Riven Rock: book review

Riven Rock

By T. C. Boyle

Riven Rock is the tale of Stanley McCormick who is crazy, and his wife who is kept from him for over twenty years. He has issues with women. Eventually, she gets desperate and resorts to standing in the bushes and peering through binoculars just to get a glimpse of his face.

Stanley is heir to a fortune, accumulated in the latter portion of the 1800s, his father dies while he is young, leaving him in the hands of an overbearing mother, 2 older brothers and an older sister who goes crazy in front him.

Katherine Dexter comes from a well-heeled family herself, so isn’t after Stanley’s money. Indeed, I failed to see why she went for him at all, considering how crazy he showed himself to be before he popped the question. Though she was twenty-nine, and a virgin, her getting too old was not an issue. Since both were rich, they could do anything they chose.

Eventually, crazily, they get married.

It is a period piece, set in the first few decades of this past century, and the language used in Boyle’s prose style reflects this. I give him an ‘E’ for effort. His history and research are solid. And, a lot of the sub-plots are interesting, but there is no follow through.

There were many things I would liked to have known. Characters were introduced, then allowed to fade away. Stanley’s sister went nuts in front of him, yet, within the first 100 pages she’s nothing more than background; you never hear about her. I kept expecting there to be some mention of their parallel, crazy existence’s.

I was looking forward to the end of this book, just to see if Stanley and Katherine ever got together and had a normal life, but I was disappointed. The last twenty years of Stanley’s life was told in an epilogue a few pages long.

The book was serviceably written. Stanley and Katherine were compelling characters, well drawn, but I got the impression that Boyle didn’t love them. Somewhere in the middle I put it aside and read 3 other books. I forced myself to finish.

I am a fan of T.C. Boyle’s short stories (I think I’ve read them all) but I don’t care much for the novels. He tends to run out of interesting things for his people to do. Had Riven Rock been a short story it could have been awesome.