year, the Kankakee River in rural Indiana flooded and returned to its old course while the residents sandbagged their homes against the rising water. From her bedroom window, Palm watched the neighbor boy and loved him in secret, imagining a life with him even as she longed for a future that held more than a job at the neighborhood bar. For Palm, caught in this landscape of flood and drought, escape was a continually receding hope. Though she did escape, as an adult Palm finds herself drawn back, like the river, to her origins. But this means more than just recalling vibrant, complicated memories of the place that shaped her, or trying to understand the family that raised her. It means visiting the prison where the boy that she loved is serving a life sentence for a brutal murder. It means trying to chart, through the mesmerizing, interconnected essays of Riverine, what happens when a single event forces the path of her life off course.

Paperback: 224 pages

Publisher: Graywolf Press (August 16, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1555977464

ISBN-13: 978-1555977467

Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches

Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #26,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #6 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional U.S. > Midwest #1244 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs

"Riverine: A Memoir from Anywhere But Here" by Angela Palm recalls her heritage beginning in Hebron, Indiana near the Kankakee River. With beautifully written lyrical prose, Palm, a "bookish fisher-girl" tells the story of her river people, the men lining up to pass sandbags to protect home/neighborhoods from flooding. The Kankakee swamp stretching for 5,300 miles was the largest wetland in the U.S. The Land Act of 1850 was designed to convert this Indiana marsh into farmland, as the American population began to occupy the heartland.The more affluent Dutch resided in the neighborhood away from the river. When the Dutch youth encountered the typical problems of growing up in a rural area, they were returned to their parents custody often by police. Palm's nearby neighbor and her first love-- Corey, didn't have this option. For his misdeeds he was harshly punished and sent to youth detention, and began a life of petty crime. Without the stability of a home and family life, Corey was eventually convicted of brutally murdering a neighborhood couple and sent to prison. This coming-of-age story unfolds as Palm connects her life to Corey's, and learned the truth/cause of his one desperate act that resulted in murder.Before attending college, Palm wanted to remain as long as possible among her people. Working at a bar/restaurant (where Corey has once worked) she credited her parents to her strong work ethic, and learned a great deal observing life around her. Winning scholarships and attending an unnamed college/university where Palm studied criminal justice and wrote unsent letters to Corey, she would eventually discontinue her education in law school. Palm married Mike, an airline pilot and moved to Vermont where the couple had two sons.

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