Bright Flows the River

Good story involving a middle age man having to reexamine the choices he's made in life in regards to his marraige, children, and career. Some attitudes concerning women are very dated and others way ahead of it's time.

Taylor Caldwell's descriptions not only of the physical attributes of her characters but most especially the emotional conversations that go on in their heads shows that she has a handle on depicting what real people are like. You come away with a sense of having known these people and felt their joys and sorrows. They react in distinctively true-to-life fashion - they don't always have it all figured out. She gives us characters not only to love but who share their wisdom with us and give us a sense of having someone *big enough* to look up to in her heroes. If you like "character novels" this is a great read!

This book was written in the late 1970s, and features one of the "hot topics" of the day, the male midlife crisis. Full of now-passe Cold War references, pre-AIDS era social behaviour, and surprisingly hostile views of marriage, home and family, this book is intriguing, densely written, often rewarding, sometimes annoying. It is not a "light read".Through flash-backs it explores the events leading up to the attempted suicide of Guy Jerald, a rags-to-riches American entreprenuer obsessed with financial success. He is "trapped" by his sense of duty in a passionless, mismatched marriage. His ex-Army buddy and psychologist, and a female lover, attempt to help him wrestle with his demons. Strengths: good characterization, much detail, human insight, well written for most part. Flaws: author overuses certain pet words and harps on favorite themes; main character is actually selfish and weak, which undermines my sympathy for his "torment"; author can't make up her mind what her "heroic male" should be: the father, who "lives and lets live" peacefully on his farm, or the "warrior hero" who confronts "Fascistic Communism". A minor classic of 70s fiction.

This book probes the minds of two friends who though separated by years and an ocean find they must each examine their lives and make the serious choices they have spent their lives eluding. It is the attempted suicide of Guy Gerald and the subsequent visit of his army buddy James Meyer that bring them together to face the issues that change them forever.