Music of Falling Water

Not only was I intrigued by her much praised poetic style of writing (a rare find in this day & age), but Oliver portrays very well the less-than-perfect famial relationships with which we can all identify. Even back in the early 1900's when things seemed pure and innocent, we can see that the same types of scandals took place and that really, nothing is new under the sun. The author sheds light on the current events and circumstances of the age and provides interesting details about a rural family's upbringing and routine. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a book you can't put down until it starts exploring the mystery of things in depth and then you are lured in by the twisted tales of family secrets which are gradually revealed. During the last half of the book things really pick up and by the end you are left feeling like you yourself are part of the Holloway family.

My favorite professor of literature in college once declared in lecture: "God gave out a lot of literary talent, but very little story-telling talent." Author Julia Oliver's elegant new novel MUSIC OF FALLING WATER proves that she is among the extraordinary few blessed with both gifts. Set in Alabama, during World War I, MUSIC OF FALLING WATER exquisitely mines bitter themes of familial guilt, resentment, dashed hopes and a desperate search for the truth about the mysterious disappearance of young sister Rhoda, who one night simply vanishes, never to be heard from again. However, when human bones are discovered in the murky waters surrounding the family's old grist mill many years after Rhoda's seeming evaporation into thin air, the reader is as anxious to find the truth about their identity as are her sisters and the entire Holloway family. Julia Oliver's long awaited second novel (after the dazzling GOODBYE TO THE BUTTERMILK SKY) evokes the lush beauty of rural Alabama during the early part of the last century. In MUSIC OF FALLING WATER, she explores the complexities of family relationships which readers will most assuredly identify with. Most impressive to me, after reading MUSIC OF FALLING WATER, is the narrative's lush texture, which seems increasingly rare in modern literary fiction. This is a novel to be read slowly in order to absorb its delicate and precise details. There is genuine warmth here, which readers will savor as they immerse themselves in the lives of the deftly drawn, heartfelt characters. MUSIC OF FALLING WATER will appeal to a wide readership.